Constructivist Approaches

Major Assumptions

1. Must focus on the interaction between the child and culture.

   • Identify and analyze aspects of the culture

   • Analyze child's behavior in the culture

2. Culture shapes thought
   • Representations and symbols of culture influence thought

   • Tools of the culture influence or direct thought and action.

3. Mental structures and activity influence and modify culture

   • Culture is dynamic and ever changing

4. World is human construction
   • Human interpretations, organizations, transformations create our view of the world.

Important Concepts

1. Formal vs Spontaneous Concepts
   • Formal - Acquired through structured, class instruction; culturally agreed upon concepts.

   • Spontaneous - Based on child's everyday activity and reflections on the world.

     Example: Vosniadou's research examining the development of children's conceptions of the earth (flat earth - pancake (combining spontaneous notion of flat with learned formal notion of round earth), dual-earth (one round that is depicted on globes, shots from moon; one flat that we live on), hollow earth (live inside a hollow sphere)

     Example shows how spontaneous and formal notions meet and shift the child's concepts.

2. Zone of Proximal Development
   • Psychological space between child's conceptual understanding and their potential level of understanding with support.

   • Scaffolding - adult/peer support the learning of more formal concept.

     Example: Bruner's Spiral curriculum. Concepts revisited at higher levels of abstraction or formalism as children progress through the curriculum.