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Constructivism is a view in the
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
that maintains that scientific knowledge is constructed by the
scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many " sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are als ...
, which seeks to measure and construct
models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
of the natural world. According to the constructivist,
natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
, therefore, consists of mental constructs that aim to explain sensory experience and measurements. According to constructivists, the world is independent of human minds, but knowledge of the world is always a human and social construction. Constructivism opposes the philosophy of objectivism, embracing the belief that a human can come to know the truth about the natural world not mediated by scientific approximations with different degrees of validity and
accuracy Accuracy and precision are two measures of '' observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements ( observations or readings) are to their '' true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each o ...
. According to constructivists, there is no single valid
methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for br ...
in science but rather a diversity of useful methods.


Etymology

The term originates from
psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
,
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
, and
social constructivism Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge according to which human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. Like social constructionism, social constructivism states th ...
. The expression "constructivist epistemology" was first used by Jean Piaget, 1967, with plural form in the famous article from the "Encyclopédie de la Pléiade" ''Logique et connaissance scientifique'' or "Logic and Scientific knowledge", an important text for
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
. He refers directly to the mathematician
Brouwer Brouwer (also Brouwers and de Brouwer) is a Dutch and Flemish surname. The word ''brouwer'' means 'beer brewer'. Brouwer * Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638), Flemish painter * Alexander Brouwer (b. 1989), Dutch beach volleyball player * Andries Brou ...
and his ''radical constructivism''. The terms ''Constructionism'' and ''constructivism'' are often, but should not be, used interchangeably. Constructionism is an approach to learning that was developed by Papert; the approach was greatly influenced by his work with Piaget, but it is very different. Constructionism involves the creation of a product to show learning. It is believed by constructivists that race, sexuality, and
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
, as well as tables, chairs, and atoms, are socially constructed.


History

Constructivism stems from a number of philosophies. For instance, early development can be attributed to the thought of Greek philosophers such as
Heraclitus Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrot ...
(''Everything flows, nothing stands still''),
Protagoras Protagoras (; el, Πρωταγόρας; )Guthrie, p. 262–263. was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue '' Protagoras'', Plato credits him with inventing t ...
(''Man is the measure of all things''). Protagoras is clearly represented by Plato and hence the tradition as a relativist. The Pyrrhonist skeptics have also been so interpreted. (Although this is more contentious.) Following the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
and the Enlightenment, with the phenomenology and the event, Kant gives a decisive contradiction to Cartesians' epistemology that has grown since Descartes despite Giambattista Vico calling in ''Scienza nuova'' ("New Science") in 1725 that "the norm of the truth is to have made it". The Enlightenment's claim of the universality of
Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
as the only true source of knowledge generated a Romantic reaction involving an emphasis on the separate natures of races, species, sexes, and types of human. * Gaston Bachelard, who is known for his physics psychoanalysis and the definition of an "epistemologic obstacle" that can disturb a changing of scientific paradigm as the one that occurred between classical mechanics and Einstein's relativism, opens the teleological way with "The meditation on the object takes the form of the project". In the following famous saying, he insists that the ways in which questions are posed determine the trajectory of scientific movement, before summarizing "nothing is given, all is constructed": "And, irrespective of what one might assume, in the life of a science, problems do not arise by themselves. It is precisely this that marks out a problem as being of the true scientific spirit: all knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no questions, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed.", Gaston Bachelard (''La formation de l'esprit scientifique'', 1934). While quantum mechanics is starting to grow, Gaston Bachelard makes a call for new science in ''Le nouvel esprit scientifique'' (The New Scientific Spirit). * Paul Valéry, a French poet (20th century) reminds us of the importance of representations and action: "We have always sought explanations when it was only representations that we could seek to invent", "My hand feels touched as well as it touches; reality says this, and nothing more". * This link with action, which could be called a "philosophy of action", was well represented by Spanish poet
Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...
: ''Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar''. ("Traveler, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk.") *
Ludwik Fleck Ludwik Fleck (11 July 1896 – 5 June 1961) was a Polish Jewish and Israeli physician and biologist who did important work in epidemic typhus in Lwów, Poland, with Rudolf WeiglT. Tansey (2014) ''Typhus and tyranny'', ''Nature'' 511(7509), 2 ...
establishes scientific constructivism by introducing the notions of ''thought collective'' (''Denkkollektiv''), and ''thought style'' (''Denkstil''), through which the evolution of science is much more understandable because the research objects can be described in terms of the assumptions (thought style) that are shared for practical but also inherently social reasons, or just because any thought collective tends to preserve itself. These notions have been drawn upon by
Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book '' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term ''paradig ...
. * Norbert Wiener gives another defense of
teleology Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...
in 1943 ''Behavior, Intention and Teleology'' and is one of the creators of cybernetics. * Jean Piaget, after the creation in 1955 of the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, first uses the expression "constructivist epistemologies" (see above). According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget is "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing" (in ''An Exposition of Constructivism: Why Some Like it Radical'', 1990) and "the most prolific constructivist in our century" (in ''Aspects of Radical Constructivism'', 1996). * J. L. Austin is associated with the view that speech is not only passively describing a given reality, but it can change the (social) reality to which it is applied through speech acts. * Herbert A. Simon called "the sciences of the artificial" these new sciences (cybernetics, cognitive sciences, decision and organization sciences) that, because of the abstraction of their object (information, communication, decision), cannot match with the classical epistemology and its experimental method and refutability. *
Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include ''Steps to ...
and his book ''Steps to an Ecology of Mind'' (1972). *
George Kelly (psychologist) George Alexander Kelly (April 28, 1905 – March 6, 1967) was an American psychologist, therapist, educator and personality theorist. He is considered the father of cognitive clinical psychology and is best known for his theory of personality, ...
and his book ''The Psychology of Personal Constructs'' (1955). *
Heinz von Foerster Heinz von Foerster ( German spelling: Heinz von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of Second-order cybernetics. He was twice ...
, invited by Jean Piaget, presented "Objects: tokens for (Eigen-)behaviors" in 1976 in Geneva at a genetic epistemology symposium, a text that would become a reference for constructivist epistemology. His epistemological arguments were summarized in the book '' The Dream of Reality'' by Lynn Segal. *
Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields ...
, who supervised in 1984 the publication of ''The Invented Reality: How Do We Know What We Believe We Know? (Contributions to Constructivism)''. * Ernst von Glasersfeld, has promoted since the end of the 70s ''radical constructivism'' (see below). * Edgar Morin and his book ''La méthode'' (1977–2004, six volumes). * Mioara Mugur-Schächter is also a quantum mechanics specialist. * Jean-Louis Le Moigne for his encyclopedic work on constructivist epistemology and his General Systems theory (se
"Le Moigne's Defense of Constructivism"
by Ernst von Glasersfeld). *
Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Biography Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's ...
who developed "operative constructivism" in the course of developing his theory of autopoietic social systems, drawing on the works of (among others) Bachelard, Valéry, Bateson, von Foerster, von Glasersfeld, and Morin.


Constructivism and sciences


Social constructivism in sociology

One version of ''social constructivism'' contends that categories of knowledge and reality are actively created by social relationships and interactions. These interactions also alter the way in which scientific episteme is organized. Social activity presupposes human interaction, and in the case of social construction, utilizing
semiotic Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
resources ( meaning-making and signifying) with reference to social structures and institutions. Several traditions use the term ''Social Constructivism'':
psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
(after Lev Vygotsky),
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
(after Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, themselves influenced by
Alfred Schütz Alfred Schutz (; born Alfred Schütz, ; 1899–1959) was an Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist whose work bridged sociological and phenomenological traditions. Schutz is gradually being recognized as one of the 20th century's leadi ...
), sociology of knowledge ( David Bloor),
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
of
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
( Sal Restivo),
philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in people' ...
(
Paul Ernest Paul Ernest is a contributor to the social constructivist philosophy of mathematics. Life Paul Ernest is currently emeritus professor of the philosophy of mathematics education at Exeter University, UK. He is best known for his work on philos ...
).
Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
's later philosophy can be seen as a foundation for ''social constructivism'', with its key theoretical concepts of ''language games'' embedded in ''forms of life''.


Constructivism in philosophy of science

Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book '' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term ''paradig ...
argued that changes in scientists' views of reality not only contain subjective elements but result from group dynamics, "revolutions" in scientific practice, and changes in "paradigms". As an example, Kuhn suggested that the Sun-centric Copernican "revolution" replaced the Earth-centric views of Ptolemy not because of empirical failures but because of a new "paradigm" that exerted control over what scientists felt to be the more fruitful way to pursue their goals. The view of reality as accessible only through models was called
model-dependent realism Model-dependent realism is a view of scientific inquiry that focuses on the role of scientific models of phenomena. It claims reality should be interpreted based upon these models, and where several models overlap in describing a particular subject ...
by Stephen Hawking and
Leonard Mlodinow Leonard Mlodinow (; November 26, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician, screenwriter and author. In physics, he is known for his work on the large N expansion, a method of approximating the spectrum of atoms based on the ...
. While not rejecting an independent reality, model-dependent realism says that we can know only an approximation of it provided by the intermediary of models. These models evolve over time as guided by scientific inspiration and experiments. In the field of the social sciences, constructivism as an epistemology urges that researchers reflect upon the paradigms that may be underpinning their research, and in the light of this that they become more open to considering other ways of interpreting any results of the research. Furthermore, the focus is on presenting results as negotiable constructs rather than as models that aim to "represent" social realities more or less accurately. Norma Romm, in her book Accountability in Social Research (2001), argues that social researchers can earn trust from participants and wider audiences insofar as they adopt this orientation and invite inputs from others regarding their inquiry practices and the results thereof.


Constructivism and psychology

In
psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
, constructivism refers to many schools of thought that, though extraordinarily different in their techniques (applied in fields such as
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
and
psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...
), are all connected by a common critique of previous standard objectivist approaches. Constructivist psychology schools share assumptions about the active constructive nature of human knowledge. In particular, the critique is aimed at the "associationist" postulate of empiricism, "by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality." In contrast, "constructivism is an epistemological premise grounded on the assertion that, in the act of knowing, it is the human mind that actively gives meaning and order to that reality to which it is responding". The constructivist psychologies theorize about and investigate how human beings create systems for meaningfully understanding their worlds and experiences.


Constructivism and education

Joe L. Kincheloe Joe Lyons Kincheloe (December 14, 1950 – December 19, 2008) was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project fo ...
has published numerous social and educational books on critical constructivism (2001, 2005, 2008), a version of constructivist epistemology that places emphasis on the exaggerated influence of political and cultural power in the construction of knowledge, consciousness, and views of reality. In the contemporary mediated electronic era, Kincheloe argues, dominant modes of power have never exerted such influence on human affairs. Coming from a critical pedagogical perspective, Kincheloe argues that understanding a critical constructivist epistemology is central to becoming an educated person and to the institution of just social change. Kincheloe's characteristics of critical constructivism: *Knowledge is socially constructed: World and information co-construct one another *Consciousness is a social construction *Political struggles: Power plays an exaggerated role in the production of knowledge and consciousness *The necessity of understanding consciousness—even though it does not lend itself to traditional reductionistic modes of measurability *The importance of uniting logic and emotion in the process of knowledge and producing knowledge *The inseparability of the knower and the known *The centrality of the perspectives of oppressed peoples—the value of the insights of those who have suffered as the result of existing social arrangements *The existence of multiple realities: Making sense of a world far more complex than we originally imagined *Becoming humble knowledge workers: Understanding our location in the tangled web of reality *Standpoint epistemology: Locating ourselves in the web of reality, we are better equipped to produce our own knowledge *Constructing practical knowledge for critical social action *Complexity: Overcoming reductionism *Knowledge is always entrenched in a larger process *The centrality of interpretation: Critical hermeneutics *The new frontier of classroom knowledge: Personal experiences intersecting with pluriversal information *Constructing new ways of being human: Critical ontology


Constructivist approaches


Critical constructivism

A series of articles published in the journal ''Critical Inquiry'' (1991) served as a manifesto for the movement of critical constructivism in various disciplines, including the
natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
s. Not only truth and reality, but also "
evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...
", "
document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
", "
experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...
", "
fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scie ...
", "proof", and other central categories of empirical research (in
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
,
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...
,
statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
,
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
, law, etc.) reveal their contingent character as a social and ideological construction. Thus, a "realist" or "rationalist" interpretation is subjected to criticism. Kincheloe's political and pedagogical notion (above) has emerged as a central articulation of the concept.


Cultural constructivism

Cultural constructivism asserts that knowledge and reality are a product of their cultural context, meaning that two independent cultures will likely form different observational methodologies.


Genetic epistemology

James Mark Baldwin invented this expression, which was later popularized by Jean Piaget. From 1955 to 1980, Piaget was Director of the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva.


Radical constructivism

Ernst von Glasersfeld was a prominent proponent of radical constructivism. This claims that knowledge is not a commodity that is transported from one mind into another. Rather, it is up to the individual to "link up" specific interpretations of experiences and ideas with their own reference of what is possible and viable. That is, the process of constructing knowledge, of understanding, is dependent on the individual's subjective interpretation of their active experience, not what "actually" occurs. Understanding and acting are seen by radical constructivists not as dualistic processes but "circularly conjoined". Radical constructivism is closely related to second-order cybernetics. '' Constructivist Foundations'' is a free online journal publishing peer-reviewed articles on radical constructivism by researchers from multiple domains.


Relational constructivism

Relational constructivism can be perceived as a relational consequence of radical constructivism. In contrary to social constructivism, it picks up the epistemological threads. It maintains the radical constructivist idea that humans cannot overcome their limited conditions of reception (i.e., ''self-referentially operating cognition''). Therefore, humans are not able to come to objective conclusions about the world. In spite of the subjectivity of human constructions of reality, relational constructivism focuses on the relational conditions applying to human perceptional processes. Björn Kraus puts it in a nutshell:


Social Constructivism


Criticisms

Numerous criticisms have been levelled at Constructivism. The most common one is that it either explicitly advocates or implicitly reduces to relativism. Another criticism of constructivism is that it holds that the concepts of two different social formations be entirely different and incommensurate. This being the case, it is impossible to make comparative judgments about statements made according to each worldview. This is because the criteria of judgment will themselves have to be based on some worldview or other. If this is the case, then it brings into question how communication between them about the truth or falsity of any given statement could be established. The
Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...
ian philosopher Gavin KitchingKitching, G. 2008. ''The Trouble with Theory: The Educational Costs of Postmodernism''. Penn State University Press. argues that constructivists usually implicitly presuppose a
deterministic Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and cons ...
view of language, which severely constrains the minds and use of words by members of societies: they are not just "constructed" by language on this view but are literally "determined" by it. Kitching notes the contradiction here: somehow, the advocate of constructivism is not similarly constrained. While other individuals are controlled by the dominant concepts of society, the advocate of constructivism can transcend these concepts and see through them.


See also

* Autopoiesis *
Consensus reality Consensus reality is that which is generally agreed to be reality, based on a consensus view. The appeal to consensus arises from the idea that humans do not fully understand or agree upon the nature of knowledge or ontology, often making it unce ...
* Constructivism in international relations * Cultural pluralism * Epistemological pluralism *
Tinkerbell effect The Tinkerbell effect is an American English expression describing things that are thought to exist only because people believe in them. The effect is named after Tinker Bell, the fairy in the play '' Peter Pan'', who is revived from near death by ...
*
Map–territory relation The map–territory relation is the relationship between an object and a representation of that object, as in the relation between a geographical territory and a map of it. Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski remarked that ...
*
Meaning making In psychology, meaning-making is the process of how people construe, understand, or make sense of life events, relationships, and the self. The term is widely used in constructivist approaches to counseling psychology and psychotherapy, especi ...
* Metacognition * Ontological pluralism *
Personal construct psychology Within personality psychology, personal construct theory (PCT) or personal construct psychology (PCP) is a theory of personality and cognition developed by the American psychologist George Kelly in the 1950s.For example: (first published 1955 ...
* Perspectivism * Pragmatism


References


Further reading

* Devitt, M. 1997. ''Realism and Truth'', Princeton University Press. * Gillett, E. 1998. "Relativism and the Social-constructivist Paradigm", '' Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology'', Vol.5, No.1, pp. 37–48 * Ernst von Glasersfeld 1987. ''The construction of knowledge, Contributions to conceptual semantics''. * Ernst von Glasersfeld 1995. ''Radical constructivism: A way of knowing and learning''. *
Joe L. Kincheloe Joe Lyons Kincheloe (December 14, 1950 – December 19, 2008) was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project fo ...
2001. ''Getting beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Science in the Twenty-First Century'', NY: Peter Lang. *
Joe L. Kincheloe Joe Lyons Kincheloe (December 14, 1950 – December 19, 2008) was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project fo ...
2005. ''Critical Constructivism Primer'', NY: Peter Lang. *
Joe L. Kincheloe Joe Lyons Kincheloe (December 14, 1950 – December 19, 2008) was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project fo ...
2008. ''Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy'', Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. * Kitching, G. 2008. ''The Trouble with Theory: The Educational Costs of Postmodernism'', Penn State University Press. * Björn Kraus 2014: Introducing a model for analyzing the possibilities of power, help and control. In: Social Work and Society. International Online Journal. Retrieved 3 April 2019.(http://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/393) * Björn Kraus 2015: The Life We Live and the Life We Experience: Introducing the Epistemological Difference between "Lifeworld" (Lebenswelt) and "Life Conditions" (Lebenslage). In: Social Work and Society. International Online Journal. Retrieved 27 August 2018.(http://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/438). * Björn Kraus 2019: Relational constructivism and relational social work. In: Webb, Stephen, A. (edt.) The Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work. Routledge international Handbooks. London and New York: Taylor & Francis Ltd. *
Friedrich Kratochwil Friedrich Kratochwil (born 1944 in Břeclav, Moravia) is a German university professor who studied at the University of Munich before migrating to the United States, then subsequently returning to Europe. He received a PhD from Princeton Univer ...
: Constructivism: what it is (not) and how it matters, in Donatella della Porta &
Michael Keating Michael, Mike or Mickey Keating may refer to: Politics * Michael Keating (Irish politician) (born 1946), Fine Gael then Progressive Democrats TD from Dublin * Michael Keating (Manitoba politician) * Michael Keating (political scientist) Mic ...
(eds.) 2008, ''Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences: A Pluralist Perspective'', Cambridge University Press, 80–98. * Mariyani-Squire, E. 1999. "Social Constructivism: A flawed Debate over Conceptual Foundations", ''
Capitalism, Nature, Socialism ''Capitalism Nature Socialism'' is an academic journal founded by James O'Connor and Barbara Laurence in 1988. It is published by Taylor and Francis. It publishes articles on political ecology, with an ecosocialist Eco-socialism (also know ...
'', vol.10, no.4, pp. 97–125 * Matthews, M.R. (ed.) 1998.
Constructivism in Science Education: A Philosophical Examination
', Kluwer Academic Publishers. * Edgar Morin 1986, ''La Méthode, Tome 3, La Connaissance de la connaissance''. * Nola, R. 1997. "Constructivism in Science and in Science Education: A Philosophical Critique", ''
Science & Education ''Science & Education: Contributions from History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science and Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It covers the roles and uses of history and philosophy of s ...
'', Vol.6, no.1-2, pp. 55–83. * Jean Piaget (ed.) 1967. ''Logique et connaissance scientifique'', Encyclopédie de la Pléiade, vol. 22. Editions Gallimard. * Herbert A. Simon 1969. '' The Sciences of the Artificial'' (3rd Edition MIT Press 1996). * Slezak, P. 2000. "A Critique of Radical Social Constructivism", in D.C. Philips, (ed.) 2000, ''Constructivism in Education: Opinions and Second Opinions on Controversial Issues'', The University of Chicago Press. * Suchting, W.A. 1992. "Constructivism Deconstructed", ''
Science & Education ''Science & Education: Contributions from History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science and Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It covers the roles and uses of history and philosophy of s ...
'', vol.1, no.3, pp. 223–254 *
Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields ...
1984. ''The Invented Reality: How Do We Know What We Believe We Know? (Contributions to Constructivism)'', W W. Norton. * Tom Rockmore 2008. ''On Constructivist Epistemology''. * Romm, N.R.A. 2001. ''Accountability in Social Research'', Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. https://www.springer.com/social+sciences/book/978-0-306-46564-2


External links


Journal of Constructivist Psychology

Radical Constructivism

Constructivist Foundations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constructivist Epistemology Epistemological theories Epistemology of science Metatheory of science Philosophical analogies Social constructionism Social epistemology Systems theory Theories of truth