Constructivismo y educación escolar: ni hablamos siempre de los mismo ni lo hacemos siempre desde la misma perspectiva epistemológica

Abstract

In the field of education we usually find a wide range of differing proposals and approaches under the label of "constructivism". The author's thesis is that these differences have two origins. Firstly, the psychological theories these proposals and approaches are based on; and secondly, the particular use of the psychological theories in order to study,
understand and explain the teaching learning processess at school. Three common ways or approaching the relationships between psychological knowledge and educational theory and practice are reviewed. All three deserve to be qualified as constructivist and have demonstrated their power in producing extreinely useful and valuable iinplications and applications for schooling. However, two of them only offer a list of explanatory concepts and principles extracted from the developmental and learning theories used. The third, in addition, aims to provide a genuine constructivist explanation of teaching and learning processess at school, through the inclusion of the aforesaid principles and concepts in a whole logical scherne and through their reinterpretation on the basis of nature, functions and characteristics of schooling.