Many educators may or may not be familiar with the term constructivism, but probably recognize it as something to do with learning. The main tenet of constructivist learning is that people construct their own understanding of the world and in turn, their own knowledge. This ERIC Digest examines the constructivist view of learning and how it…

Examples from some area tasks indicate that misconceptions about linear measurement can be carried over to area measurement; children will occasionally count points rather than length units or area units. (MP)

An example is used to illustrate the four levels: rote, observational, insightful, and formal. (MP)

This ERIC Digest concerns the constructed knowledge (also called nave knowledge or prior conceptions) held by students and the changes required to alter students' framework to understand and believe the true science concepts involved. This process is called conceptual change. Theoretical framework of conceptual change, what exactly is conceptual…

This article introduces major contributions of educational psychologist, Lev S. Vygotsky, through examination of his dialectical methodological approach. Topics discussed include semiotic mediation, social sources of development, verbal thinking, concept formation, spontaneous and scientific concepts, the zone of proximal development, and higher…

Different types of understandings are presented as different facets of the development of the mental processes. (MP)

This paper is a reflection of the preparation of the Psychology of Mathematics Education Panel (PME26) that discuss the issue of "learning from learners." What it implies to be a learner is formulated in order to reflect upon the way teachers and/or researchers learn from learners. The idea of conceptualizing the notion of "learning from learners"…

The texts gathered in this document come from work done in the framework of two postgraduate courses at the Faculte des Sciences de l'Education, Geneva: (1) "Learning: Meta-cognitive et socio-cognitive dimensions" course; and (2) "Didactical analysis of the interactions in class: Case study of mathematics at school" course. The problematics dealt…

The paper reviews research which presents evidence that learning disabled (LD) children, like other groups that show performance deficiencies, do not spontaneously employ appropriate goal directed task strategies in many situations. (Author/PHR)

This document, published in India by the Regional College of Education, deals with 13 subjects: the tough context (thinking), definitions of concept, functions of concept, the process of concept formation, discriminant learning, mediation process, second signalling system, factors affecting concept formation, studies in concept formation, the…

Abstracts and abstractors' critiques are presented for six studies dealing with concept formation and misconceptions and for five studies dealing with cognitive development. The first six studies investigated: children's naive conceptions of the human body; students' understanding (or misunderstanding) of states of matter and density changes; the…

The inclusion of probability in the school curriculum is argued to be justified on mathematical, psychological, and social grounds. Contemporary teaching approaches are suggested as sufficient. (MP)

This paper reports on a portion of a 14-year study of the mathematical thinking of a cohort group of students that was based on an identifiable perspective on how mathematical ideas are built. Three videotape episodes are presented so that groups of students working together can be viewed at three points in time: as fourth graders (ages 9-10) and…

The literature on how and when children acquire temporal concepts is reviewed in the context of the acquisition of time concepts by deaf children. The stages at which children acquire concepts of clock, calendar, historical time, and chronology, and effects of language acquisition are discussed. A more formal structure of temporal concepts in the…

Questions Piagetian theory that dismisses the idea of accelerating cognitive development through classroom activities. (CP)