constructivists
Knowledge-through-experience believers
Constructivists are people who hold that knowledge, meaning, or reality is actively constructed rather than passively received or discovered.
In education, constructivists believe learners build understanding through experience rather than absorbing transmitted facts.
In international relations, constructivists argue that world politics is shaped by shared ideas, norms, and identities rather than purely material forces.
In art history, constructivists were members of an early 20th-century movement emphasizing geometric abstraction and industrial materials.
Acquiring reasoning abilities over time
- schemaOrganized representational structure
- assimilationAbsorbing into a whole
- accommodationShelter or housing provided
- equilibrationReaching a balanced state
stages · sensorimotor · preoperational · object permanence · conservation · egocentrism · adaptation · disequilibrium
Temporary exterior work platform
- social interactionCommunication between people
- mediationIntervention to resolve conflict
- internalizationAbsorbing ideas as one's own
- apprenticeshipLearning trade through employment
Prioritizing pupils in education
- inquiry-basedDriven by questioning
- hands-on learningEducation via direct participation
- active learningEducation through direct participation
- discovery learningTeaching through self-directed exploration
project-based · formative assessment · prior knowledge · meaning-making · learning communities · facilitation · metacognition
Experience shaped by individual perception
- meaning-makingInterpreting life's events personally
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- anti-foundationalismDenial of certain foundations
hermeneutics · pragmatism · phenomenology · multiple perspectives · justification · belief systems · paradigms · worldviews
Shared background influencing interpretation
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- languageSystem of symbolic communication
- identity formationBuilding a sense of self
- cultural normsSociety's accepted behaviors
cognitive development
Acquiring reasoning abilities over time
- schemaOrganized representational structure
- assimilationAbsorbing into a whole
- accommodationShelter or housing provided
equilibration · stages · sensorimotor · preoperational · object permanence · conservation · egocentrism · adaptation · disequilibrium · maturation
scaffolding
Temporary exterior work platform
- social interactionCommunication between people
- mediationIntervention to resolve conflict
- internalizationAbsorbing ideas as one's own
student-centered
Prioritizing pupils in education
- inquiry-basedDriven by questioning
- hands-on learningEducation via direct participation
- active learningEducation through direct participation
discovery learning · project-based · formative assessment · prior knowledge · meaning-making · learning communities · facilitation · metacognition
subjective reality
Experience shaped by individual perception
- meaning-makingInterpreting life's events personally
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
anti-foundationalism · hermeneutics · pragmatism · phenomenology · multiple perspectives · justification · belief systems · paradigms · worldviews · understanding
cultural context
Shared background influencing interpretation
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- languageSystem of symbolic communication
- identity formationBuilding a sense of self
- Epistemologistsempiricists, rationalists, positivists, instrumentalists, conventionalists
- Pedagogistsprogressivists, traditionalists, essentialists, reconstructionists
- Psychology SchoolsFreudians, behaviorists, psychoanalysts, humanists, functionalists
- art movementsPop Art, pop art, Impressionism, impressionism, Surrealism
constructivistsobjectivists
Rational egoism adherents
behaviorists · realists · neorealists · positivists · traditionalists