Constructivism is a philosophical perspective derived from the work of
Immanuel Kant which views reality as existing mainly in the mind,
constructed or interpreted in terms of one's own perceptions. Note: In
this perspective, an individual's prior experiences, mental structures,
and beliefs bear upon how experiences are interpreted. Constructivism
focuses on the process of how knowledge is built rather than on its
product or object. Cp. social constructivism; transactional theory. 2.
...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%%3Aconstructivism
Basically, constructivism views
that knowledge is not 'about' the
world, but rather 'constitutive'
of the world (Sherman, 1995).
Knowledge is not a fixed object,
it is constructed by an individual
through her own experience
of that object.
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/csclstudent/Dhsiao/theories.html
Two important notions orbit around the simple idea of constructed
knowledge. The first is that learners construct new understandings
using what they already know. There is no tabula rasa on which new
knowledge is etched. Rather, learners come to learning situations with
knowledge gained from previous experience, and that prior knowledge
influences what new or modified knowledge they will construct from new
learning experiences.
The second notion is that learning is active rather than passive.
Learners confront their understanding in light of what they encounter
in the new learning situation. If what learners encounter is
inconsistent with their current understanding, their understanding can
change to accommodate new experience. Learners remain active throughout
this process: they apply current understandings, note relevant elements
in new learning experiences, judge the consistency of prior and
emerging knowledge, and based on that judgment, they can modify
knowledge.
http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v09n03/practice.html
Constructivism is a development in philosophy which criticizes
essentialism, whether it is in the form of medieval realism, classical
rationalism, or empiricism.[citation needed] It originated in sociology
under the term social constructionism and has been given the name
constructivism when referring to philosophical epistemology, though
constructionism and constructivism are often used interchangeably.
Constructivism views all of our knowledge as "constructed", because it
does not necessarily reflect any external "transcendent" realities; it
is contingent on convention, human perception, and social experience.
It is believed by constructivists that representations of physical and
biological reality, including race, sexuality, and gender are socially
constructed (Hegel, Garns, and Marx were among the first to suggest
such an ambitious expansion of social determinism).
The common thread between all forms of constructivism is that they do
not focus on an ontological reality, but instead on the constructed
reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_epistemology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentialism
Constructivism has its roots in Kant's synthesis of rationalism and
empiricism, where it is noted that the subject has no direct access to
external reality, and can only develop knowledge by using fundamental
in-built cognitive principles ("categories") to organize experience.
One of the first psychologists to develop constructivism was Jean
Piaget, who developed a theory ("genetic epistemology") of the
different cognitive stages through which a child passes while building
up a model of the world. In cybernetics, constructivism has been
elaborated by Heinz Von Foerster, who noted that the nervous system
cannot absolutely distinguish between a perception and a hallucination,
since both are merely patterns of neural excitation. The implications
of this neurophysiological view were further developed by Maturana and
Varela, who see knowledge as a necessary component of the processes of
autopoiesis ("self-production") characterizing living organisms.
Constructivist mechanisms are not limited to higher level learning or
discovery of models, they pervade all evolutionary processes. The
difference between Lamarckian and Darwinian evolutionary theory is just
that Lamarck assumed that the environment somehow instructs an organism
on how to be adapted. Darwin's view emphasized that an organism has to
find out for itself, by trial and error. A similar conceptual
transition from instruction to construction took place in the theories
of immunity: the organism is not instructed in any way how to produce
the right antibodies to stop the invaders, as was initially believed,
it needs to generate all possible combinations by trial-and-error until
it finds a type of antibody that works. Once such an antibody is
discovered, the "knowledge" about how to fight that particular
infection remains, and the organism becomes immune. The conceptual
development from instructionism to selectionism or constructivism is
well-described in Gary Cziko's book Without Miracles: Universal
Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution.
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CONSTRUC.html
The verb "to construct" comes from the Latin con struere, which means
to arrange or give structure. Ongoing structuring (organizing)
processes are the conceptual heart of constructivism. Among the
earliest recorded proponents of some form of constructivism are Lao Tzu
(6th century BC), Buddha (560-477 BC), and the philosopher of endless
change, Heraclitus (540-475 BC). In western cultures, constructivists
often trace their intellectual genealogy to Giambattista Vico
(1668-1744), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Arthur Schopenhauer
(1788-1860), and Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933). Vico had emphasized the
role of fantasy and myth in human adaptation. Kant emphasized the power
of patterns in our thinking, and he regarded ideas as regulative
principles in our experiencing. His "categories" were predecessors of
what are now called "constructs" and "schema."
In 1876 Hans Vaihinger elaborated some of Kant's ideas. In The
Philosophy of "As If," Vaihinger argued that the primary purpose of
mind and mental processes is not to portray or mirror reality, but to
serve individuals in their navigations through life circumstances.
Vaihinger said that we live our lives by means of "functional
fictions." This idea would form the cornerstone of Alfred Adler's
theory of individual psychology. Vaihinger's work would also influence
the later writings of `personal construct' theorist George Kelly.
William James also explored several constructivist themes, and he and
several colleagues carried the curiosity of constructivism across the
transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries.
Drawing on the dynamic view of learning described by Johann Herbart
(1776-1841), Jean Piaget developed a model of cognitive development in
which balance was central. Piaget described knowing as a quest for a
dynamic balance between what is familiar and what is novel. He noted
that we organize our worlds by organizing ourselves. This theme of
developmental self-organization pervades constructive views of human
experience. A powerful theoretical presentation of constructivism was
offered in Friedrich A. Hayek's (1952) book, The Sensory Order. In this
treatise, Hayek showed that "much that we believe to know about the
external world is, in fact, knowledge about ourselves (pp. 6-7)." He
was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1974.
Constructivism continued to grow throughout the second half of the 20th
century, and it is now the focus of numerous books and two
international journals. The rapidity of its growth has sometimes made
constructivism seem like a recent development, when in fact it has been
emerging for centuries.
Five basic themes pervade
the diversity of theories
expressing constructivism.
These themes are
(1) active agency
(2) order
(3) self
(4) social-symbolic relatedness
(5) lifespan development.
With different language and terminological preferences, constructivists
have proposed, first, that human experiencing involves continuous
active agency. This distinguishes constructivism from forms of
determinism that cast humans as passive pawns in the play of larger
forces.
Second comes the contention that much human activity is devoted to
ordering processes - the organizational patterning of experience by
means of tacit, emotional meaning-making processes.
In a third common contention, constructivists argue that the
organization of personal activity is fundamentally self-referent or
recursive. This makes the body a fulcrum of experiencing, and it honors
a deep phenomenological sense of selfhood or personal identity. But the
self is not an isolated island of Cartesian mentation. Persons exist
and grow in living webs of relationships.
The fourth common theme of constructivism is that individuals cannot be
understood apart from their organic embeddedness in social and symbolic
systems.
Finally, all of this active, meaningful, and socially-embedded
self-organization reflects an ongoing developmental flow in which
dynamic dialectical tensions are essential. Order and disorder co-exist
in lifelong quests for a dynamic balance that is never quite achieved.
The existential tone here is unmistakable. Together, then, these five
themes convey a constructive view of human experience as one that
emphasizes meaningful action by a developing self in complex and
unfolding relationships. One can easily see the spectrum of
contributions that have constructed constructivism. They range from
Taoism and the process philosophy of Heraclitus to the personal,
social, and narrative emphases of contemporary constructivists like
Bandura, Bruner, and Gergen.
...Anderson (2003) has described constructivism as part of The Next
Enlightenment, in which evolutionary theory and spirituality transcend
their painful history of estrangement. More encompassing views can also
be seen in the most recent writings of constructivists like Robert
Kegan, Joseph Rychlak, and Ken Wilber. There is more than vocabulary to
language, and more than language to community. Still, our words express
important dimensions of our experience of our worlds. Our world and our
experience of it are changing at rates that might well evoke vertigo.
In the midst of the dizzying chaos, however, there are also signs of a
deeper and loftier center. Psychology is exhibiting the stirrings of
what might be called an integral movement. Constructivism is part of
this process. It is not just a new horse in a theoretical race. It is a
larger perspective on horses, races, and much more. In its contemporary
expressions, unity and diversity are being integrated in ways that
speak to traditions of holism and hope. Dialogues are taking place that
suggest an evolutionary leap in our understanding of what it means to
be human, to be conscious, and to be community. These dialogues are
invaluable in these times, with our troubles, and in our professional
helping roles. The emphasis is on connection rather than separation.
The emphasis is on the active and meaningful development of selves as
well as systems. And spirit - in its marvelous spectrum of meanings -
pervades. Let us hope that such a diverse, emergent, and embracing
spirit finds continuing encouragement.
http://www.constructivism123.com/What_Is/What_is_constructivism.htm
Basically, constructivism views that knowledge is not 'about' the
world, but rather 'constitutive' of the world (Sherman, 1995).
Knowledge is not a fixed object, it is constructed by an individual
through her own experience of that object. Constructivist approach to
learning emphasizes authentic, challenging projects that include
students, teachers and experts in the learning community. Its goal is
to create learning communities that are more closely related to the
collaborative practice of the real world. In an authentic environment,
learners assume the responsibilities of their own learning, they have
to develop metacognitive abilities to monitor and direct their own
learning and performance. When people work collaboratively in an
authentic activity, they bring their own framework and perspectives to
the activity. They can see a problem from different perspectives, and
are able to negotiate and generate meanings and solution through shared
understanding. The constructivist paradigm has led us to understand how
learning can be facilitated through certain types of engaging,
constructive activities. This model of learning emphasizes
meaning-making through active participation in socially, culturally,
historically, and politically situated contexts. A crucial element of
active participation is dialog in shared experiences, through which
situated collaborative activities, such as modeling, discourse and
decision making, are necessary to support the negotiation and creation
of meaning and understanding.
In sum, the contemporary constructivist theory of learning acknowledges
that individuals are active agents, they engage in their own knowledge
construction by integrating new information into their schema, and by
associating and representing it into a meaningful way. Constructivists
argue that it is impractical for teachers to make all the current
decisions and dump the information to students without involving
students in the decision process and assessing students' abilities to
construct knowledge. In other words, guided instruction is suggested
that puts students at the center of learning process, and provides
guidance and concrete teaching whenever necessary. Perkins (1991)
indicates that students may easily get lost in management without any
experience to guide them through the information jungle. This
student-centered guided learning environment is considered, however,
more appropriate for ill-structured domains or higher-level learning
(CTGV, 1991).
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/csclstudent/Dhsiao/theories.html
Constructivism and metaphysical realism are incompatible alternatives.
Kant holds that the subject 'constructs' what it knows since he
believes that there is otherwise no way to account for the experience
and knowledge of objects. The nature of the post-Kantian debate on
knowledge can be brought out with respect to different attitudes
towards modern forms of metaphysical realism, which is already sketched
in Plato's Republic.
In Kant's wake, both metaphysical realism and, to a lesser extent,
epistemological constructivism are widely represented. Strong realists
continue to claim knowledge of the mind-independent world as it is (see
Devitt 1991), the form of knowledge which Kant denies. Constructivists
follow his denial of metaphysical realism while proposing weak, or
empirical, realism, which Kant also favors, in working out the
implications of his claim that we know only what we in some sense
'construct.'
As concerns epistemology, there is a conceptual before and after with
respect to the critical philosophy. Kant's Copernican turn neatly
bisects those who before and after him are still committed to knowledge
of the real from a non-constructivist angle of vision, those who
continue to believe that we can and must know the mind-independent
world as it is, and those who, sometimes before but mainly after Kant,
abandon the very effort to grasp the world as it is in working out a
constructivist view of the cognitive object.
http://www.arsdisputandi.org/publish/articles/000128/index.html
http://www.edwebproject.org/constructivism.dewey.html
http://tiger.towson.edu/users/mepste1/researchpaper.htm#piaget
http://www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.philosophy/msg/319d31dc20deca17
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.philosophy/msg/b7fd05db2f5456af
