Research Catalog

Title

Radical constructivism : a way of knowing and learning / Ernst von Glasersfeld.

Author

Glasersfeld, Ernst von.

Publication

London ; Washington, D.C. : Falmer Press, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 213 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

Introduces radical constructivism, a theory of knowing that provides an approach to reality, truth, language and human understanding. This text examines the constructivist strand in the history of philosophy and outlines how the author's various thoughts developed into radical constructivism.

Series Statement

Studies in mathematics education series ; 6

Uniform Title

Studies in mathematics education series ; 6.

Subject

• Constructivism (Philosophy)
• Constructivism (Psychology)
• cybernetics
• 80.39 subdisciplines of pedagogics: other
• Konstruktivismus Philosophie
• Radikaler Konstruktivismus
• Constructivisme
• Kennistheorie
• Constructivisme (philosophie)
• Constructivisme (psychologie)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-204) and indexes.

Contents

• Ch. 1. Growing up Constructivist: Languages and Thoughtful People. Which Language Tells It 'as It Is'? The Wrong Time in Vienna. Growing Roots in Dublin. Interdisciplinary Education. A Close Look at Meanings. The American Connection. Introduction to Psychology. Collaboration with a Chimpanzee. Discovering Piaget. From Mental Operations to the Construction of Reality. A Decisive Friendship. Teaching Experiments. The Spreading of Constructivist Ideas. Retirement and a New Beginning. Support from Physics and Philosophy of Science -- Ch. 2. Unpopular Philosophical Ideas: A History in Quotations. Objectivity Put in Question. The Pre-Socratics. Theological Insights. Modern Science Widens the Rift. A Failure and an Achievement of Descartes. Locke's Forgotten Reflection. The Exaggeration of the 'Blank Slate'. A Reinterpretation of Berkeley. Hume's Deconstruction of Perceptual Relations. Bentham and Vico -- Pioneers of Conceptual Analysis. Kant's 'Transcendental Enterprise'. A Re-assessment of Causality. New Fuel for Instrumentalism. Hypotheses and Fictions. The Foundation of Language Analysis -- Ch. 3. Piaget's Constructivist Theory of Knowing. The Biological Premise. Active Construction. Beginnings. The Construction of Experiential Reality. Individual Identity. Assimilation. From Reflexes to Scheme Theory. Accommodation. The Concept of Equilibration. Learning. Different Types of Abstraction. Stages of Development. The Observer and the Observed. Experience and Reality.
• Ch. 4. The Construction of Concepts. Analysis of Operations. The Concept of Change. The Concept of Motion. Generating Individual Identity. Space and Time -- Ch. 5. Reflection and Abstraction. Reflection. Abstraction. Generalization. The Notion of Re-presentation. Re-presenting Past Experiences. Recognition. The Need of an Agent. Meaning as Re-presentation. The Power of Symbols. Piaget's Theory of Abstraction. Form and Content. Four Kinds of Abstraction. The Question of Awareness. Operational Awareness. Philosophical Postscript -- Ch. 6. Constructing Agents: The Self and Others. The Illusion of Encoded Information. The Reality of Experience. Analysis of Empirical Construction. The Question of Objectivity. Corroboration by Others. The Elusive Self. The Notion of Environment. The Perceived Self. Sensory Clues. Reflected Images. The Social Self -- Ch. 7. On Language, Meaning, and Communication. The Semantic Basis. Language Games. The Construction of Meaning. Language and Reality. Theory of Communication. How We May Come to Use Language. To Understand Understanding. Why Communication? Why Language? -- Ch. 8. The Cybernetic Connection. Declaration of the American Society for Cybernetics. Feedback, Induction, and Epistemology. A Learning Mechanism. Cognitive Development. The Inductive Basis of Instrumental Learning. Negative Feedback as 'Information'. The Nature of Hypothetical Models -- Ch. 9. Units, Plurality and Number. An Elusive Definition. Things and Units.
• Conception Rather than Perception. The Attentional Model. An Iteration of Pulses. The Genesis of Plurality. The Abstract Concept of Number. The 'Pointing Power' of Symbols. Mathematical Certainty -- Ch. 10. To Encourage Students' Conceptual Constructing. What Is Our Goal? Teaching Rather than Training. Environmental Stimuli. Reinforcement. The Deceptive Character of Language. The Orienting Function. Perceptual Materials. A Geometric Point. The Need to Infer Students' Thinking. Help Rather than Instruction. Fostering Reflection. The Secret of 'Social' Interaction. A Final Point.

ISBN

• 0750703873
• 9780750703871

LCCN

94036874

OCLC

• ocm31243266
• 31243266
• SCSB-2042874

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library