Radical Constructivism

Radical Constructivism
Constructivism is an approach to learning that argues that learners will not understand knowledge if they are simply taught facts as pre-existing entities. Elliott et al.(2000) define constructivism as ‘an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner’ (p. 256). Rather, each learner must not only come to knowledge on his or her own terms; he or she must actually create the knowledge from scratch. Every learner constructs a knowledge base that he or she then builds on as part of moving through the world. Constructivism's central idea is that human learning is constructed, that learners build new knowledge upon the foundation of previous learning.
This prior knowledge influences what new or modified knowledge an individual will construct from new learning experiences (Phillips, 1995).
Kant’s studies on the integration of rationalism and empiricism indicate kind of constructivism. In his opinion, the subject can not open toward the external world directly. Only by the constructed-internally principal cognitive rules, the subject can organize experiences and develop knowledge. Kant held that our mind does not derive laws from nature but imposes them on it.
Constructivism can be traced back to educational psychology in the work of Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Piaget's theory of cognitive development argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Piaget is the pioneer of the study of cognitive development in children contructivism stating that the individual is the central element in meaning-making.For Piaget, the organisation of knowledge is the result of interaction between an organism exhibiting a conscious intelligence and the environment, an interaction which Piaget characterises as 'adaptation’. Furthermore assimilating causes an individual to incorporate new experiences into the old experiences. By the 1980s the research of Dewey and Vygotsky had blended with Piaget's work in developmental psychology into the broad approach of constructivism.

According to Dewey (1938) learning is a social activity - it is something we do together, in interaction with each other, rather than an abstract concept.Vygotsky (1978), believed that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." For Vygotsky, the environment in which children grow up will influence how they think and what they think about.Thus, all teaching and learning is a matter of sharing and negotiating socially constituted knowledge. Vygotsky (1978) states that cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partner's co-construct knowledge.

Radical constructivism is the idea that all learning must be constructed, and there is no utility or meaning in instruction that is teacher or textbook driven.




A constructivist learner:
•   is at the center of the equation, constructing knowledge rather than passively absorbing it
•       is encouraged to take the responsibility of their own learning and manage their own learning process
•        is equipped with higher level thinking and problem solving skills
•        Interprets his/her own understanding of knowledge and reality
•        learns how to think and be a thinker




References
Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books.
Elliott, S.N., Kratochwill, T.R., Littlefield Cook, J. & Travers, J. (2000). Educational psychology: Effective teaching, effective learning (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill College.
Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism. Educational researcher, 24(7), 5-12.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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