Concept Note

International Seminar on

Constructivism is an important word in the education of children both in India and abroad these days. This is however a word in need of a substantial elaboration as well as sharpened definition(s). We have in the recent years moved forward both in terms of theoretical ideas related to it as well as the experiences of using these ideas in the classrooms in various ways. While these efforts have posed more questions than answers, we have now some ideas that need to be shared and built upon.

  The seminars on Construction of Knowledge (2004) and the Teaching of Science (2005) have created a forum for dialogue between those engaged in working with classrooms in the field and those who have been dealing with ideas and principles related to the domains that affect the classroom. These interactions among the best in their own areas have brought out the need for such engagement and the need to deepen the areas of discourse.

  One of the critical questions for human learning is the way the human mind cognises and deals with the reality around it. There have been advances on this dimension in all spheres starting from the philosophical struggling to deal with the question: after all, what is cognition to the neurologist exploring the ways the brain could function in the complex ways it can.

  The cognitive states of the human mind are manifested in varied manners, not all of which are unconnected as the educational theorist have demonstrated time and again by pointing out causal relation between learning and mental states. However, the states by themselves are of no value unless categorial, sortal competences along with the emergence of meaning associated with (parts of) states also come into play. The puritanic notion of cognition being solely the domain of thought and inference, gives way to the legitimacy of communication with a world inhabited by language, perception and behaviour.

  In this connection, the role of the processes discovered in the use of a language in leading the representational perspective in cognitive science and cognitive psychology cannot be overlooked. The most crucial vehicle that manifests the different cognitive states of the human mind is language, not without reason therefore, the proposed seminar will open up for examination and debate, the age-old question of the role of language as a vehicle for states of cognition; a clear understanding of its role as a carrier or a trigger for cognitive states of the human mind will ultimately provide valuable inputs to the issue of design in terms of how best to present an idea that is conducive to learning.

  However, as the findings in Cognitive Psychology have convincingly broadened the span of cognition by liberating it from the clutches of “reasoning” to also include the perceptual (and therefore not governed by reason, belief or intention but by sensory experience), the seminar aptly includes academics and practitioners to also raise questions and initiate debates with respect to the possibility of construction of knowledge through sensations that are visual or perceptual. Again, such debates will directly feed into design policies as far as material production is concerned. A Fodorian, modular mind which is home to perceptual input systems, thus attains a meaningful fruition in this sense.

  However, dispositional states such as intentions, desires and beliefs do have a role to play in this visceral view of cognition, in particular, an understanding of how communities, such as the academic community, come to claim and believe a certain body of knowledge, provides important directions to the ways of thinking about mental states of learning possibilities. The seminar, luckily therefore, finds itself in the midst of a possible debate about the usefulness of such a body of knowledge and their claims and beliefs.

  None of these of course will make much sense if we don’t see the network of relations that these mental states and their supposed applicability find a social base for itself. In fact, from a perspective far removed from the usual line of thinking, there has been a recent revival of the role of ethics in the domain of representation of mental states. In particular, “morality” has been seen as “innate” and the connection of such an innate view of morality to representational states (like language, for example) has fuelled the imagination of some social theorists in finally reclaiming the social base of/ for language. Similarly, the traditional fodder to cognitive states like the non-conscious states of linguistic and visual processing, the dispositional states of intentions, desires and beliefs, find this delayed justice of localising language within the social as an impetus to infuse theories of language and thought with computational/ causal laws of cognitive psychology.

We believe that in order to understand human learning better and to use that to make more appropriate and meaningful classrooms, the streams of the so-called pedagogues and the so-called theoreticians need to have a shared dialogue. Our attempt through the Seminars has been to make this possible and have the practitioners engage with the theories that in some way influence and guide the principles of their work and their beliefs and assumptions. The two Seminars previously held have raised the question of the need to provide forums that engage with the theoretical issues in a more elaborate manner and have urged upon the need to develop a more common vocabulary and style of sharing. The effort has led to the establishment of many communication channels of dialogue and work. The present effort is another step in that direction.

The seminar would help consolidate the discourse on cognition, learning and constructivism. It would also help in bringing the current relevant issues to the fore. The seminar would be documented. And the proceedings brought out both in English and in Hindi. The proceedings would be bought out in a form that they make for reasonable reading for those working in education. This includes the faculty at the SCERT, the colleges of education and the DIETs. The publication of the Hindi and English versions of the 2004 seminar has already started attracting attention.

  Besides this, the papers presented in the seminar would also be brought out as a publication to serve as a reference document for research and further thinking. Dearth of quality material on the Indian context makes this a worthwhile endeavour and these efforts bring to fruition development of good quality material that is essential to the building up of a dialogue in education.