Seymour Papert is regarded as one of the most intriguing educational researchers of the 20th century, famous for pioneering constructionism principles and their application in education. While being a renowned mathematician and computer scientist, he was also a groundbreaking researcher and expert who brought significant contributions to the field of educational technology. It was over forty years ago that Papert argued on the use of computers and programming as tools to fundamentally transform how children learn in schools (1980 & 1993). The constructionism movement he pioneered remains relevant and important to education today.
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CONSTRUCTIONISM |
Intrinsic worth |
Subjective/social significance |
Instrumental value |
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Philosophy: Knowledge is constructed; an iterative, cumulative process |
Value of learning is not in the absorption of the end product of academic discoveries, but rather the development of one’s own personal understanding of a formula’s meaning built upon prior knowledge |
Active engagement; children learn best when they can pursue their own interests and learn things on their own |
Student-centered discovery learning; thinking and learning process becomes more visible to the student |
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Pedagogy |
“Bricolage” (Levi-Strauss, 1966): tinkering, experimentation, and improvisation leading to heightened connections for learning across subjects |
Knowledge in action; attaining authentic understanding when one maps prior knowledge onto new ideas |
Omittance of abstract and impersonal knowledge; computers as tools that empower children to explore topics meaningful to them |
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Evaluation |
Rather than teaching formal representations of knowledge (“correct answers”), students learn representation of ideas appropriated to their prior knowledge |
Facilitation, not recitation; making use of knowledge available to a child in helping them build new intellectual structures |
Learning the ideas contained in a subject domain as an entry point to obtaining understanding, more importantly, to form new ideas about the subject |
The use of computers and programming is most widely associated with Papert’s theory of constructionism. He famously said that we do not know what the future will be like, but we do know what it would not be like — it would not involve children sitting at desks with pencil and paper writing all day (Papert, 1986). Beyond an enhancement of learning activities, he introduced the idea that computer programming can provide children with a way to learn about their own learning. In his observation of children at play with computers, Papert (n.d.) demonstrated how the simple activity of playing with legos connected to programming tools, in fact, became an activity of playing in sophisticated ways that facilitate and shape a child’s intellectual structures. More importantly, it helps children to see the unified nature of knowledge, for instance, how the principles of engineering design are not separate from the very toys they enjoy playing with.
Papert’s research promoted the use of computers for learning in schools, in particular, to produce involvement and engagement in learning. This is strongly reflected in his view of education as relating more to love than to logic — education has little to do with explanation, but a lot to do with falling in love with the material. In this sense, Papert’s promotion of computers and programming for learning did not only modify the tools we used but the way that we learn. His vision went beyond the idea of placing a laptop in the hands of each child, even more, he wanted the child to program the computer, to acquire a sense of mastery over a piece of powerful technology, and through that, establish an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from the art of intellectual model building (Papert, 1980).
A prime example is in the value Papert saw in debugging — children learn more than just a subject when they are given the opportunity to reflect constructively on their mistakes; essentially, they learn about their learning while learning about something. This perspective is strongly influenced by Papert’s work under Piaget (1936), a genetic epistemologist who established the theory of cognitive development while researching how knowledge is developed in human organisms. He found that cognitive development involves a continual effort to adapt to the environment. In essence, Piaget believed that it would be a mistake to separate the learning process from what is being learned. The key takeaways of what has since evolved into Papert’s theory of constructionism is that children are capable of building their own intellectual structures and that they build on what they know. Deep learning occurs not only when children are afforded the opportunity to learn about their own learning, but also when teachers are able to teach the basic structure of the subject itself in allowing children to not only learn about, but to “program” a domain.
References
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The savage mind. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc.
Papert, S. (1986). Excerpt from the MIT Media Laboratory Interactive Videodisc [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhEovwWiniY
Papert, S. (1993). The children’s machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc.
Papert, S. (n.d.). Logo Foundation. Retrieved from https://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/
Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.