10.22.06
Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism. Educational Researcher, 24(7), 5-12.
Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism. Educational Researcher, 24(7), 5-12.
This article focuses on the diversity of perspectives in the constructivism perspective. Phillips attempts to organize the perspective of constructivism along three axes. These axes were “individual psychology versus public discipline”, “humans the creators versus nature the instructor”, and “individual cognition” vs. “social and political processes”. The author gives examples from different disciplines of different theorists/researchers and their ideas and how they fit into these categories.
A good overview. Helpful not only in untangling the constructivism perspective but also in placing persons from diverse disciplines into the constructivist framework. I don’t know that there aren’t better categories for parsing these things out but it’s a helpful start. It was odd that the author bifurcated the second axis. It seems that would be reason enough to rethink an axis when it’s different than another axis. Putting together these three axes and mapping people on a three dimensional plane would be fine and dandy if the author hadn’t split the second axis. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Though I didn’t’ know all of the people Phillips talked about I knew some and that I think was helpful enough.
