Transcript The Philosophical Tenents of Constructivism

The Philosophical Basis
of
Constructivism
Jane Fowler Morse
Ella Cline Shear School of Education
Retreat, Fall 2006
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Two Competing Philosophies
• Ideas are Real
– Plato’s forms
– Aristotle’s logic
– Ptolemy’s
mathematical system
of the universe
– The Greek skeptics and
cynics
– Descartes’ cogito
– Kant’s categories
• Things are Real
– The Greek atomists
– Aristotle’s empiricism
– Kepler’s mathematical
system of the universe
– John Locke’s
empiricism
– Hume’s skepticism
– Kant’s perceptions
A Modern Debate
• The mind of the
observer determines
how the world appears
– Dewey’s Pragmatism
– Piaget’s schemata
– Vygotsky’s zone of
proximal development
– Sartre’s existentialism
• Knowledge is relative
• The world determines
what (and how) the
mind perceives things
– Thorndike’s testing
– Skinner’s conditioning
– The current emphasis
on testing
– Mandated curriculum
• Knowledge is fixed
Can we have our cake and eat it too?
• Kant unites these two competing philosophies
– The mind constructs categories by which
human beings construe how to make sense of
the appearances in the world (ie “things”).
– The appearances (empirical intuitions) give the
mind materials to work with in applying these
categories to create explanations and
understandings (ie “ideas)
“Concepts without precepts are empty;
precepts without concepts are blind.”
Kant
Kant’s Categories (Concepts)
Quality
•Reality
•Negation
•Limitation
Quantity
• Unity
• Plurality
• Totality
Relation
• Inherence and
subsistence,
accidence and substance
• Causality and dependence
• Community and
Reciprocity, between the
active and the passive
Modality
•Possibility — Impossibility
•Existence — Nonexistence
•Necessity — Contingency
Kant’s Precepts
• Kant’s “pure” intuitions
– Space
– Time
• Kant’s empirical intuitions
– All sense perceptions
What Does This Matter?
• Human beings have a logical capacity that allows
them to construct reality
• Human beings have sense perceptions of things in
the world
• Human beings also have an innate sense of space
and time that allows them to distinguish between
individual perceptions
• Human beings can only see things from their own
perspective, but can communicate using a
common logic
• Voila: constructivism!
Later Additions
• Phenomenology: All we can know is how things
appear to us (Kant’s “phenomena”), not how
things are in themselves (Kant’s “noumena”)
(Knowledge is not absolute, but relative)
• Existentialism:Human beings can make up
concepts, too
• Piaget: Furthermore, the acquisition of concepts is
developmental
• Vygotsky: In addition, the acquisition of concepts
is social and cultural
(Plus the 20th century’s
philosophical focus on action…)
• “Ideas” seemed real to classical
philosophers. Plato’s “Forms” almost have
the ontological status of things.
• By Descartes’ time, philosophers talked
about ideas as representations of things.
• In the 20th century, the focus changed to
actions: Pragmatism, Existentialism,
Behaviorism, all focus on what people do.
•Start here
**End here
Dewey’s Feedback Loopthat(It istheessential
student
(It is essential
that the student
feels the difficulty)
How We Think (1910)
Formulate hypotheses
Articulate the
problem
grasps the
solution)
Test hypotheses
Warranted
Assertibility**
Confirm or
disconfirm
Felt difficulty*
Repeat as
Solution
needed
(Use solution in solving another problem…)
Constructivism
• Cognitive Constructivism: from Piaget
• Social Constructivism: from Vygotsky
• Situated Learning: from Bruner
• Holistic
• Interactive
• Interdisciplinary
What is Crucial to the Theory and
Practice of Constructivism?
• Developmentally appropriate practice, zone of
proximal development
• The organism actively produces adaptive behavior
• Knowledge is actively constructed by the knower
• Interaction between stimuli, cognition, situation
occur
• Materials are available and arranged for this to
happen
• Cultural and social context is taken into account
• Authentic assessment
• Purpose of education — to create conditions under
which students can become creators of knowledge
Bruner’s principles of
constructivist learning
• Readiness: instruction addresses the
learner’s experiences and context
• Spiral Curriculum: instruction organized so
the learner can grasp it easily
• Extrapolation: instruction designed to
facilitate the learner going beyond it
Ernst von Glasersfeld:
Definition of Radical Constructivism
• Radical Constructivism is an
unconventional approach to the
problem of knowledge and knowing. It
starts from the assumption that
knowledge, no matter how it is defined,
is in the heads of persons, and that the
thinking subject has no alternative but
to construct what he or she knows on
the basis of his or her own experience.
(Continued)
• What we make of experience constitutes
the only world we consciously live in. It
can be sorted into many kinds, such as
things, self, others, and so on. But all
kinds of experience are essentially
subjective, and though I may find reasons
to believe that my experience may not be
unlike yours, I have no way of knowing
that it is the same. The experience and
interpretation of language are no
exception.’
For example: String Theory on
Science Friday (August 18, 2006)
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story
Id=5670911
• (28:00 to 29:20/35:18)
• So what concepts can humans formulate? Kant’s
categories? The underlying physics of space and
time? Extra dimensions?
• What is new ones are required by a new theory?
• Well, why not?
• Knowledge is transformative, not merely
reproductive
Exemplifying Constructivism in Our
Teaching: Our ideas from Discussion
• Caution: We need to acknowledge that the
acquisition of knowledge, skills, and dispositions
by new teachers is itself developmental, social,
and situational.
• Nevertheless, teacher educators can give new
teachers the tools to develop a constructivist
pedagogy.
• Ample opportunities for reflection can be offered
in each course.
More: Our Ideas
• Even where “book knowledge” is applicable,
candidates can “make it their own” through
applications and discussions.
• Open-ended assignments allow candidates to
respond in constructivist ways, using their own
critical thinking to solve problems.
• The grading of such assignments must also be
flexible to acknowledge diversity of responses,
different “ways of knowing.”
More: Our Ideas
• Assignments, readings, examinations, class
procedures should facilitate going beyond
established ways of thinking.
• Asking candidates to think about the differences in
ways of talking about “knowledge” in the different
disciplines they encounter in their other
coursework can be instructive.
• Encourage candidates to think about diversity as
kinds of knowing; enable them to see that teachers
should not only value certain kinds.
• Discourage “able-ism.”
Paper posted at http://www.geneseo.edu/~jfmorse
A few good websites:
•Radical Constructivism
http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/
•Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation:
www.towson.edu/csme/mctp/Essays.html
•Society for Constructivism in the Human Sciences:
http://www.constructivism123.com/index.htm