Introduction
For nearly 50 years, constructivist theory has been making a significant contribution to education, shaping the way we think about the active role of the mind of the learner, whether student, teacher, or researcher. But to answer the question “what is constructivism?” is not an easy task; it depends on which version of constructivist theory we are asking about. There are many versions of constructivism in the literature, with labels such as cognitive, personal, social, radical, cultural, trivial, pedagogical, academic, contextual, C1 and C2, and ecological. And there are also allied terms that have a strong family resemblance, including social constructionism, enactivism and pragmatism. For this entry, I consider four versions – personal constructivism, radical constructivism, social constructivism, and critical constructivism. These have had a major impact on science education and greater impacts than other forms/versions. I start with a brief consideration of Piaget’s...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013) Climate change 2013: the physical science basis. Working group 1 contribution to the IPCC fifth assessment report. Downloaded from http://ipcc.ch/index.htm#.UkvVzhBe_pc
Steffe LP, Gale J (eds) (1995) Constructivism in education. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale
Tobin K, Tippins D (1993) Constructivism as a referent for teaching and learning. In: Tobin K (ed) The practice of constructivism in science education. AAAS Press, Washington, pp 3–21
Willison JW, Taylor PC (2006) Complementary epistemologies of science teaching: towards an integral perspective. In: Aubuson P, Richie S, Harrison A (eds) Metaphor and analogy in science education. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 25–36
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Taylor, P.C. (2015). Constructivism. In: Gunstone, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2150-0_102
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2150-0_102
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2149-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2150-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law