The Nature of Constructionist Learning

Bakhtiar Mikhak (mikhak@media.mit.edu)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the philosophical and theoretical foundations of constructionism as a paradigm within which theories for learning and approaches to education are formulated and evaluated. The goal of this course is to help new graduate student researchers to situate their research questions and interests within this paradigm through readings and projects that will focus on the following questions:

• What is the nature of constructionism?
• What are its intellectual roots?
• What are its practical implications for education?
• What differentiates it from other theories of learning and approaches to education?
• What does it have to say about how we learn and how we come to know about the world?
• What is the importance and power of ideas in constructionism?
• What are these powerful ideas and what gives them their power?
• What is the status and role of learners within the constructionist paradigm?
• What is a learner's relationship to and representation of powerful ideas?
• What is and how do we study the process of knowledge construction?
• What is the role of design and construction in the physical world?
• How does construction in the world relate to "construction in the head"?
• What is the role of tools in the relationship between learners, powerful ideas, and the world?
• What are some of the best constructionist tools, what design activities do they make possible, and what powerful ideas do they embody and highlight?
• What settings and contexts are most appropriate for these tools and activities?
• What are the characteristics of the best constructionist learning environments?
• More broadly, what is the role of communities and contexts in constructionism?
• What is the role of the rich social, cultural, and moral components that communities bring to learning environments, tools, and activities?

For the first half of the term, the course will focus on theoretical foundations. In the second half of the term, we not only will continue to build on this foundation but also will apply it to evaluating the projects in which the students are involved or interested.

The grade will be based on participation and a number of writing assignments during the semester. On a number of occasions, we will invite a few of the leading experts on constructionism (Professor Resnick, Professor Papert, Dr. Cavallo, Dr. Ackermann, and a few others) to discuss with us the issues that we are focusing on in our readings and our research projects.