Constructivism and Education

by Edited by Marie Larochelle , Nadine Bednarz , Jim Garrison

• ISBN13: 9780521621359
• ISBN10: 0521621356
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This international and interdisciplinary collection presents and discusses the many issues and educational practices that are touched on by constructivism. Drawing on perspectives from a range of different fields (ethics, mathematics education, philosophy, social psychology, science education, social studies), this book invites us to reposition ourselves in relation to the major currents that have influenced education in this century, namely pragmatism, genetic epistemology, and social interactionism. The essays call for new reflection on the questions which are central to the project of education and which, in particular, involve the validity of knowledge and types of knowledge, the compartmentalization of school subjects, the mediating role of teachers, and, above all, the ends of education. In so doing, this book re-launches the discussion on constructivism's potential for the social empowerment of groups and individuals.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii	(4)
List of contributors	xi
I. Introduction	3	(20)
1 Constructivism and education: beyond epistemological correctness	3	(20)
Marie Larochelle
Nadine Bednarz
II. From epistemological constructivism to teaching: a variety of views	23	(40)
2 Why constructivism must be radical	23	(6)
Ernst von Glasersfeld
3 An epistemology for didactics: speculations on situating a concept	29	(14)
Albert Morf
4 Toward a pragmatic social constructivism	43	(20)
Jim Garrison
III. Teaching within the constructivist mode: practices and promises	63	(132)
5 Individual construction, mathematical acculturation, and the classroom community	63	(18)
Paul Cobb
Marcela Perlwitz
Diana Underwood-Gregg
6 The construction of answers to insoluble problems	81	(23)
Maria-Luisa Schubauer-Leoni
Ladislas Ntamakiliro
7 Voice and perspective: hearing epistemological innovation in students' words	104	(17)
Jere Confrey
8 Constructivism-in-action: students examine their idea of science	121	(18)
Jacques Desautels
9 Constructivism and ethical justification	139	(17)
Gerard Fourez
10 Social studies, trivial constructivism, and the politics of social knowledge	156	(17)
Stephen C. Fleury
11 Practical knowledge and school knowledge: a constructivist representation of education	173	(22)
Yvon Pepin
IV. The mediating role of teachers and teacher education	195	(58)
12 Sociocultural perspectives on the teaching and learning of science	195	(18)
Kenneth Tobin
13 Remarks on the education of elementary teachers	213	(20)
Heinrich Bauersfeld
14 Constructivism as a referent for reforming science education	233	(20)
Michael L. Bentley
V. Conclusion	253	(18)
15 Critical-constructivism and the sociopolitical agenda	253	(18)
Jacques Desautels
Jim Garrison
Stephen C. Fleury
Notes	271	(8)
References	279	(24)
Index	303