Constructionist learning

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Constructionism (in the context of learning) is inspired by constructivist theories of learning that propose that learning is an active process wherein learners are actively constructing mental models and theories of the world around them. Constructionism hold that learning can happen felicitously when people are actively making things in the real world. Constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on some of the ideas of Jean Piaget.

Seymour Papert defined constructionism in a proposal to the National Science Foundation entitled Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education as follows: "The word constructionism is a mnemonic for two aspects of the theory of science education underlying this project. From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product."

As Papert and Idit Harel say at the start of Situating Constructionism, "It is easy enough to formulate simple catchy versions of the idea of constructionism; for example, thinking of it as 'learning-by-making'. One purpose of this introductory chapter is to orient the reader toward using the diversity in the volume to elaborate—to construct—a sense of constructionism much richer and more multifaceted, and very much deeper in its implications, than could be conveyed by any such formula."

Papert's ideas became well-known through the publication of his seminal book, "Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas" (Basic Books, 1980). Papert described children creating programs in the Logo language. He likened their learning to a living in a "mathland," where learning mathematical ideas is as natural as learning French while living in France.

Papert has been a huge proponent of bringing IT to classrooms, as in his early uses of the Logo language to teach mathematics to children. Constructionist learning involves students drawing their own conclusions through creative experimentation and the making of social objects. The constructionist teacher takes on a mediational role rather than adopting an instructionist position. Teaching "at" students is replaced by assisting them to understand—and help one another to understand—problems in a hands-on way.

While constructionism has, due to its impetus, been primarily used in science and mathematics teaching to date, it is arguable that it developed in a differerent form in the field of media studies in which students often engage with media theory and practice simultaneously, in a complementary praxis. More recently it has gained a foot hold in Applied linguistics, in the field of second language acquisition (or SLA). One such application has been the use of the popular game SimCity as a means of teaching English using constructionist techniques (Gromik:2004).

Begininning in the 1980s, The LEGO Group funded research in Papert's research group at the MIT Media Laboratory, which at the time was known as the "Epistemology and Learning Group." When LEGO launched its Mindstorms Robotics Invention System in 1998, which was based on work in his group, they received permission to use the moniker "Mindstorms" from Seymour's 1980 book title. In LEGO's Serious Play project, business people learn to express corporate issues and identity through the medium of plastic bricks -- another form of constructionist learning.

In 2005, Papert, together with Nicholas Negroponte and Alan Kay launched the One Laptop Per Child initiative to put constructionist learning into practice in the developing world. The aim is to provide $100 laptops to every child in the developing world.

[edit] See also

• Social constructionism

[edit] External links

• Situating Constructionism by Seymour Papert and Idit Harel, the first chapter from the book Constructionism (1991).
• Constructionism vs Instructionism - speech delivered by Papert to a conference of educators in Japan, in the 1980s
• Seymour Papert's website - with several articles and resources
• The Nature of Constructionist learning - MIT open-to-all online reading list on constructionism
• Lifelong Kindergarten Group - MIT Lifelong Kindergarten research group
• Lego Ed - Lego's education division. Resources on how to 'brick out' in the classroom
• Ackerman on Constructivism vs Constructionism - Edith Ackerman draws out the differences between Piaget's Constructivism, Vygotsky's Socio-Constructivism and Papert's ConstructioNism
• Sim City and English teaching - Gromik's article in JALTCALL
• ArtLab - David Gauntlett's Artlab project.
• Serious Play - Lego's bid to have suits shuffle bricks in a bid to free up corporate creativity
• Constructivism mindmap A mindmap of constructivism in education, which is nevertheless applicable to constructionism
• Constructionist learning of mechanics, electronics, software using robot kits