Constructionism

Papert, S. (1980s). Constructionism v. instructionism. [Transcript of speech delivered by video]. Retrieved from http://www.papert.org/articles/const_inst/const_inst1.html

 

            In this transcript of a speech given through a video presentation to educators at a conference in Japan, Papert defines constructionism and instructionism as “two approaches to educational innovation,” describes how students apply mathematics with computer technology to learn mathematical concepts, and encourages audience to “become engaged in inventing the future of learning.”

“Instructionism is the theory that says, "To get better education, we must improve instruction. And if we're going to use computers, we'll make the computers do the instruction." (Part 1, para. 3)

 
“Well, teaching is important, but learning is much more important. And Constructionism means "Giving children good things to do so that they can learn by doing much better than they could before." Now, I think that the new technologies are very, very rich in providing new things for children to do so that they can learn mathematics as part of something real.” (Part 1, para. 4)