# Constructivism
> [!ai]+ Claude
> Here is a brief overview of [[Jean Piaget]]'s constructivism and how [[Seymour Papert]]'s [[constructionism]] extends it:
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> Jean Piaget was a influential developmental psychologist who developed a theory of knowledge called constructivism. The key ideas of constructivism are:
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> - Children actively construct their understanding of the world through their experiences and interactions. Knowledge is not just passively received.
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> - Cognitive development occurs in distinct stages marked by qualitative differences in how children think and reason. These stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
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> - Learning is an active process that requires acting on and making sense of the environment. Children build or 'construct' schema through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.
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> Seymour Papert built upon Piaget's constructivism with his theory of constructionism. The key ideas of constructionism are:
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> - Children construct mental models to understand the world around them. Constructionism emphasises the importance of tangible constructions in the world as a support for those mental models.
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> - Knowledge is gained through the active construction of artifacts that are personally meaningful. Papert advocated for instruction through student-directed projects.
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> - Constructionism focuses on learning through designing, creating, programming, and debugging. It highlights that knowledge is gained through the process of constructing an artifact.
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> So in summary, Piaget's constructivism focuses on schema construction and developmental stages. Papert's constructionism extends this by emphasising the construction of meaningful public artifacts to support learning.
## See also
- [[Psychology]]
- [[Education]]
- [[Pedagogy]]