What is Constructionism?
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Welcome!

What is Constructionism? How does it apply to education? How is it different from Constuctivism? Those questions will be answered in the following website. As you navigate through these pages keep in mind the technological method of problem solving and how it can be used in your classroom.

First- What is the difference between constructivism and constructionism?
 
Constructivism starts in the head. Jean Piaget believed that knowledge is constructed by the learner. Everyone experiences things in a different way therefore digesting information differently. For example if  a girl was sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture about women's rights  she would reflect back to her previous knowledge of the subject and compare the new information with the old. She may not even take the new information as valuable because it doesn't fit with her belief systems. She may also combine the two and come up with a new conclusion. A Male student may be hearing  the information for first time and may not even be able to swallow the ideas. He may not believe women should have rights. The information may not be meaningful to him.

Constructionism?

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Constructionism starts with the hands and  is a way of teaching in the classroom that builds on the idea of Piaget's student Seymour Papert. Papert believes that when a student constructs something that solves a problem the student is more engaged in the activity and learns how to solve problems through a series of steps know as The technology method of problem solving. Papert took a theory by Piaget and in a sense constructed a classroom method.

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Marina Bers in Blocks to Robots  descibes how the technological method of problem solving in the classroom can be used.