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Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal A Response to Gil-Pérez et al.

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Abstract

This commentary is a critical appraisal of Gil-Pérez et al.'s (2002) conceptualization of constructivism. It is argued that the following aspects of their presentation are problematic: (a) Although the role of controversy is recognized, the authors implicitly subscribe to a Kuhnian perspective of `normal' science; (b) Authors fail to recognize the importance of von Glasersfeld's contribution to the understanding of constructivism in science education; (c) The fact that it is not possible to implement a constructivist pedagogy without a constructivist epistemology has been ignored; and (d) Failure to recognize that the metaphor of the `student as a developing scientist' facilitates teaching strategies as students are confronted with alternative/rival/conflicting ideas. Finally, we have shown that constructivism in science education is going through a process of continual critical appraisals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela

    Mansoor Niaz

  2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.

    Fouad Abd-El-Khalick

  3. Universidad de Granada, Spain

    Alicia Benarroch

  4. Universitá Degli Studi di Ancona, Italy

    Liberato Cardellini

  5. Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil

    Carlos E. Laburú

  6. Universidad de Almería, Spain

    Nicolás Marín

  7. Escuela Técnica de Pesca de Cumaná, Venezuela

    Luis A. Montes

  8. University of Auckland, New Zealand

    Robert Nola

  9. Universidad Javeriana, Colombia

    Yuri Orlik

  10. Kansas State University, U.S.A.

    Lawrence C. Scharmann

  11. National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

    Chin-Chung Tsai

  12. University of Ioannina, Greece

    Georgios Tsaparlis

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  1. Mansoor Niaz
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  2. Fouad Abd-El-Khalick
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  12. Georgios Tsaparlis
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Niaz, M., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Benarroch, A. et al. Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal A Response to Gil-Pérez et al.. Science & Education 12, 787–797 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SCED.0000004555.57519.8f

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