Constructivism, Educational Research, and John Dewey :: Learning Education Essays

Constructivism, Educational Research, and fundament DeweyABSTRACT Schools are expected to transmit knowledge to younger generations. They are, however, in like manner increasingly criticized for distributing so-called inert knowledge, i.e., knowledge that is accessed only in a restricted set of contexts even though it is applicable to a entire variety of domains. The causes of limited knowledge transfer are mostly attributed to the dis-embeddedness of teaching situations in schools. Instructional procedures that result in learning in the esthesis of being able to recall relevant information provide no guarantee that people will spontaneously use it later. Authentic learning, getting knowledge in the contexts that (will) give this knowledge its meaning, is now being presented as an alternative. Underpinning these reform proposals is not only a (growing) concern with efficiency, but is alike a new epistemological theory, labelled as constructivism. This paper will, first, stee ring on the layout of and diverging perspectives within recent constructivist research in education. Next, the epistemological forward motion of John Dewey will be discussed, which takes as its starting commit the relation of knowledge to action. Finally, we will indicate what a Deweyan approach might add to the constructivist research in education.1.One indication of the point of growth of constructivist research in education is the proliferation of its perspectives and positions. Apparently, it is already found lacking to distinguish between disparate themes, accents, evaluations. Instead, one speaks of contrasting paradigms. Thus, Steffe & Gale distinguish in a reader entitled Constructivism in education six different core paradigms, viz social constructivism, antecedent constructivism, social constructionism, information-processing constructivism, cybernetic systems, and sociocultural approaches to intermediate action (1995, p.xiii). All of these so-called paradigms rejec t traditional epistemological claims round knowledge as an objective representation of reality. Their arguments are, however, only seldom directed against inherited traditional conceptions. Rather, it are the newly formulated alternatives which behave as points of reference. Constructivist paradigms are most of all elaborated in reason with fellow-alternatives.The most outspoken pioneer of a constructivist approach to teaching has been Ernst von Glasersfeld, whose radical constructivism still is at the center of the debate. Elaborating on the works of Jean Piaget, von Glasersfeld has curiously focussed on individual self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through comment and abstraction. According to von Glasersfeld, authentic learning depends on seeing a trouble as ones own problem, as an restriction that obstructs ones progress toward a goal. The farthest removed from this laissez-faire(a) focus seems to be the sociocultural approach that originated with Ljev Vygotskij in Russia.