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Constructivism reconstructed (Reply to Suchting)
Abstract
Under ordinary circumstances, an author faced with a long and detailed critique that dismisses his paper as mostly unintelligible and for the rest simply confused, should be devastated, if not silenced for ever. But the circumstances in the case at hand are not ordinary. W. A. Suchting calls his effort Constructivism Deconstructed and within the first six pages he provides an instructive example of his very own method of deconstruction. Though the traditional philosopher’s style of writing might deceive the unwary reader, Suchting’s method has the virtue of simplicity and will undoubtedly be effective — especially with readers who do not have access to the original piece.
... Öğretim programları tümdengelim yoluyla ve temel kavramlara ağırlık verilerek işlenir. Gerçek yaşamla ilişki kurulur ( Brooks & Brooks, 1999;Glasersfeld 1992;Koç, 2007;Oğuz, 2008;Şimşek, 2004). Piaget (1973)'ye göre birey, içinde bulunduğu çevre içinde deneyimler yoluyla bilgiler edinir. ...
... Septik filozoflardan Pyrrhon'un duyu verilerinin, varlıkları bize oldukları gibi değil göründükleri gibi algılandığını bundan dolayı hiçbir şey hakkında yargıya varılamayacağını ( Cevizci, 2011) vurgulaması Protagoras, Sokrates ve Pyrrhon'un görüşlerinin yapılandırmacı kuramla uyumluluk içinde olduğu görülmektedir. Yapılandırmacı kuramcılardan Glasersfeld (1992) öznenin sadece duyum verilerine sahip olduğunu, duyumların ise nesneler dünyasını işaret ettiğinin asla bilinemeyeceğini dile getirir. Cevizci (2011)'ye göre, Locke çevreden alınan basit düşüncelerin zihinsel yapı tarafından birleştirilip daha büyük düşünce donanımlarına dönüştüğü görüşünü önemli görür. ...
... Rousseau (1990)'nun çocuğun kendi özüne uygun yetiştirilmesine imkân sunulması, ilgi ve becerilerinin dikkate alınması görüşlerinin onlara bir şeyler öğretmekten ziyade bilme isteklerini geliştirme yoluna gidilmesini önemli görmesi, aynı şekilde, teorik bilgilerden öte uygulamalara dayalı eğitim verilmesi düşüncelerinin yapılandırmacı kuramın önemli gördüğü ilkelerle uyumluluk gösterdiği söylenebilir. Bu açıdan Yapılandırmacılıkta önemli görülen; öğrencilerin hazırbulunuşluk düzeylerinin, ilgilerinin dikkate alınması, doğrudan doğruya öğrenme yaşantılarına imkân verilmesi, öğrenci merkezli aktif uygulamalara yer verilmesi ilkelerinin ( Glasersfeld, 1992) Rousseau'nun ileri sürdüğü görüşlerle paralellik gösterdiği söylenebilir. Kant, insanın bilgiyi elde etme sürecinde aktif bir konumda bulunduğunu vurgular ( Duman, 2008). ...
... In constructivism, learning is a process of self-organization in which the student reorganizes his or her construction of knowledge to eliminate conflicts (Cobb, 1994;Cobb & Yackel, 1996;von Glasersfeld, 1992). Conflict arises as part of a child's self-organization process (von Glasersfeld, 1989). ...
... Speaking from the constructivist viewpoint, Sierspinska (1998) explains that there is a continuous conflict between the student's spontaneous thinking and the student's non-spontaneous learning of concepts (for example, formulas and definitions learned at school are different from those used at home). In this model, conflicts in the individual student's mathematical interpretations might become a driving force to mathematical development (Cobb & Yackel, 1996;Sierpinska, 1998;von Glasersfeld, 1992). ...
... 214). The authors coordinate the two major theoretical principles, sociocultural and constructivist theories, into the social constructivist perspective by formulating their complementary aspects that mathematical learning involves both active individual construction (Glasersfeld, 1992(Glasersfeld, , 1995 and enculturation (Rogoff, 1990) processes. Departing from the radical constructivist position, the social constructivist perspective views learning as social practices in which the social practices of an individual form the background against which his self-organization comes to the foreground (Sierpinska, 1998;von Glasersfeld, 1992von Glasersfeld, , 1995Wood, 1998). ...
The purpose of this study is to contribute to existing research on classroom discourse by investigating whether a content-related comic that is closely linked to the learning task can stimulate mathematical discourse in a real high school classroom. To build a math-talk learning community and to analyze the effectiveness of content-related comics in eliciting student participation, I employed the combined theoretical frameworks consisting of a Hufferd-Ackles’ et al. (2004) math-talk learning community and Nathan and Knuth’s (2003) social and analytical scaffolding. The combined frameworks provided a multilevel analytical tool for studying classroom interactions. The results suggested that the content-related comic helped students to become more comfortable and independent in expressing their thinking during class discussion. Recommendation for practicing mathematics educators include: classroom teachers should be encouraged to partner with college level researchers to study mathematical discourse in the classroom, and pre-service and in-service teachers should learn and practice the skills and methods for successfully employing a whole-classroom discussion. Further research is needed to investigate the impact of content-related comic activity in a long term interaction with a more diverse population.
... Öğretim programları tümdengelim yoluyla ve temel kavramlara ağırlık verilerek işlenir. Gerçek yaşamla ilişki kurulur (Brooks & Brooks, 1999; Glasersfeld 1992; Koç, 2007;Oğuz, 2008; Şimşek, 2004). Piaget (1973)'ye göre birey, içinde bulunduğu çevre içinde deneyimler yoluyla bilgiler edinir. ...
... Rousseau (1990)'nun çocuğun kendi özüne uygun yetiştirilmesine imkân sunulması, ilgi ve becerilerinin dikkate alınması görüşlerinin onlara bir şeyler öğretmekten ziyade bilme isteklerini geliştirme yoluna gidilmesini önemli görmesi, aynı şekilde, teorik bilgilerden öte uygulamalara dayalı eğitim verilmesi düşüncelerinin yapılandırmacı kuramın önemli gördüğü ilkelerle uyumluluk gösterdiği söylenebilir. Bu açıdan Yapılandırmacılıkta önemli görülen; öğrencilerin hazırbulunuşluk düzeylerinin, ilgilerinin dikkate alınması, doğrudan doğruya öğrenme yaşantılarına imkân verilmesi, öğrenci merkezli aktif uygulamalara yer verilmesi ilkelerinin (Glasersfeld, 1992) Rousseau'nun ileri sürdüğü görüşlerle paralellik gösterdiği söylenebilir. Kant, insanın bilgiyi elde etme sürecinde aktif bir konumda bulunduğunu vurgular (Duman, 2008). ...
... Goodman's philosophy appears to follow, at least in part, the constructivist paradigm (Lincoln and Guba, 1985), the notion of radical constructivism by Glaserfield (1992) and the notion of social constructionism (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). Lincoln and Guba's (1985) constructivist philosophy is idealist, pluralist and relativist. ...
... Similar to constructivism, the social construction of reality is a process of sense-making (Weick, 1995) but the emphasis in social constructionism is the notion of collective and social world (Martin and Sugarman, 1996). But it is not about individual sensemaking as with Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Glaserfield (1992). Human agency is not merely about individuals or groups making sense of reality. ...
The research interest for this study began with a general observation of the lack of theory-practice integration between the academic context of recycling and entrepreneurship set against the growth in the recycling industry. The research thus began by asking, ‘how well does entrepreneurship explain the recycling industry?’
This research focuses on the recycling entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial experiences and their relationships with their social context. Twenty-five recycling entrepreneurs were interviewed in-depth using unstructured interviews as the primary data collection method. Inductive analysis has been applied to these data on multiple levels.
Firstly, a context (structure) level analysis identified a green culture and structure arising from social demands pertaining to environmental concerns and the corresponding political responses that gave rise to socio-cultural and economic implications. Secondly, an entrepreneur (agent) level analysis revealed that the entrepreneurs’ motivation to start and continue recycling businesses was attached to a particular value perception of the recycling opportunity. This orientation underlies the different forms of opportunity constructions. Analysis at the process level drew upon the interactive processes between the preceding two levels to understand the dynamic relationship between structure and agency. The analysis demonstrated the entrepreneurs’ role in manifesting entrepreneurial events via value extraction processes realised through embeddedness. This included different ways of adaptation to the green structure, adoption of green values and the forging of ties. In doing so, they imbued the structure with an apparent overarching creation of green values.
The novel analytical approach adopted for this study provides avenues of advancement in entrepreneurship research: firstly, in the adoption of value orientation as the unit of analysis; and secondly, in the dynamic nature of the analytical approach which explored the interrelatedness between structure, agent and agency. This analysis has identified a paradox whereby entrepreneurs who lack green value orientations are nevertheless performing green actions and thus perpetuating the green socio-political context. Another contribution of this research lies in its thesis that the increasing emphasis in the recycling industry is a social construction of reality, but one given an objective nature attached to the language of ‘green’. This is intensified by the entrepreneurs’ articulation of their reality. Thus, as well as its contribution to both entrepreneurship and recycling literatures, the study provides an informed platform for policy makers and practitioners.
... For Glaserfeld (1992) and Lave and Wenger (1991), learning is a participatory process of self-organization and construction that takes place as the individuals interact with other members of the community in a particular environment. According to Bredo (1997) andO'Loughlin (1992) learning is an evolutionary process that is collaborative and meaningfully related to the activities of others, thus placing emphasis on the social origin of the mind and its processes. ...
... According to Bredo (1997) andO'Loughlin (1992) learning is an evolutionary process that is collaborative and meaningfully related to the activities of others, thus placing emphasis on the social origin of the mind and its processes. Accordingly, learning involves a constant and reciprocal interaction between the mind, the environment, and the social situations in which it occurs (Cobb, 1994;Lave & Wenger, 1991;Roschelle, 1995;Vygotsky, 1978;Winn, 2003), and the contextual and personal aspect of thinking and acting are critical in the learning process (Cobb, 1994;Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer, & Scott, 1994;Glaserfeld, 1992). Meanings are derived from the dynamic interplay between individuals and their society and are the result of a process that involves reflection upon past and present experiences, evaluation, and judgment within a social and physical context (Merriam & Heuer, 1996). ...
... The emphasis of experience in constructing knowledge has also been discussed in the writings of many educators and philosophers including John Dewey, John Locke, and Jean Piaget. Ideas of constructivism come from the work of Jean Piaget concerning precisely the child's construction of concepts and conceptual relations (von Glasersfeld, 1992). An active view of the learner in the classroom and increased emphasis on guided discovery and a way of teaching that acknowledges learners as active knowers are important in constructivism (Confrey, 1990;Goldin, 1990;Noddings, 1990). ...
... Constructivism claims that understanding will not necessarily result when information is passed on to a set of learners. This theory challenges the traditional idea that people acquire information from those who know more (von Glasersfeld, 1992Glasersfeld, , 1995Schifter, 1996). ...
Teacher educators continually strive to find ways to improve the preparation of preservice teacher candidates. In the area of mathematics education, methods courses that follow National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards for professional development have been successful. This study supports the notion that a mathematics methods course can improve mathematics teaching efficacy in the constructs of personal mathematics teaching efficacy (PMTE) and mathematics teaching outcome expectancy (MTOE). Findings also suggest that mathematics teaching efficacy is developmental in its nature with PMTE developing before MTOE. Employing a quasiexperimental nonequivalent comparison groups pre- and posttest design, the present study examined the effects of guided imagery as an added component of a mathematics methods course and found no significant advantageous treatment effects on mathematics teaching efficacy. However, there were no detrimental effects on mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical skills either. Participation in a reform-based mathematics methods course did affect mathematics teaching efficacy for both groups in the study. Mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs were measured by the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI), and data were analyzed by ANCOVA and paired-samples t-tests. Recommendations for further research on the developmental nature of general teacher efficacy and mathematics teaching efficacy are included.
... ... In general, far from being what it is claimed to be, namely, the New Age in philosophy of science, an even slightly perceptive ear can detect the familiar voice of a really quite primitive, traditional subjectivistic empiricism with some overtones of diverse provenance like Piaget and Kuhn. (Suchting, 1992, p.247) Von Glasersfeld did reply (Glasersfeld, 1992), but Suchting's paper was ignored, while von Glasersfeld was given 'Plenary Speaker' status at education conferences and repeatedly cited in research literature, having 20,000 + Google Scholar citations in October 2022. ...
Beginning 60 years ago, Thomas Kuhn has had a significant impact across the academy and on culture more widely. And he had a great impact on science education research, theorising, and pedagogy. For the majority of educators, the second edition (1970) of his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn, 1970a) articulated the very nature of the science, the discipline they were teaching. More particularly, Kuhn’s book directly influenced four burgeoning research fields in science education: Children’s Conceptual Change, Constructivism, Science-Technology-Society studies, and Cultural Studies of Science Education. This paper looks back to the Kuhnian years in science education and to the long shadow they cast. The discipline of science education needs to learn from its past so that comparable mistakes might be averted in the future. Kuhn’s influence was good and bad. Good, that he brought HPS to so many; bad, that, on key points, his account of science was flawed. This paper will document the book’s two fundamental errors: namely, its Kantian-influenced ontological idealism and its claims of incommensurability between competing paradigms. Both had significant flow-on effects. Although the book had many positive features, this paper will document how most of these ideas and insights were well established in HPS literature at the time of its 1962 publication. Kuhn was not trained in philosophy, he was not part of the HPS tradition, and to the detriment of all, he did not engage with it. This matters, because before publication he could have abandoned, modified, or refined much of his ‘revolutionary’ text. Something that he subsequently did, but this amounted to closing the gate after the horse had bolted. In particular, the education horse had well and truly bolted. While educators were rushing to adopt Kuhn, many philosophers, historians, and sociologists were rejecting him. Kuhn did modify and ‘walk back’ many of the head-turning, but erroneous, claims of Structure. But his retreat went largely unnoticed in education, and so the original, deeply flawed Structure affected the four above-mentioned central research fields. The most important lesson to be learnt from science education’s uncritical embrace of Kuhn and Kuhnianism is that the problems arose not from personal inadequacies; individuals are not to blame. There was a systematic, disciplinary deficiency. This needs to be addressed by raising the level of philosophical competence in the discipline, beginning with the inclusion of HPS in teacher education and graduate programmes.
... The emergent perspective (Cobb & Yackel, 1996) is one way to coordinate social aspects of the classroom microculture with psychological features of the individuals. It does this by combining aspects of symbolic interactionism (Bauersfeld et al., 1988) and constructivism (von Glasersfeld, 1984, 1992. In this approach, the social and individual planes have equal weight, in contrast to theories in which the individual plane has primacy (and the social nature of knowing is downplayed) or the social plane has primacy (and the interpretive nature of knowing is downplayed). ...
Through the lens of the emergent perspective (Cobb & Yackel, 1996), this study examined the nature and extent of variation in individuals’ ways of reasoning from ways of reasoning that were accepted by a classroom community. This was done by interviewing seven undergraduate students after they had participated in classroom discussions. In contrast to other studies that have examined this relationship, the individuals’ ways of reasoning were qualitatively different from the accepted ways of reasoning. This suggests that even if students actively participate in classroom discourse where students’ ideas are considered, debated, and refined, they may not meet the major conceptual goals of the unit. As such, I argue that the relationship between the nature of social interactions students participate in and their subsequent reasoning needs further study, if educators are going to successfully support student learning.
... Hence the modules must be presented in very simplified and self-explanatory ways such that with very little or even no supervision, learners can understand these themselves and assess themselves. This mode of assessment in the views of [22] has offered a very useful commentary on the ways in which learning goals can be achieved in the classroom situation. Once the programme is ready, instructors need to decide what mode of motivation and approach they wish to adopt with their students. ...
Evaluation of blended computer based learning on the performance of students in Pre-Technical Skills is essential in today's technological advancement. The study was conducted in the Bibiani district of the Western region. Probability sampling method (stratified and simple random sampling techniques) was used for the study. The population was made up of first year students of Central African Gold (CAG) Junior High School and Presby Junior High School. Both Schools took a Pre-test, the results of the pre-test assisted in grouping the schools into two. Central African Gold (CAG) Junior High School was selected as the Control group and Presby Junior High School as the experimental group. The experimental group was used together with traditional methods of teaching and computer software designed for the relevant topics. The statistical method used to analyse data for the study was independent-sample t-test. The level of significant chosen was 0.05. The "t" value found in the analysis of the difference between means was used to determine whether the null hypotheses concerning differences between post-test scores, and differences between the scores while controlling for pre-test scores, were to be accepted or rejected. The study revealed that students who used the blended computer based learning method performed better than those who were taught by the traditional method of instruction. It is recommended that the Ghana Education Service should offer in-service training in computer applications to teachers in our basic institutions. This will go a long way to equip them with the skills needed to design learning software in their various subjects such as that which was used in this research.
... It differs from conventional college outcome models that focus primarily on the college environmental factors, often assuming a "closed model" for outcomes (Kasworm, 1995). The model is also influenced by the perspectives of constructivist and sociocultural theories of learning (Cobb, 1994;Lave & Wenger, 1991;von Glaserfeld, 1992). It recognizes that although learning is based on individually constructed cognitive schemas, it often occurs as adults participate in a social learning community (Cobb, 1995). ...
... The cognitive constructivist view of education is that students actively construct their ways of knowing as they strive to maintain coherence in their personal theories of the world (von Glasersfeld, 1987(von Glasersfeld, , 1989(von Glasersfeld, , 1992. Empirical support for this constructivist viewpoint comes from studies that document significant qualitative differences in the understandings that different students develop in the same educational setting, understandings that frequently differ in important ways from those the teacher intended to convey (e.g., Confrey, 1990;Hiebert and Carpenter, 1992). ...
A theory intended to bridge social constructionist and cognitive constructivist thought is presented, and some of its implications for psychotherapy and education are considered. The theory is mostly concerned with understanding the emergence and development of the psychological (mind, selfhood, intentionality, agency) from its biological and sociocultural origins. It is argued that the psychological is underdetermined by the biological and sociocultural, and possesses a shifting, dynamic ontology that emerges within a developmental context. Increasingly sophisticated capabilities of memory and imagination mediate and support the emergence of genuinely agentic psychological phenomena from appropriated sociocultural forms and practices.
... I will not try to explicate what others might mean by knowledge in discussing what teachers know and how what they know is related to what they do. To do so would take us into a morass of philosophical disputes, such as knowledge versus belief (Thompson, 1992) and constructivism versus realism (Glasersfeld, 1992;Howe & Berv, 2000;Phillips, 2000;Suchting, 1992)-disputes that turn out to be immaterial for the purpose of improving mathematics teaching. Instead, I will argue here, as I have argued elsewhere (Thompson, 2013), that a focus on teachers' mathematical meanings, as opposed to their mathematical knowledge, offers a fruitful approach to uncovering important sources of teachers' instructional decisions and actions and provides useful guidance for designing teachers' professional development. ...
... Constructivism is a learning theory that offers a basis for understanding how people learn (Nussbaum, 1989;Glasersfeld, 1992). It provides researchers a theoretical framework to study how people engage with a learning object, extract relevant information from the object, and incorporate new information into their existing knowledge (Bodner, Klobuchar & Geelan, 2001). ...
NMR spectroscopy is one of the most important techniques used in the structural identification of a compound. For this reason, a spectroscopy course that includes NMR is required for undergraduate chemistry students. However, many students have difficulty understanding the concepts of NMR spectroscopy and how to interpret NMR spectra. An interactive NMR (iNMR) course containing highly interactive animations and exercises was developed based on constructivist learning environments to support self-studying and to provide practice in NMR problem solving. Third-year chemistry students (n = 26) volunteered to use the course as a supplement to their regular spectroscopy class. Students' understanding of key NMR spectroscopy concepts was statistically increased after completing the interactive course. Moreover, the average course grade of students completing the iNMR course was significantly higher than that of students completing traditional lessons in each of the previous four years.
... The sod# perdfleccive is an intefactionist view of c~~f~f m~~l ; a l or c~llectiv~ c188sro0~~1 ~~Q C R S S~S I (Baiauersfeld,Qurnmh@uer,t !k Voi@,198$.). psychdq@ioal perspective is a ppyrA01ogical ooastr&Miyj~t view lo$ individual students'(0r the teachw's) activity as they participate in and contribute to the development of these communal processes (von Glasersfeld, 1984(von Glasersfeld, , 1992. The coordination of interactionism and psychological constructivism is the primary de- fining characteristic of the version of social coinstructivism that we refer to as the emergent approach or the emergent perspective (Cobb & Bauersfeld, 1995). ...
Our overall intent is to clarify relations between the psychological constructivist, sociocultural, and emergent perspectives. We provide a grounding for the comparisons in the first part of the article by outlining an interpretive framework that we developed in the course of a classroom-based research project. At this level of classroom processes, the framework involves an emergent approach in which psychological constructivist analyses of individual activity are coordinated with interactionist analyses of classroom interactions and discourse. In the second part of the article, we describe an elaboration of the framework that locates classroom processes in school and societal contexts. The perspective taken at this level is broadly sociocultural and focuses on the influence of indlividuals' participation in culturally organized practices. In the third part of the article, we use the discussion of the framework as a backdrop against which to compare and contrast the three theoretical perspectives. We discuss how the emergent approach augments the psychological constructivist perspective by making it possible to locate analyses of individual students' constructive activities in social context. In addition, we consider the purposes for which the emergent and sociocultural perspectives might be particularly appropriate and observe that they together offer characterizations of individual students' activities, the classroom community, and broader communities of practice.
... • Social context principle. While learning is an individual activity, it is also a socially situated process in which learners interact with other members of a community (Cobb, 1994;von Glasersfeld, 1992;Vygotsky, 1986). Social interaction is as much a part of the process of learning as the individual expenditure of mental effort. ...
... 247). von Glasersfeld (1992) formally replied to Suchting's attack but, interestingly, relatively few mathematics education researchers have. ever referred to the Suchting/von GlasersfeldScience & Education debate. ...
... For the purposes of this study, we define learning as an active and social experience through which learners construct and adapt meanings within social and physical contexts that intrinsically mediate and modulate the learning episodes (Cobb 1994;Rennie and Johnston 2004;Roschelle 1995;Winn 2002). From this social constructivist perspective, the contextual aspects of meaning-making are critical in the learning process (Driver et al. 1994;Glaserfeld 1992). Meanings are then derived from the dynamic interplay between individuals' personalities, prior experiences, learning styles, and motivations, and their social surroundings within a physical context. ...
Abstract How and what adults learn in the context of a family visit to an aquarium is a valuable and important question to ask, given the significance of this demographic to institutions such as these. Based on a larger empirical work,1 this paper reports on the nature and character of adult learning within a family group context while visiting the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre (Canada), and the longitudinal effects of such experience in the weeks following the visit. In this study a multiple or collective instrumental case study approach was employed to examine the learning experiences of the adult members of 13 family groups; this approach demonstrates that adults visiting the aquarium as part of a family group are active social learners and not merely facilitators of the experience for younger visitors or caregivers. Our outcomes also indicate that the adult members of the participant family groups learned in a multiplicity of domains including the cognitive, the social, and the affective, as a result of their visit to the Vancouver Aquarium. In addition, we discuss the longitudinal impacts of the aquarium visit and provide valuable insights as to the relevance of these experiences in visitors' everyday lives.
The purpose of this study was to comprehend how instructors in a private school system in Vietnam apprehended the constructivism theory and the obstacles they faced when putting it into practice when teaching English at elementary levels. A multiple case study design was utilized to collect qualitative data from four primary teachers from one campus of this school system, through semi-structured interviews and classroom observation. The findings indicated that the participating teachers did not have a proper understanding of this learning theory, which brought about the lack of self-reliance in their discussion and implementation of it. The challenges confronting them were concerned with time constraints, learners' levels, the English curriculum itself, and teachers' workload. It is necessary for the teachers to attend more workshops on not only the general constructivism learning theory but also the concrete, contextualized constructivist pedagogical practices in the language classroom.
The use of Internet of Things (IoT) technology to improve access to cultural heritage sites and enhance visitor engagement has become increasingly popular. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies evaluating the actual benefits of such technology on visitors’ experiences, which is crucial to improve the IoT adoption in this field. To address this issue, we present an exploratory study we performed to understand whether and how an IoT-based game affects the experience of museum visitors. The game is played after a traditional guided tour; it was created following a meta-design approach to enable domain experts, such as museum professional guides, to adapt the game to specific visitors and/or situations. The study involved a total of 18 participants who took a guided tour of the Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of Bari and played the game afterward. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The study results show that playing the IoT-based game positively affects the experience of visitors and, in particular, their emotions. Visitor workload was also found to be greater than that of a guided tour, but this had no negative impact on visitor experience. The study findings have implications for the design and development of future IoT games to enhance engagement and to improve the experience of visitors at cultural heritage sites.
The potentialities of the interplay among Science, Science Education, History and Philosophy of Science have been acknowledged since the XIXth century. Nevertheless, the institutionalization of History, Philosophy and Science Teaching (HP&ST) as a modern discipline and research field was only achieved in the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. In this perspective, it is hard to find someone that has contributed to their field as much as Michael Matthews has been doing for HP&ST. In this paper, I aim to discuss the genesis and development of HP&ST, highlighting the protagonist role that Michael Matthews has been playing for 30 years. The main source for this discussion is Matthews’s recently published autobiography History, Philosophy and Science Teaching: A Personal History and some of his previous works. The central assumption of this text is that a research field is constituted by two important dimensions: its conceptualization (the set of philosophical, theoretical, axiological, methodological conceptions that constitute the field), and its institutionalization (the set of means that allow the concrete implementation and diffusion of research and knowledge). In the case of HP&ST, Michael Matthews has been a central figure in the development of both dimensions. Throughout this paper, I discuss Michael Matthews’s initial philosophical influences, his work to institutionalize HP&ST (creating IHPST, Science & Education, and HPS&ST Newsletter) and his philosophical approach to HP&ST, conceiving it as an important mean to enhance Science Education in the context of a liberal, cultural, and humanistic education. In 2022, we will be celebrating 30 years of Science & Education and, consequently, of Michael Matthews’s seminal paper History, philosophy, and science teaching: The present rapprochement. I hope that this discussion works, firstly, as an invitation for HP&ST researchers to dive into Matthew’s account on the history of the field, which iluminates many of the importat issues and debates of our discipline. Secondly, this paper is intended to be a call to remember and reinforce the original perspectives and reflections that Michael Matthews’s proposed to HP&ST: the appreciation of the Enlightenment tradition, the value and importance of liberal education, the necessity of philosophical rigor, and the conception of HP&ST as an essentially cross-disciplinary research field.
This chapter details the origins of the modern, institutionalised HPS&ST research programme during my sabbatical year at Florida State University in 1987. It commenced with an invitation to guest edit a special issue of Synthese journal on the subject; this expanded to six such special issues of different journals, providing a base for the first NSF-funded HPS&ST international conference at Tallahassee in 1989 at which the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (IHPST Group) was formed. The next institutional step was creation of the Kluwer journal Science & Education: Contributions from History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science; I was the founding editor and remained such for 25 years. Publication of a score of thematic issues was a feature of the journal over that time. The chapter also outlines the European Enlightenment and the continuing Enlightenment Tradition in education; the life, times and educational contributions of Ernst Mach; and the publication and reception of the edited 1989 Hackett anthology The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy that provides the core scientific texts to which the founders of early modern European philosophy were responding. My three decades of engagement with the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (IHPST Group) has shaped and defined whatever long-term contribution to academic life that I have made. In 1987, after six years of political activity in which university work was barely ticking over, I took sabbatical leave in the Philosophy Department at Florida State University, Tallahassee. It was from there that my subsequent History, Philosophy and Science Teaching (HPS&ST) research was launched (https://ihpst.clubexpress.com/).
Introduction
Constructivism is construed very differently and it "is ubiquitous and sometimes insidious and certainly means different things to dissimilar people" (Chadwick, 2004, p. 46). The difference in meanings often triggers polarized reactions, especially in science and mathematics, where the heated debate between supporters and detractors of constructivism continues (see, for example, Cobb, 1 994a; Ceelan, 1 997; Grandy, 1997; Matthews, 1997; Phillips, 2000) in an attempt to clarify the philosophical foundations of constructivism and its impact on learning and teaching. Disagreement about this theory centers on four main issues: (1 ) role of an ontological reality, (2) primacy of individual or social construction of knowledge, (3) means of establishing validity of knowledge, and (4) methods of integration into curricula. The debate is further confounded by the multiplicity of labels qualifying constructivism (Geelan, 1 997) and the covert biases and philosophies implicit in each label. A useful discussion on the nature and application of constructivism must begin with an a priori clarification of biases and terminology (Geelan, 1997), especially because constructivism outlines a useful model for envisioning how people know and is a powerful framework for addressing the design of teaching and learning. In this article, we address the key points of contention raised by Chadwick (2004) in an effort to clarify the utility of a specific form of constructivism - radical constructivism - as a viable theory of knowing. We believe that radical constructivism is a cohesive and convincing explanation of individual knowing, and we use this theory as the primary framework to counter Chadwick's accusations about constructivism's lack of utility and value.
The present research problematizes and reflects the implications of incorporating entrepreneurial rhetoric in social policies with the aim of contributing to the apprehension of the Social Work-Entrepreneurship relationship in the (re)discovery and development of population potentialities, and how such a connection cooperates for the (re)construction of theoretical-practical guidelines for the profession. Guided by an abductive reasoning, we follow a mixed methodology that includes data: quantitative, through the application of a questionnaire survey to participants in entrepreneurship training programs, and qualitative, through documentary analysis, of the realization of focus groups - to academic social workers and interventors - and semi-structured interviews - to (potential) entrepreneurs and managers linked to entrepreneurship projects. The results allowed to understand the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial activity and the representations of the subjects about the respective access, operationalization and adequacy. We also explored the positioning of Social Work around this activity, allowing us to recognize potentialities and constraints in the accomplishment of a closer proximity between the two fields. Three areas of social entrepreneurship are proposed for Social Work: (i) in professional practice, demonstrating the need and potential of the intrapreneur spirit in professional organizations; (ii) in the policy dimension, in a policy practice logic, demonstrating the real effects of (new) policy orientations; (iii) in the formation and production of knowledge, proposing a (re)formulation of the academic curriculum with the introduction of (social) entrepreneurship in academic modules and pedagogical practices that promote students' proactive attitude, capacity for innovation, and capacity resources that can generate social value.
Information overload refers to the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. We present a novel approach of filtering, adapting and visualizing content inside a Wiki knowledge base. Thereby we follow the question of how to optimize the process of learning, with respect to shorter time and higher quality, in face of increasing and changing information. Our work adopts a consolidation mechanism of the human memory, in order to reveal and shape key structures of a Wiki hypergraph. Our hypothesis so far is that visualization of these structures enables a more efficient learning.
Sincerity and ethics are two elusive and multifaceted constructs. As people and contexts change, ethical questions look similar, whereas answers do not. From my point of view, talking about ethics means asking oneself why lying or conflicting, for example, could be the preferable choices for someone. It means bringing both one’s own and other people’s assumptions into question, and to recognise that doubt is perhaps the path toward otherness. The goal of the present chapter is to explore the role of epistemological doubt in dealing with different people and political dissent.
The proper teaching of science in general, and physics in particular, requires an understanding of the philosophical basis of science. Such a basis was established in the 1920s and 1930s by the scientists and philosophers of the Vienna Circle, only to be cast aside by the remarkable influence of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Even scientists who should know better are waiting breathlessly for the next revolution that will replace atoms with something that will allow them to fly to the stars.
The primary purpose of this chapter is to clarify the basic tenets of activity theory and constructivism, and to compare and contras instructional approaches developed within these global theoretical perspectives. This issue is worthy of discussion in that research and development programs derived from these two perspectives are both vigorous. For example, the work of sociocultural theorists conducted within the activity theory tradition has become increasingly influential in the United States in recent years. One paradigmatic group of studies conducted by Lave (1988), Newman, Griffin, and Cole (1089). and Scribner (1984) has related arithmetical computation to more encompassing social activities such as shopping in a supermarket, packing crates in a dairy, and completing worksheets in school. Taken together, these analyses demonstrate powerfully the need to consider broader social and cultural processes when accounting for children’s development of mathematic cal competeuce.
Context: Ernst von Glasersfeld's constructivist epistemology has been a source of intellectual inspiration for several Quebec researchers, particularly in the field of science and mathematics education. Problem: However, what is less well known is the influence that his work had on the direction taken by educational reform in Quebec in the early 2000s as well as the criticisms that his work has given rise to - some of which present a family resemblance to the science wars that swept over the US and France during the 1990s. Results: We begin by outlining the constructivist orientation of Quebec's educational reform. We then draw a parallel between the above-mentioned science wars and the critics who denounced the constructivist foundations of the reform. In both cases, the bone of contention concerns the usual interpretation of relativism, with the criticisms that we refer to tending to oppose relativism with realism or rationalism. Now, by definition, relativism stands in opposition to absolutism and not to realism, unless the latter manifests itself in an absolutist form (which is the case of some of the critiques). Implications: The fear generated by relativism is by no means new. However, it seems that more than an epistemological controversy is at stake in the current depreciation of positions that, like that of radical constructivism, question the possibility of a "view from nowhere" - that is, aperspectival objectivity - and the resultant knowledge. In the sphere of education, at least in Quebec, there may well be an ideological issue of control over education that is involved.
This article explores if there are manifestations of epistemological theses of constructs vism, one of thestated theoretical pillars on which the curricula werebased, in theelementary education curricula prepared and viewed as an educational paradigm change by Turkish Ministry of Education. The exploration was carried out by identifying the reflections of von Glasersfeld's radical constructivism in Fen ve Teknoloji Dersi (6, 7 ve 8. Siruflar) Ogretim Programi (Science and Technology Course (6, 7 and 8th Grades) Curriculum) (2006) in virtue of its relevance both to the curriculum and to the ministry's stated paradigm change intention. It has been found that the effect of radical constructivism on the issues of theory choice is highly evident while on the issue of the relation of theory to reality less evident. But the program is clearly positivistic regarding the aim of science, the relation of scientific theories or models to reality, the truth of scientific knowledge, scientific progress, theory choice, and the status of science in relation to non-scientific traditions. Therefore, the constructivism of the curriculum is, in Glasersfeld'in sense, "trivial" and falls far short of the aim of paradigm change.
This book analyzes the sociobiology debate and details a number of contested issues that have emerged. These issues focus on the interpretations and emphases that both sides have placed on the role of adaptation in evolution; the importance of evolution at the level of the gene versus at the level of organisms and populations; reductionism as a research method; simple Mendelianism versus more complex understandings of the relationship between genotype and phenotype; and ultimately, the nature of science itself. The book includes textual analyses of a selection of university-level introductory biology textbooks written between 1990 and 2010, examining the ways these texts - with their photos, inserts, and various rhetorical devices - cover sociobiology specifically, and animal behavior in general; evolutionary theory; genetic theory; and the nature of science. Biology After the Sociobiology Debate shows how, over the last two decades, sociobiology and the ensuing debates have influenced biological theory about the natures of science and the behavior of organisms, and how that influence is expressed in introductory textbooks. This book is important not just as a sociology of knowledge study, but also because of the ways in which continued biodeterminist discourses may influence debates and policy that are emerging around a new liberal or consumer-based eugenics movement. © 2011 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.
We explore Ernst von Glasersfeld’s radical constructivism, its criticisms, and our own
thoughts on what it promises for the reform of science and mathematics teaching. Our investigation
reveals that many criticisms of radical constructivism are unwarranted; nevertheless, in its current
cognitivist form radical constructivism may be insufficient to empower teachers to overcome objectivist
cultural traditions. Teachers need to be empowered with rich understandings of philosophies of science
and mathematics that endorse relativist epistemologies; for without such they are unlikely to be prepared
to reconstruct their pedagogical practices. More importantly, however, is a need for a powerful social
epistemology to serve as a referent for regenerating the culture of science education. We recommend
blending radical constructivism with Habermas’ 'theory of communicative action' to provide science
teachers with a moral imperative for adopting a constructivist epistemology.
In our Cultures Connect project, students engaged in interactions with local and remote audiences in a telecommunication, constructivist-based learning environment with an emphasis on writing about real-world science. The sample consisted of fourth and fifth grade students from a predominantly Hispanic school. They were part of a larger learning community with six other school sites connected through telecommunications. Participants at our site worked in cooperative groups toward the development of a research writing project on real-world science topics. Interactions with their distant peers about their research and other topics consistently occurred over the project's course.
Data collected for the current study targeted the status of relationships among socio-cognitive factors with selected group dynamic features of task structure preference and audience awareness. The task structure preference variable divided the students into two groups: (1a) preference to work in teams or (1b) preference to work independently. For another analysis, students were divided into two groups on the basis of expressing an (2a) audience awareness or (2b) lack of an audience awareness in their written communications. Sociocognitive factors included confidence in writing, metacognition, academic motivation, and self-efficacy measures. A group-comparison design was used to compare the mean scores on these constructs for each group factor.
The group reporting an audience awareness demonstrated a higher orientation to engaging in group interactions and in using metacognitive strategies in writing. A lack of confidence in writing was more prevalent among the students expressing less awareness to different audiences in their writing.
Students with a preference to work by themselves showed statistically significant higher ratings in self-efficacy and a marginal significance on the use of metacognitive skills. Those with a group work preference enjoyed interacting with and receiving input from their peers. Other questions assessed students' perceptions of the benefits accrued as a Cultures Connect participant.
The study and discussion of results are situated in the constructivist principles of instruction and learning. In addition, the research addresses related concepts of communities of learners, with implications for designing student-directed environments.
The importance of cultural heritage in forging a sense of identity is becoming increasingly evident. Information and communication technologies have a great potential to promote a greater awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage. This article presents some findings on how mobile technology can be used to foster a better understanding of an archaeological site by reconstructing the ancient environment and life. Children aged 11-13 years old are the target of our research. To motivate and engage them, a pervasive educational game has been developed and implemented in Explore!, a system aimed at supporting children exploring sites of cultural interest. Special attention has been devoted to the design of a soundscape that may improve players' navigation in degraded physical environments and enrich their overall experience. A field study indicated that children judged their experience both useful and entertaining: not only did they enjoy playing the game, but they also learned historical notions and facts related to ancient Roman life. Contextual sounds were found to have a facilitating effect on space navigation, reducing the need for map reading and improving spatial orientation. This work provides insights into the design of educational games for use with cultural heritage and a model to enrich historical sites through the creation of soundscapes which can help visitors to navigate a site and feel its historical atmosphere.
The intrusion of pseudoscience into science classrooms is a problem in science education today. This paper discusses the implications of constructivist pedagogy, which relies on the notions of viability and inter-subjectivity, in a context favourable to the acceptance of pseudoscience. Examples from written statements illustrate how prospective science teachers in Turkey readily accept pseudoscientific explanations of the origin of species. Constructivist pedagogy underestimates, if not ignores, the difficulty of holding rational discussions in the presence of pseudoscientific or absolute beliefs. Moreover, it gives a higher priority to learners’ exposure to alternative constructions through social negotiation than to furthering their appreciation of science. Under these circumstances, self-confirmation and social pressure to accept existing pseudoscientific beliefs may be unanticipated consequences of social negotiation. Considering the aim of science education to foster an appreciation of science, the implications of constructivist pedagogy are, or should be, of great concern to science educators.
This article presents a model of college outcomes for adult undergraduate students to address the key elements that affect their learning and to stimulate research and theory building about adults' experience in college. It provides a review of the literature and a comprehensive model that considers the relationships between six major elements related to adults' undergraduate collegiate experiences: (a) prior experiences; (b) orienting frameworks such as motivation, self-confidence, and value system; (c) adult's cognition or the declarative, procedural, and self regulating knowledge structures and processes; (d) the "connecting classroom" as the central avenue for social engagement and for negotiating meaning for learning; (e) the life-world environment and the concurrent work, family, and community settings; and (I) the different types and levels of learning outcomes experienced by adults.
Latin American audiences living in their countries of origin are poorly understood as museum learners due to the scarcity of research in this field. Through a case study approach, I investigate and report on the ways of learning of 20 Mexican family groups. In particular, I examine the influence of the Mexican sociocultural context on the participant family members’ learning outcomes from a Mexican science museum. Conducted in Universum Museo de las Ciencias, a science museum located in Mexico City, this research study is based on the premise that understanding the role of the sociocultural elements of learning is essential to understanding the nature of learning in museums. The cognitive and social outcomes of the participants are discussed in the light of the sociocultural elements that define Mexicans as museum learners.
The present article compares Cantoral and Farfan's socio-epistemological approach to mathematics education research (MER)
with approaches of other current constructivist schools (such as emergent and sociocultural constructivism), in which interactionist
and realistic approaches blend together. The theoretical problems of all these perspectives seem to center on the role that
cultural tools are to play in future discourse of the different approaches to MER and identifying a set of problems with common
ground in order to make comparisons possible.
The classroom that is the focus of the analysis reported in this paper was the site for a year-long first-grade teaching experiment. The goal of the classroom teaching experiment was to investigate ways to proactively support students' ability to develop strategies for adding and subtracting quantities. In addition, the project also focused on the teacher's proactive role in supporting students' mathematical growth in an inquiry mathematics classroom. Within the project classroom, the teacher often redescribed and notated students' responses so that what students had done mathematically might become an explicit topic of conversation. As part of this process, she frequently introduced either informal or conventional notation to record students' explanations of their mathematical activity. The introduction of these notational schemes led to students' development of ways of notating their own reasoning. In this way, the notation emerged from the students' activity while supporting shifts in their mathematical development.
Currently, considerable debate focuses on whether mind is loca- ted~in }he head or ~n the-indfv!dual-in-social-action, and whether development is cognitive self-organization or enculturation into established practices. In this articlf; I question a ss_umptions that initiate this app~ent forced choice between constructivist and sociocultural perspectives. I contend th~ the two perspectives are comd~mentar~: Also, claims that either perspective captures the essence of people and communities should be rejected for pragmatic justifications that consider the contextual relevance and usefulness of a perspective. I argue that the socdo~l_lural perspective infoEms theories of the conditions far the possibility of learning, whereas theories developed from the constructivist perspective focus on what students learn and the processes by which they do so.
This review critically examines 33 studies on students’ epistemological beliefs about mathematics. Five categories were identified: beliefs about mathematics, development of beliefs, effects of beliefs on behavior, domain differences, and changing beliefs. Studies examining beliefs about mathematics revealed consistent patterns of nonavailing beliefs at all educational levels. Mathematics instructional environments were inferred to influence the development of beliefs about mathematics. All studies revealed significant relationships between beliefs and cognition, motivation, and academic achievement. Descriptive studies found relationships between beliefs and learning behaviors. Studies examining domain differences found significant variations in beliefs across disciplines. Studies focusing on changing beliefs were successful, which was attributed to appropriate changes in instructional style. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.
Constructivist theory must choose between the hypothesis that felt perturbation drives cognitive development (the priority of felt perturbation) and the hypothesis that the particular process that eventually produces new cognitive structures first produces felt perturbation (the continuity of process). There is ambivalence in Piagetian theory regarding this choice. The prevalent account of constructivist theory adopts the priority of felt perturbation. However, on occasion Piaget has explicitly rejected it, simultaneously endorsing the continuity of process. First, I explicate and support this latter position, arguing that felt perturbation emerges after the construction of a new cognitive structure has already begun. Next, I discuss the broader significance of rejecting the priority of felt perturbation in terms of a distinction between two types of theory of effective change, labeled Lamarckian and Darwinian in analogy with familiar theories of evolutionary change. Rejecting the priority of felt perturbation allows the development of a Darwinian perspective. In turn, the Darwinian perspective offers advantages for elaborating the analogy Piaget proposed between consciousness and the relation of form and content.
A descriptive study was conducted in order to determine the tannin profiles of tropical fodder crops. The following types of condensed tannins (CT) were determined (expressed as g kg-1 of dry matter): free (FCT), bound to protein (CTP), bound to fibre (CTF) and total (TCT). High FCT levels were found in Desmodium ovalifolium (228.4), Flemigia macrophylla (181.9), Guazuma ulmyfolia (129.7) and Leucaena leucocephala (129.5). The highest concentrations of CTP were detected in Gliricidia sepium (61.0), F macrophylla (23.3), and G ulmyfolia (21.1). CTF levels were the highest in G ulmyfolia (55.1), F macrophylla (46.7) and G sepium (41.5). Analyzed samples cultivated in vertisol and fluvisol soils showed different contents of tannins. It has been reported that plants with more than 60 g kg-1 FCT are less palatable and digestible than forages with lower concentrations of this chemical class, although there is more protein to bypass the rumen and higher nitrogen retention. Graminaceous plants showed higher concentrations of FCT and TCT concentrations were generally lower than legumes and other forage crops. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry
This article presents results from a long‐term study of science learning that began with 6 children during their Grade 5 study of the topic light and has now followed the original participants for 18 years. This report features details of the story of 1 participant, Donnie, and provides information on the approach to the larger program of research. The research takes three main thrusts: First, it studies how concepts in science, in this case, light, are developed over a lifetime of learning. Second, it studies the nature of the experience of science learning in school and now into the adult lives of participants. Third, the research seeks to understand the nature of changes in personal orientations to science learning over the years, from elementary education to adult life, a construct developed in the original case studies to describe features of each individual's approach to learning science (Shapiro, 1994a). Research insights highlight concept development and the importance of building self‐reflection opportunities into the curriculum and address the career and lifetime impacts of school‐science learning experience.
The approach to science education known as Science, Technology and Society (STS) has recently been widely adopted. An STS school‐based project, initiated by a pilot group of teachers and two science‐educational researchers, served as a case study for this paper. This collaborative group was responsible for the planning and implementation of an inservice course for science and technology teachers, that aimed to develop an STS rationale. Teachers conceptual change, the process of constructing their STS content and pedagogical knowledge, is explored in terms of our model of conceptual change. Finally, we suggest that STS should be viewed as a learning orientation rather than as a specific content or subject matter.
Australian universities have traditionally relied on government funding to support undergraduate teaching. As the government has adopted the 'user-pays' principle, universities have been forced to look outside their traditional market to expand the undergraduate, post-graduate and international offerings. Alternate delivery methods in many universities have utilised web-based instruction as a basis for this move because of three perceptions: access by the target market is reasonably significant, it is a cost-effective method of delivery, and it provides global access. Since the mid sixties, the trend for both on-campus teaching and teaching at a distance has been to use behaviourist instructional strategies for subject development, which rely on the development of a set of instructional sequences with predetermined outcomes. These models, whilst applicable in a behaviourist environment, are not serving instructional designers well when the theoretical foundation for the subject outcomes is based on a constructivist approach to learning, since the constructivist group of theories places less emphasis on the sequence of instruction and more emphasis on the design of the learning environment. (Jonassen, 1994. p 35). In a web-based environment this proves to be even more challenging.
Information and communication technology (ICT) has increasingly been bringing about significant changes in education in an ongoing process. The educational reform is not a mere technological issue but rather is based on an empirical grounding in a psychological research approach to learning and instruction. This paper introduces the research work on the application of ICT in education from the psychological perspective in China in the past three decades. The introduction focuses on four important issues with systemic theoretical thinking based on continuous empirical research and innovative practices. The first is dialectic constructivism which has offered some dialectic explanation for knowledge, learning and teaching, and balanced various contradictory aspects of learning and teaching. The second is theoretical thinking and instructional practice about the principles of learning environment design which emphasises learners' higher-order thinking, deep understanding, collaboration and self-regulated learning. The third is a model for the effectiveness and conditions of Computer-Assisted Instruction. The fourth is a framework for the integration of ICT and education and a zigzag training model for teacher training for integration.
An influential view of constructivism in science and mathematicseducational research and practice is that of Ernst von Glasersfeld. It is apeculiarly subjectivist form of constructivism that should not be attractiveto science and mathematics educators concerned with retaining some sort ofrealism that leaves room for objectivity. The subjectivist constructivism ofvon Glasersfeld also becomes entangled in untenable mind/body andsubject/object dualisms. Finally, these dualisms are unnecessary for socialconstructivism. I will provide one example of a social constructivistalternative to social constructivism, that of the pragmatic philosopher JohnDewey. In presenting Dewey‘s position I will appeal to Ockham‘s razor, thatis, the admonition not to multiply entities beyond necessity, to shave offthe needless mentalistic and psychic entities that lead von Glasersfeld intohis subjectivism and dualism.
In outward forms, experimental science isinfinitely varied. In principle, it is simple. We know an object when we knowhow it is made, and we know how it is made in the degree in which weourselves make it.
John Dewey (1925, 1981, p. 319)
The existence of objective knowledge and the possibility of communicating it by means of language have traditionally been taken for granted by educators. Recent developments in the philosophy of science and the historical study of scientific accomplishments have deprived these presuppositions of their former plausibility. Sooner or later, this must have an effect on the teaching of science. In this paper I am presenting a brief outline of an alternative theory of knowing that takes into account the thinking organism''s cognitive isolation from reality. This orientation was proposed by Vico at the beginning of the 18th century, disregarded for two hundred years, and then propounded independently by Piaget as a developmentally grounded constructivist epistemology. The paper focuses specifically on the adaptive function of cognition, Piaget''s scheme theory, the process of communication, and the subjective perspective on social interaction. In the concluding section it then suggests some of the consequences the shift of epistemological presuppositions might have for the practice of teaching.