ANDPostmodern thought introduces new critical knowledge, guided by the psychological and sociological versions that give rise to constructivism and constructionism. Its most radical version is presented through representative authors and is valued from the epistemological paradigm of complexity that emerges in the most advanced science. In this way, its impact on education is analyzed through the following question: How is learning generated for constructivism, constructionism and complexity?
Constructivism
Firstly, constructivism emerges as an epistemological current, concerned with discerning the problems of the formation of knowledge in human beings. To this end, there is the conviction that human beings are the product of their ability to acquire knowledge and reflect on themselves, which has allowed them to anticipate, explain and purposefully control nature and therefore build culture. According to the above, it stands out that knowledge is actively constructed by knowing subjects (Díaz, Hernández, 2002). It is important to highlight radical constructivism, proposed by authors such as Von Glaserfeld or Maturana, who postulate that the construction of knowledge is subjective, which is why it is not possible to form objective or true representations of reality, there are only effective ways to act on it. .
According to the aforementioned interpretation, the subject starts from his previous experiences and the interaction with others to achieve the construction of new significant knowledge. According to this, we can say that human learning is always an internal and subjective construction, and therefore objectivity in itself, separated from man, does not make sense, since all knowledge is an interpretation (Agudelo, Estrada, 2012). Additionally, the cognitive development of representations of the world arise from the creation of meanings through experience.
From the above, knowledge is not received passively, neither through the senses, nor through communication, but is actively constructed by the knowing subject (Pakman, 2005). Therefore, the function of cognition is adaptive and serves the organization of the subject’s experiential world, which is why an interest arises at an individual and intrapsychic level in the way in which knowledge is constructed, giving space to individual, personal and free thought. individual, recognizing the subject as an autopoietic agent.
Constructionism
On the other hand, constructionism accepts that what happens between human beings acquires meaning from social interaction expressed through language (Agudelo, Estrada, 2012), in this way language is what makes the construction of joint actions possible. between those who share specific contexts, and these actions have meanings for those who intervene in them and understand them. For this reason, learning arises from social exchange and is mediated by language. That is why it is not about building intrapsychic or interpsychic knowledge, it is necessary to build knowledge by the other and for the other, for the benefits of the community and not only for individual benefits.
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It should be added that an interest arises in the cooperative thinking of social groups where the subject is dissolved in linguistic structures. According to the above, the terms and forms through which we obtain an understanding of the world and ourselves are social artifacts, products of historical and culturally situated exchanges between people (Pakman, 2005), since to the extent to which A description of the world or of ourselves maintained over time will not depend on the empirical validity of the description but on alterations in the social process. Additionally, language is a byproduct of interaction, so its main meaning is derived from the way it is immersed within relationship patterns (Pakman, 2005).
Complexity
According to the above, the paradigm of complexity emerges as a regulatory principle that never loses sight of the reality of the fabric as a phenomenon in which we are and that constitutes our world. It states that the formation of the human being is a attitude of constant search for uncertainties and contradictions (Palva, 2004). Morín (cited in Bucheli, 2012) postulates the 7 principles of complexity for the explanation of knowledge:
- Systematic or organizational principle: “To understand the whole, the parts must be studied, to understand the part, the whole must be studied.”
- Hologrammatic principle: “Individuals are transformed by the whole, just as the whole reflects each of the individuals.”
- Retroactive loop principle: “The cause acts on the effect, the effect returns on the cause.”
- Principle of the recursive loop: “The individual produces society in his interaction and society produces its individuals in its tradition.”
- Principle of autonomy, dependence: “The individual is self-organizing and self-producing but will always depend on his environment.”
- Dialogical principle: “The one and the other are inseparable from the same reality.”
- Principle of reintroduction of the knower in all knowledge: “Knowledge is a reconstruction in a specific culture and time.”
Finally, by returning to the paradigms, construction is shown as the way to express the search and creativity of knowledge, which allows human beings a deep understanding of reality. To do this, these paradigms rescue the active role of the individual, carried out through his psychological instruments, which favor interaction in specific contexts and therefore the emergence of learning (Cubero, 2005). Likewise, it is found that there are no limits to the creation of knowledge and that the different perspectives account for the construction of the reality in which it emerges.
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Bibliographic references:
- Agudelo, M; Estrada, P. (2012). Constructivism and social constructionism: Some common points and some divergences of these theoretical currents. Prospective, 17, 353-378.
- Bucheli, A. (2012). 7 Principles of Complexity. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/alejandrabuchelli/principios-de-complejidad
- Cubero, R. (2005). Basic elements for social constructivism. Advances in Latin American Psychology, 23, 43-61.
- Díaz, F; Hernandez, G. (2002). Teaching strategies for meaningful learning. Mexico; McGraw-Hill/Interamericana Editores, SA de CV
- Pakman, M. (2005). Constructionism of Human Experience. Barcelona; Gedisa, SA
- Palva, A. (2004). Edgar Morín and the thought of complexity. Journal of educational sciences, 1,23, 239-253.