Constructivism as paradigmatic commitment

The term constructivism is used in several ways.

Of particular relevance to educational researchers:

1. Constructivism as a label associated with a research paradigm

The term constructivist is sometimes used as a referent for paradigmatic commitments, in particular to refer to research that is interpretivist in nature.

Piaget (1970/1972: 17) considered his work developing “an account of an epistemology that is naturalist without being positivist…and that above all sees knowledge as a continuous construction”

Piaget, J. (1970/1972). The Principles of Genetic Epistemology (W. Mays, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Kvale refers to the research interview as a ’construction site’:

“The qualitative research interview is a construction site for knowledge. An interview is literally an inter view, an inter-change of views between two persons conversing about a theme of mutual interest.” (Kvale, 1996: 14)

Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications

2. Constructivism as a theoretical perspective on teaching and learning

However constructivism is also a label given to a range of theories about student learning and pedagogy. So constructivism may be central to a conceptual framework informing a study into teaching and /or learning, and could be adopted as a theoretical perspective in such a study.

Index of topics