# Constructivism > [!ai]+ Claude > Here is a brief overview of [[Jean Piaget]]'s constructivism and how [[Seymour Papert]]'s [[constructionism]] extends it: > > Jean Piaget was a influential developmental psychologist who developed a theory of knowledge called constructivism. The key ideas of constructivism are: > > - Children actively construct their understanding of the world through their experiences and interactions. Knowledge is not just passively received. > > - 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. > > - 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. > > Seymour Papert built upon Piaget's constructivism with his theory of constructionism. The key ideas of constructionism are: > > - 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. > > - Knowledge is gained through the active construction of artifacts that are personally meaningful. Papert advocated for instruction through student-directed projects. > > - Constructionism focuses on learning through designing, creating, programming, and debugging. It highlights that knowledge is gained through the process of constructing an artifact. > > 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]]