What Is Constructivist about Constructivist Education ?

My work over the past 30 years has been to take what seemed to me the best theory of human mental development –Piaget's—and try to draw its educational implications. Those implications have grown into a general educational paradigm that I have called constructivist education. Taking Piaget's epistemological and psychological theory as an example of theory inspiring educators, we can point to many curricula and programs that purport to be based on it. Most of these can be characterized by what I call " the wave of the hand " usage of the theory—that is, a general citation without addressing just how the theory connects with recommended practices. I have also referred to this as a global translation of theory into practice in which the theory is simplified into vague generalities that are only loosely connected to certain educational goals or practices (DeVries, 1987/1990). In my own work, I have been motivated to try to develop a constructivist educational paradigm having coherence in theory and practice. This is necessary because scientific research on comparative effectiveness of educational programs depends on studies of different educational paradigms. Kuhn's (1970) conception of scientific paradigms in the natural sciences has been extended by Tuthill and Ashton (1983) to education. They point out that almost all classrooms are " conglomerates of contradictory elements " and that teachers " eclectically apply teaching strategies derived from conflicting scientific paradigms, using a little behaviorism here and a little humanism there, for example " (p. 10). Tuthill and Ashton argue that " such eclecticism significantly