Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education

建构主义这个词是这个项目背后的科学教育理论的两个方面的记忆。从心理学的建构主义理论来看，我们认为学习是一种重建，而不是知识的传递。然后，我们将操纵性材料的概念扩展到当学习者体验构建有意义的产品时，学习是最有效的。具体来说，将为小学科学学习开发一套新教材。材料采用了一种跨科学的新方法，在运动科学、信息科学和色彩科学的标题下组织了许多传统概念。这些教材的设计将更好地利用现在在学校变得普遍的计算机存在的水平。新材料的设计特别关注学习科学的情感、文化和性别相关方面的作用。这些材料将在波士顿市中心的一所公立学校开发，并在几个州的联合学校的一些测试点进行评估，以分发给涵盖美国教育中所有社会文化差异的学校。

The word constructionism is a mnemonic for two aspects of the theory os science education underlying this project. From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product. Specifically a set of new materials will be developed for learning science in elementary schools. The materials use a new cut across science, organizing many traditional concepts under the heading of motion science, information science and color science. The materials will be designed to make better use of the level of computers presence that is now becoming common in schools. The design of the new materials pays special attention to the role of affective, cultural and gender-related facets of learning science. The materials will be developed in an inner city public school in Boston and evaluated in a number of test sites at associated schools in several states for dissemination to schools covering the full range of socio- cultural variation in American education.