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Karl Popper and Jean Piaget: A Rationale for Constructivism

Educational Forum, The, Fall 2006 by Harlow, Steve, Cummings, Rhoda, Aberasturi, Suzanne M

Abstract

The current faddish use of the term constructivism has taken on as many different definitions as the number of people attempting to define it. This essay clarifies the meaning of constructivism through an examination of Karl Popper's and Jean Piaget's theories. The authors provide a rationale for the use of Popper's paradigm of "Three Worlds" and how his criterion for open and closed theories serves as a framework for Piaget's constructivist theory.

More Articles of Interest: Jean Piaget; Problem with Constructivism, The; Constructivism and Objectivism: Additional Questions; Constructivism in the classroom: Epistemology, history, and empirical evidence; Jean Piaget

What is constructivism? That depends on which educator you ask. Various descriptors include a philosophy, a methodology, a pedagogical approach, a model, an epistemology, and a framework of interpretation (Noddings 1995; Kindsvatter, Wilen, and Ishler 1996; Airasian and Walsh 1997; Maddux and Cummings 1999). Because of the lack of consistency about what constructivism is and its educational use, the term "constructivism" has been emptied of meaning. As a result, many educators have come to define constructivism in a general, nonspecific way, such as the general notion that individuals construct their own knowledge or mental versions of the world (Maddux and Cummings 1999; Gredler 2004). Though the notion that individuals mentally construct reality in a variety of ways may have some validity, the current overgeneralization of constructivism tends to neglect the need for critical testing of how individuals, in fact, do create their own sense of reality.

Bruning et al. (2004, 194-95) pointed out, "In the constructivist view, learners arrive at meaning by selecting information and constructing what they know." However, fundamental disagreement about the view of reality and its construction exists. As Bruning et al. (2004) added, "Some constructivists characterize mental structures as reflective of external realities, while others consider that no independent reality even exists outside the mental world of the individual."

The authors' view of constructivism holds that an independent reality does exist outside the mental world of the individual and that mental concepts and schemes are developed through the interplay of the constructive powers of the mind and the independence of the external world. This view is based on the idea that external reality can be observed and, thus, critically evaluated. Without such evaluation, concepts cannot be accepted, rejected, integrated, or refined. This view of constructivism vitally affects the way one sees and approaches the learning process.

To understand the learning process, one must identify a viable constructivist learning theory based on an explicit and succinct definition of the term "constructivism" that is amenable to testing. In the authors' view, the theories most representative of this concept are those of Karl Popper and Jean Piaget, each of whom wrestled with how individuals construct the world of reality. Both Popper and Piaget incorporated the essential idea that an independent reality is approximated through critical inquiry, testing, and revisability. As Bruner (1996, 61) stated:

Revisability is not to be confused until free-for-all relativism, the view that since no theory is the ultimate truth, all theories, like all people, are equal. We surely recognize the distinction betiveen Popper's 'World Two' of personally held beliefs, hunches, and opinions and his 'World Three' of justified knowledge. But what makes the latter 'objective' is not that it constitutes some positivist's free-standing, aboriginal reality, but rather that it has stood up to sustained scrutiny and then tested by the best available evidence.

This paper provides a rationale for using Popper's paradigm of "Three Worlds" and his criterion for open and closed theories as a framework for Piaget's constructivist theory. An explanation of Popper's paradigm is provided, followed by a description of how Piaget's theory of cognitive development fits into Popper's model to provide a more definitive explanation of constructivism and its relationship to learning.

Popper's Worlds and Theories

Popper was a philosopher of science and politics whose life's work was devoted to exploring ways of searching for and testing accurate representations of the world. As Popper (1994, viii) wrote, "The search for truth, particularly in the natural sciences, no doubt counts among the best and greatest things that life has created in the course of its long search for a better world ... science is our greatest hope: its method is the correction of error." In his search for truth, Popper (1994) developed a paradigm of knowledge and a shaping of reality that was based on his concepts of three worlds and open and closed theories.

Three Worlds. Popper developed a paradigm that conceives of three worlds. World One is the external world of physical states and processes as they exist in nature. World Two is a personal interpretation of World One that is filtered through the senses and experience. Therefore, World Two is not an exact replica of World One. Rather, World Two is subjective in that it is comprised of internal mental states and feelings, volitions and whims, and ideas and interpretations. As Lesh et al. (2003, 212) stated, "Knowledge is evaluated based on its fit with those experiences. There is no external, true reality constructed in exactly the same way by every individual." World Two is influenced by the environment and culture, but from a purely subjective sense. For example, two people from different cultures might view the Grand Canyon in very different ways. One person might consider the canyon as a spiritual place, inhabited by the ghosts of ancestors. Another may view the canyon as an excellent example of geological complexity. Because each person interprets the experience subjectively and therefore differently, World Two for each individual takes on different shades of meaning and significance. This world, in great part, tries to make sense of World One. Accordingly, individuals carry around with them in World Two a subjective, internal model of World One.

Karl Popper and Jean Piaget: A Rationale for Constructivism

Educational Forum, The, Fall 2006 by Harlow, Steve, Cummings, Rhoda, Aberasturi, Suzanne M

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