CONSTRUCTIONISM: THE

MAKING OF MEANING
Ali H. Raddaoui

MAP
CONSTRUCTIONISM VS POSITIVISM
CONSTRUCTIONISM: GENERALITIES
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF
CONSTRUCTIONISM
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM VS
CONSTRUCTIVISM

CONSTRUCTIONISM VS
POSITIVISM
Two different epistemological
stances:

Positivism: about the discovery of

relationships already extant.
Constructionism: meaningful reality is
socially constructed.
Constructivism on the march to replace
positivism.

CONSTRUCTIONISM VS
POSITIVISM
Positivism: an object is an object

regardless of human consciousness;

object exists before we were conscious of
it. Objective meaning antedates human
interpretation.
Constructionism: human beings construct
the object, give it a name, assign the
object the attributes associated with it;
properties of objects are assigned by
human mind, meaning-making minds.

CONSTRUCTIONISM
Constructionism is the epistemology that qualitative

researchers tend to invoke.

Constructionism rejects the objectivist view of human
knowledge. There is no objective truth waiting for us to
discover.
Truth, or meaning, comes into existence in and out of our
engagement with the realities of our world.
Meaning is not discovered, but constructed.
Different people may construct meaning in different ways,
even in relation to the same phenomenon.
Case in point: this is what happens when we move from one
era to another or from one culture to another.
In this view, subject and object emerge as partners in the
generation of meaning.
There is no meaning without a mind.

CONSTRUCTIONISM
Maquarrie (1973) asserts: 'If there were no human beings,

there might still be galaxies, trees, rocks and so on.' There

was such a world before homo sapiens may have existed on
earth. However, what kind of world is there before human
beings engage with it? Not a world of meaning. It becomes
a world of meaning only when meaning making beings
make sense of it.
The existence of a world without a mind is conceivable
Meaning without a mind is not conceivable.
Constructionism is the view that all knowledge, and
therefore all meaningful reality as such, is contingent upon
human practices, being constructed in and out of
interaction between human beings and their world, and
developed and transmitted within an essentially social
context. Crotty, 1998.

TOWARD A DEFINITION OF
CONSTRUCTIONISM
The assignment of meanings comes from an interplay
between

Object
Human consciousness

Both are partners in the construction of meaning

Humans do the interpretive act
Meaning: objective and subjective

Proof: objects such as a dog do not have universal

associations, but have culture-specific associations ; diverse
associations made by each culture

My English landladys husband: Jerry; her dog named Jerry

In our context: there is not much worse than calling someone

No true and valid interpretation, but a multiplicity of

interpretations

TOWARD A DEFINITION OF
CONSTRUCTIONISM
Role of researcher in constructionist
mode: one of RE-interpretation

to divest oneself of the conventional

meanings we have been taught;
To approach object in a radical spirit of
openness to its potential for new richer
meaning.

TOWARD A DEFINITION OF
CONSTRUCTIONISM - QUOTE

The subjective intention is

seen to be extinguished and

the 'thoughts press close to its
object, seek to touch it, smell it,
taste it, and so thereby
transform it itself'. Adorno
(1981)

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
Meaning has a primarily social origin; meaning is socially

constructed
Social institutions antedate us; inhabit us; (or other way
round); we are born in to them.
This is how we have access to public and conventional
meanings
We construct meanings through belonging to the social
system of intelligibility that is publicly available.
Humans beings are incapable of functioning in the absence
of the culture to which they belong.
Geertz (1973) defines as culture is 'a set of control
mechanisms-plans, recipes, rules, instructions (what
computer engineers call "programs") - for the governing
behaviour; culture is seen largely as a given.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
It is incorrect to say that individuals engage objects

in the world and assign them meanings one by one;

A more accurate position: We inherit a 'system of
significant symbols; we view the world through the
lenses bestowed upon us by our culture.
Our culture permits us to see certain meanings and
by the same token blocks other meanings from our
view.
Notion of relativism: different people; different
worlds; different ways of knowing; different realities
We are born, each one of us, into an already
interpreted world

S-CONSTRUCTIONISM
Centrality of social
dimension of meaning
Focus on collective
generation and
transmission of meaning

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Individual mind engaging in
meaning making
Individual understanding of
constructivist position

We are prisoners of our

Prominence of unique
own cultures: culture
experience for each and
shapes the way we see
every individual
and feel things: tyranny of
the familiar: very little
meaning making
Meanings are learnt
through the process of
enculturation

Each individual way of

making sense of the world is
worthy of study and respect

CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING
DESIGN
Constructivist models of learning are almost exclusively

recommended as a guide for the design and delivery of Internetbased courses (e.g., Bonk & Cunningham, 1998; Jonassen, 2000;
Partlow & Gibbs, 2003). The constructivist model of learning is
premised on the notion that learners actively construct their own
meaning and knowledge from their experiences (Svinicki, 1999). This
learning paradigm views teaching as a process that involves helping
learners to create knowledge through interactive and authentic
learning experiences (Partlow & Gibbs, 2003).The teachers role is to
guide students toward experiences that will facilitate meaningful
learning. Direct instructional activities where students passively
assimilate knowledge are minimized. Key features of constructivist
learning environments include active learning, authentic instructional
tasks, collaboration among students, and diverse and multiple
learning formats (Partlow & Gibbs, 2003).
Bangert, A. W. (2004). The Seven Principles of Good Practice: A
framework for evaluating on-line teaching. Internet and Higher
Education 7 217232

CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING
DESIGN
Their research identified 10 major categories

of constructivist-compatible teaching
principles recognized as essential for effective
online
course design and delivery. Seven of the 10
categories representing the majority of
instructional practices included project-based
learning tasks, cooperative group work,
infrequent use of direct instruction, tasks that
require higher order thinking, interactivity, and
learner choice.

REFERENCES
Bangert, A. W. (2004). The Seven Principles of Good Practice: A
framework for evaluating on-line teaching. Internet and Higher
Education 7 217232