Hi Shatha,

To help my students distinguish between the "varieties" of constructivism (Vigotsky's socio-constructivism and Paiget's cognitive constructivism are different), I offered them the following figure from Patricia Alexander (2007, Article Bridging Cognition and Socioculturalism Within Conceptual Ch...

This visualization unmasks epistemological distinctions between the many theories aligned to the mind (individually formed) or environment/society/culture (socially derived) by positioning them between the four axes, and presented as a continuum. I have attached the screenshot of that figure in case you cannot access the full text paper.

Kanuka and Anderson (1999) also came up with their distinction between epistemological positions of constructivism. This one is simpler as they stick to the 4 major theoretical constructivist approaches. They do not position "smaller" theories contrary to what Alexander did. The 4 axes of their framework of reference include: objective vs subjective; social vs individual). I have attached the figure as well.

Good luck!

" Piaget’s constructivism offers a window into what children are interested in, and able to achieve, at different stages of their development. The theory describes how children’s ways of doing and thinking evolve over time, and under which circumstance children are more likely to let go of—or hold onto— their currently held views. Piaget suggests that children have very good reasons not to abandon their worldviews just because someone else, be it an expert, tells them they’re wrong"

(https://learning.media.mit.edu/content/publications/EA.Piaget%20_%20Papert.pdf )

" Lev S. Vygotsky believed that culture is the principal determinant of cognitive progress. In Vgostsky's theory on constructivism, knowledge leads to further cognitive development. The societal configuration of intelligence states that the individual growth could not be comprehended without indication to the societal and cultural context where the aforementioned evolution is entrenched mind development is continuous.

Vygotsky focuses on the actual mechanism of the development. He excludes discernible stages of development as theories and assumptions. Vygotsky's theory on constructivism does not adhere to the idea that a single abstract principle is able to explain cognitive development. As a substitute to Piaget's constructivism, he argues that knowledge is internalization of social activity"( http://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/constructivism/vygotsky/ )

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_Vygotsky_and_Piaget_really_constructivist

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_you_understand_Constructivism_as_a_theory_of_learning_and_teaching_practices_that_are_conceptually_inspired_by_Constructivism https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_social_constructivism_be_used_as_theoretical_matrix_in_forecasting

https://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+piaget+and+vygotsky+theory&source

You need to know that constructivism is divided into cognitive constructivism and social constructivism. The main proponent of Cognitive constructivism is Jean Piaget while the main proponent of social constructivism is Lev Vygotsky.

Constructivism, by itself, means that people "construct knowledge" by fitting new information in with what they already know, and making many connections.

Social constructivism is the idea that interacting with other people is a good way to fit new information in with what you already know because you hear what other people have to say, you ell them what you think, and this helps build the connections..

Here we really have excellent explanations of both constructivism theories (and there are more constructivist researchers, don't forget). Vygotsky's theory is social because he think that ZPD (zone of proximal development) could be achieved through socially constructed learning. His idea is that we need to ''push'' development through teaching. Piaget's theory is well-known by the stages of cognitive development. He thought that teaching should wait until new cognitive functions develop. His idea is that we need to ''wait'' development for teaching and learning.

Thank you all for such detailed answers.

Hi Shatha. I recommend you to consider the following: Piaget's theory- the Genetic Epistemology - has as central porposition the idea that human knowledge is CONSTRUCTED by each individual in his continuous INTERACTION with his environment (physical and culture components and so on). This continuous construction happens according to the equilibration model (continuous and conflicting interplay of individual and environment actions). As far as it is possible to know from Vygotsky's theory, there is not in his model the idea of a CONSTRUCTION of knowledge. We even cannot find in his writings (English and French translations) the word "construction". Essentially, Vygotsky proposes that knowledge is an acquisition from external social-cultural inputs, which, by the language, transform the internal cognitive process of the person. Nowadays, this model can be seen as close to the Neo-Behaviourism approaches (see the modelling effects theories). So, if you are interested in social-constructivism, I strongly recommend you to examine the research results of authors as Willem Doise, Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont, Gabriel Mugny (and collaborators) who actually propose a social-constructivism view as they studied the role of social interaction in the construction of knowledge in the framework of Piaget's equilibration model.

Thank you all,, your answers enlightened me and others for sure.

Just to clarify why I got confused when trying to understand the meaning of Constructivism theory that I read about the " Meaning Making " as Jonassen mention in his research ( Constructivism and Computer-Mediated Communication in Distance Education). He said that Meaning making according to constructivists is the goal of the learning process consists of both internal negotiation and social negotiation. ( This mean that although he based his research on Constructivism theory, he consider the social negotiation ... in this case, I found Constructivism and social constructivism are similar as they both consider the social negotiation) Any thoughts, please?

Hi Shatha,

I really appreciate the fact that you brought the educational technologists' into the conversation. In his late research (2006), David Jonassen wrote: "First, the effects of constructivism are not obvious because constructivism is not a theory of learning. Nor is it a model for designing instruction . Rather, it is fundamentally an epistemology that has affected that educators in the past decade conceive of learning. As an ontology, it has significantly affected the fields of art and sociology for more than 60 years". From this perspective, constructivism is a broad epistemological paradigm, a shift from "knowledge is acquired" to "knowledge is constructed" view of learning, that makes use of 20th century psychology and philosophy, and has no single definition but rather is a collection of approaches (those that focus on internal processes of knowledge construction (e.g., Piaget, von Glasersfeld, Spiro et al.) and socio-cultural aspects of knowledge construction (e.g, Vygotsky, Lave and Wenger)).

I hope this helps and good luck again :)

A good book

Jackson, R., Sørensen, G., & Møller, J. (2019). Introduction to international relations: theories and approaches. Oxford University Press, USA.

For both Piaget and Vygotsky, knowledge is constructed from the previous experiences of the individual and their constant reconstruction by interaction with the environment. The difference between the two authors is that while the French author considers that this construction is made with objects of knowledge, the Russian considers that it is achieved in the exchange with others in specific sociohistorical contexts.