Warning: Constructivism Wants YOU

Construing constuctivism reading research in the United States (SuDoc ED 1.310/2:310358)
Parents need to know about Constructivism. Coming soon to a school near you. Be afraid.

Teachers need to think about this thing, coming soon to change your professional life, probably for the worse. (Instead of teaching, you’ll be facilitating. You’ll be asking students about their prior knowledge, presumably minimal. Won’t that be fun?)

Constructivism is the unseen sophistry that is oozing into every corner of every classroom. The Education Establishment loves this thing precisely, I think, because it’s murky, hard to understand, and can be used to demand drastic changes in the school system.

Piaget made some little scribbles about how children, when they learn something new, “construct new knowledge” in their heads. A fancy way of stating the obvious. But theorists jumped from that to this: the only valid knowledge is what students construct for themselves, not that useless stuff that teachers used to teach. Wow, that’s a psycho on a white horse jumping the Snake River.

But here’s where we are now. Schools tend to announce, “We’ve adopted a Constructivist approach,” as if that’s a good thing. As if all debate is over.

Schools claim it’s a great way to teach X, Y and Z. That’s the upside, maybe.

The downside for sure is that Constructivism is a great way to make sure LITTLE ELSE gets taught beside X, Y and Z. That’s because Constructivism takes time. Constructivism demands clever theatrical prods that will facilitate children in constructing each bit of new knowledge. Well, there are a lot of bits, about thousands of topics. You’ll need some extra years.

Bottom line: Constructivism promises a lot, teaches a lot less.

Of all the sophistries pushed into the schools, Constructivism may be the champ for pomposity, pretentiousness, and opacity.

I created a short graphic video for YouTube that explains the whole subject in about five minutes. “Constructivism: A Primer for Parents.”

I also have an essay called “34: The Con in Constructivism” on Improve-Education.org. This gives a lot of quotes from the internet that suggest just how crazy Constructivism makes its proponents.

Please look at one or both. You're going to hear a lot about Constructivism.
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