Constructionist Learning Lab

In 1991, Papert developed the Constructionist Learning Lab. The lab, which would be his last major research project, was created in The Maine Youth Center, a prison for trouble youths in Maine. According to Stager's 2007 dissertation on the lab, it was founded on eight main ideas:

• The first big idea is learning by doing. We all learn better when learning is part of doing something we find really interesting. We learn best of all when we use what we learn to make something we really want.
• The second big idea is technology as building material. If you can use technology to make things you can make a lot more interesting things. And you can learn a lot more by making them. This is especially true of digital technology: computers of all sorts including the computer-controlled Lego in our Lab.
• The third big idea is hard fun. We learn best and we work best if we enjoy what we are doing. But fun and enjoying doesn’t mean “easy.” The best fun is hard fun. Our sports heroes work very hard at getting better at their sports. The most successful carpenter enjoys doing carpentry. The successful businessman enjoys working hard at making deals.
• The fourth big idea is learning to learn. Many students get the idea that “the only way to learn is by being taught.” This is what makes them fail in school and in life. Nobody can teach you everything you need to know. You have to take charge of your own learning.
• The fifth big idea is taking time – the proper time for the job. Many students at school get used to being told every five minutes or every hour: do this, then do that, now do the next thing. If someone isn’t telling them what to do they get bored. Life is not like that. To do anything important you have to learn to manage time for yourself. This is the hardest lesson for many of our students.
• The sixth big idea is the biggest of all: you can’t get it right without getting it wrong. Nothing important works the first time. The only way to get it right is to look carefully at what happened when it went wrong. To succeed you need the freedom to goof on the way.
• The seventh big idea is do unto ourselves what we do unto our students. We are learning all the time. We have a lot of experience of other similar projects but each one is different. We do not have a pre-conceived idea of exactly how this will work out. We enjoy what we are doing but we expect it to be hard. We expect to take the time we need to get this right. Every difficulty we run into is an opportunity to learn. The best lesson we can give our students is to let them see us struggle to learn.
• The eighth big idea is we are entering a digital world where knowing about digital technology is as important as reading and writing. So learning about computers is essential for our students’ futures BUT the most important purpose is using them NOW to learn about everything else.

Piaget's Constructivism vs. Papert's Constructionism

Papert was a student of Jean Piaget, and yet his view differed slightly. Piaget took an approach of constructivism, which states that children will construct their own understanding of the world through experience and reflection. Piaget developed his theory with the understanding that "knowledge is not information to be delivered at one end, and encoded, memorized, retrieved, and applied at the other end. Instead, knowledge is experience that is acquired through interaction with the world, people and things (Ackermann, 2004)." Papert actually expands on Piget's theory, using it as a basis for his understanding of constructionism. He states that, "“Constructionism—the N word as opposed to the V word— shares contructivism’s view of learning as 'building knowledge structures' through progressive internalization of actions… It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe ( Ackerman, 2004)." In contrast to constructivism, Papert's constructionism is all about the doing and building. It is constructionism taken out of the cognitive realm of exploring potential, and put into action. While Papert and Piaget share the same basis for their theories on learning, Papert takes the idea from one of philosophy and created an environment that makes the theory and tangible experience for learners.

Lesson Plan

Examples of Constructionism

References

Ackermann, E. (2004). CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE AND TRANSFORMING THE WORLD. A Learning Zone of One's Own: Sharing Representations and Flow in Collaborative Learning Environments,(1), 15-37.

Blikstein, P. (2013). Seymour Papert’s Legacy: Thinking About Learning, and Learning About Thinking. Stanford Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from https://tltl.stanford.edu/content/seymour-papert-s-legacy-thinking-about-learning-and-learning-about-thinking.

Ko, A. J. (2017, July 12). Mindstorms: What did Papert argue and what does it mean for learning and education? Retrieved from https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/mindstorms-what-did-papert-argue-and-what-does-it-mean-for-learning-and-education-c8324b58aca4

Makerspace. (n.d.). Papert's Big Ideas. Retrieved from http://www.makerspaceforeducation.com/paperts-big-ideas.html

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basicbooks.

Rifkin, G. (2016, August 1). Seymour Papert, 88, Dies; Saw Education’s Future in Computers. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/technology/seymour-papert-88-dies-saw-educations-future-in-computers.html

Stager, G. S. (2006). An investigation of constructionism in the Maine youth center. University of Melbourne, Department of Education.