Lecture 1 (23/03/2023)
The first two articles that I ask you to read aim to frame the concepts of constructiVism (the V word) and constructioNism (the N word).
- Kafai, Y. Constructionism. Chapter 3 of The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. Cambridge University Press. (2006) (11 pagine)
- Ackermann, E. Piaget’s constructivism, Papert’s constructionism: What’s the difference? Future of learning group publication, 5(3), 438. (2001) (10 page)
Once you have read the first two articles, I ask you to take a look at these articles written by Papert. They are light articles where you can find some of his most famous expressions.
- The preface of the book “Mindstorms — Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas” by Seymour Papert, “Gears of my childhood”. (1 page)
- “Hard Fun”, Article for the Bangor News (1 page)
- “Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Lab”, from the Ph.D. of Gary Steger (1 page)
- “What’s the big idea? Toward a pedagogy of idea power”, IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL 39, N 3,4, 2000 (9 pages)
- If you have time, take a look at the first three pages (9–10-11) of“A word for learning”, Chapter 1 of “Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in A Digital World,” Y. Kafai, M. Resnick, eds. Routledge (2012) (of course, if you feel like it, feel free to read it all!)
Finally, we should have a look at the work of Mitch Resnick, the creator of Scratch:
- Give P’s a chance: Projects, Peers, Passion, Play is a summary of his book (8 pages)
Points for reasoning/discussion:
- What are the “gears of your childhood”? Do you remember episodes of significant learning motivated by your particular interests?
- For those who are used to talking about algorithms, theorems, and proofs, much of the content of these articles may seem like high-level chatter. We expect a more precise set of instructions, such as “How do I bring these concepts into the classroom?” I ask you:
- Can you identify methodologies and suggestions taken from these texts that can be immediately applied?
- Can you identify broader methodologies and suggestions?
- Can you tell us about any significant examples of teachers who, even unconsciously, followed this school of thought?
- What is your opinion on Papert’s thinking?
- I would also like you to reflect on Papert’s particular style regarding the results of his interventions. Many anecdotes, no data. We will discuss this in this lesson and then return to these aspects when we address research on computer-based teaching.
- Finally, I would like you to meta-reflect on the nature of my lessons in light of what you have read. Am I using, or at least attempting to use, a constructivist approach?
- In this course
- For those who have taken Algorithms: in the Algorithms course.
Lecture 2 (30/03/2023)
Let’s continue a review of constructivism concepts, delving into the social perspective, cooperative work, and learning.
- Yasmin Kafai e Idit Harel. Learning through Design and Teaching: Exploring social and collaborative aspects of constructionism. In “Constructionism”, di Seymour Papert and Idit Harel. Ablex Publishing Corporation, page 111–140 (1991) (24 pages)
- Allan Collins. Cognitive Apprenticeship. Chapter 4 of “The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences”. Cambridge University Press. (2006) (12 pages)
- Antonio Calvani. Costruttivismo o istruttivismo. Una questione eterna mai risolta? Journal of e‑Learning and Knowledge Society — Vol. 3, n. 1, febbraio 2007 (3 pagine)
Points for reasoning/discussion:
- Can you identify methodologies and suggestions from these texts that can be immediately applied?
Can you identify methodologies and suggestions of broader scope?
I would like you to reflect on the discussion between constructivism and instructivism.
Material for the future
There are many reading suggestions on these topics. Here are some as an opportunity for further study.
- Thanks to the generosity of the Papert family, the book “Mindstorms” can be freely downloaded.
- There is a website, http://www.papert.org/, which collects many of Papert’s writings and interventions. Papert’s writing is sometimes rambling, but full of “pearls”: expressions like “gears of my childhood,” “hard fun,” “big ideas” are all phrases that have become famous and are relaunched in the work of Mitch Resnick and the Lifelong Kindergarten.
- “Thinking about Thinking about Seymour” is a workshop dedicated to the memory of Seymour Papert, who passed away in 2016. You can find the video contributions of the workshop, all very interesting.
- “The Nature of Constructionist Learning” is an online course offered by MIT. You can find further reading suggestions; in particular, lessons 4–8 address the work of psychologists and epistemologists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Luria, and Dewey.