Radical Constructivism

First Published in 1995.In the past decade or two, the most important theoretical perspective to emerge in mathematics education has been that of constructivism.This burst onto the international scene at the controversial Eleventh International Conference on the Psychology of Mathematics Education i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: von Glasersfeld, Ernst
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oxford Taylor & Francis Group 1995
Edition:1
Subjects:
ISBN:0750703873, 9780750703871
Online Access:Get full text
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Table of Contents:
  • The Concept of Motion -- Generating Individual Identity -- Space and Time -- Conclusion -- Chapter 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 -- Conclusion -- Philosophical Postscript -- Chapter 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 -- Conclusion -- Chapter 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? -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 -- References -- Index of Names -- Subject Index
  • Cover -- Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and Learning -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface by Series Editor -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- List of Figures -- Chapter 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 -- Chapter 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 Conceptual 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 -- Conclusion -- Chapter 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 -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 The Construction of Concepts -- Analysis of Operations -- The Concept of Change