ERIC ED381352: Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and Learning. Studies in Mathematics Education Series: 6.

231 Pages·1995·4.4 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 381 352
SE 056 049
AUTHOR
von Glasersfeld, Ernst
TITLE
Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and
Learning. Studies in Mathematics Education Series:
6.
REPORT NO
ISBN-0-7507-0387-3
PUB DATE
95
NOTE
231p.
AVAILABLE FROM
Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road,
Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007.
PUB TYPE
Books (010)
Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers,
Essays, etc.)
(120)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC10 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*Concept Formation; *Constructivism (Learning);
Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries;
*History; Language Role; *Mathematics Education
IDENTIFIERS
*Piaget (Jean); Radical Constructivism
ABSTRACT
This book gives a definitive theoretical account of
radical constiructivism., a theory of knowing that provides a
pragmatic approach to questions about reality, truth, language and
human understanding. The chapter are:
(1) "Growing up Constructivist:
Languages and Thoughtful People," (2) "Unpopular Philosophical Ideas:
A History in Quotations," (3) "Piaget's Constructivist Theory of
Knowing," (4) "The Construction of Concepts," (5) "Reflection and
Abstraction," (6) "Constructing Agents: The Self and Others," (7) "On
Language, Meaning, and Communication," (8) "The Cybernetic
Connection," (9) "Units, Plurality and Number," and (10) "To
Encourage Students' Conceptual Constructing." Each chapter contains
notes. (Contains 218 references.) (MKR)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
a,Aical
,,onstructivis
of Knowing
ay
A
and Learning
Glasersfel
von
Ernst
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
U
Office of Educational Research and improvement
ED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
T s document has been reProduCed es
eceivect from see person or organisation
Originating it
"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
O Minor changes have been mad* to improve
reproduction Quality
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Points of view Of opmions stated m this docu
PM;
merit do not noceasorily represent official
OERI position or polity
GAVrkl_
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)"
&Zs The Falmer Press
2
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Radical Constr activism
3
Studies in Mathematics Education Series
Series Editor
Paul Ernest
School of Education
University of Exeter
Exeter
The Philosophy of Mathematics Education
I
Paul Ernest
Understanding in Mathematics
2
Anna Sierpinska
Mathematics Education and Philosophy: An International Perspective
3
Edited by Paul Ernest
Constructing Mathematical Knowledge: Epistemology and Mathematics
4
Education
Edited by Paul Ernest
Investigating Mathematics Teaching: A Constructivist Enquiry
5
Barbara jaworski
Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and Learning
6
Ernst von Glasersfeld
4
Studies in Mathematics Education Series: 6
Radical Constructivism:
A Way of Knowing and Learning
Ernst von Glasersfeld
The calmer Press
(A member of the Taylor & Francis Group)
London * Washington, D.C.
5
..111
UK
The Palmer Press, 4 John Street, London WC1N 2ET
USA
The Palmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite
101, Bristol, PA 19007
(1) E. von Glasersfeld 1995
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted
any form or by any means, electronic,
in
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writ-
ing from the Publisher.
First published in 1995
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicaticn Data
are
available on request
ISBN 0 7507 0387 3 cased
Jacket design by Caroline Archer
Typeset in 10/12 pt Bembo by
Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd., Hong Kong.
Printed in Great Britain by Burgess Science Press, Basingstoke
on paper
which has a specified pH value on final paper manufacture of
not less than
7.5 and is therefore 'acid free'.
Epigraph
The only given is
the way of taking.
Roland Barthes
Objectivity is the delusion that
.
observations could be made
without an observer.
Heinz von Foerster
7
Contents
Preface by Series Editor
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Growing up Constructivist: Languages and
Chapter 1
Thoughtful People
1
Which Language Tells It 'as It Is'?
2
3
The Wrong Time in Vienna
4
Growing Roots in Dublin
6
Interdisciplinary Education
7
A Close Look at Meanings
8
The American Connection
9
Introduction to Psychology
Collaboration with a Chimpanzee
11
12
Discovering Piaget
From Mental Operations to the Construction
13
of Reality
15
A Decisive Friendship
17
Teaching Experiments
18
The Spreading of Constructivist Ideas
Retirement and a New Beginning
19
20
Support from Physics and Philosophy of Science
Unpopular Philosophical Ideas: A History
Chapter 2
24
in Quotations
25
Objectivity Put in Question
26
The Pre-Socratics
27
Theological Insights
28
Modern Science Widens the Rift
30
A Failure and an Achievement of Descartes
31
Locke's Forgotten Reflection
The Exaggeration of the 'Blank Slate'
33
A Reinterpretation of Berkeley
iii
7.=
Contents
Hume's Deconstruction of Perceptual Relations
34
Bentham and Vico
Pioneers of Conceptual
Analysis
36
Kant's 'Transcendental Enterprise'
38
A Re-assessment of Causality
41
New Fuel for Instrumentalism
42
Hypotheses and Fictions
45
The Foundation of Language Analysis
46
Conclusion
48
Chapter 3
Piaget's Constructivist Theory of Knowing
53
The Biological Premise
54
Active Construction
56
Beginnings
57
The Construction of Experiential Reality
58
Individual Identity
60
Assimilation
62
From Reflexes to Scheme Theory
64
Accommodation
65
The Concept of Equilibration
67
Learning
68
Different Types of Abstraction
69
Stages of Development
71
The Observer and the Observed
72
Experience and Reality
73
Conclusion
74
Chapter 4
The Construction of Concepts
76
Analysis of Operations
79
The Concept of Change
80
The Concept of Motion
82
Generating Individual Identity
84
Space and Time
86
Conclusion
87
Chapter 5
Reflection and Abstraction
89
Reflection
90
Abstraction
91
Generalization
92
The Notion of Re-presentation
93
Re-presenting Past Experiences
94
Recognition
95
The Need of an Agent
96
Inn
Contents
98
Meaning as Re-presentation
99
ThePower of Symbols
Piaget's Theory of Abstraction
100
Form and Content
101
Four Kinds of Abstraction
103
The Question of Awareness
105
Operational Awareness
108
109
Conclusion
110
Philosophical Postscript
Constructing Agents: Tl:e Self and Others
113
Chapter 6
115
The Illusion of Encoded Information
116
The Reality of Experience
Analysis of Empirical Construction
118
The Question of Objectivity
119
Corroboration by Others
120
The Elusive Self
121
The Notion of Environment
123
The Perceived Self
124
Sensory Clues
125
126
Reflected Images
The Social Self
126
128
Conclusion
On Language, Meaning, and Communication
129
Chapter 7
130
The Semantic Basis
Language Games
133
The Construction of Meaning
134
Language and Reality
136
Theory of Communication
138
How We May Come to Use Language
139
To Understand Understanding
141
Why Communication? Why Language?
143
The Cybernetic Connection
Chapter 8
146
Declaration of the American Society for Cybernetics
146
Feedback, Induction, and Epistemology
150
152
A Learning Mechanism
Cognitive Development
153
The Inductive Basis of Instrumental Learning
153
Negative Feedback as 'Information'
155
The Nature of Hypothetical Models
157
ix
X10