Type: Essay
Author: Martin Dougiamas
Language: English
Published: 28 November 1998

During the past three months, I've been learning about constructivism by reading scholarly texts, discussing them with my class and my friends, journal keeping and personal reflection. Through this interesting time, I feel my understanding has grown considerably and have already proved useful. I've constructed this text in an attempt to demonstrate my current understandings of constructivism, as well as the process by which my knowledge developed.

I had some trouble with the self-referential nature of the material. Since the subject is the "meaning of meaning" at various levels, it's easy to become confused and fall into a "black hole" where text seems meaningless. How can I know from reading texts what authors think, and what works? How can I realise my own understanding? How can I communicate my understandings to you?

Despite this, I feel the struggle to construct this text to try and represent my learning as a result of interacting with a wide diversity of other texts has been a rewarding one. It has helped me develop constructivism in my mind as a referent to apply to my own day-to-day practices and research in communication, teaching and learning.

I hope that reading this will also help you, the reader, reflect critically on your own life, and perhaps increase your own satisfaction with your educational activities.

A word about the writing styles I've chosen to use in this essay. For the most part, I've written in the first-person, since this essay is an expression of my thoughts (Ellis, 1996). However, I often use a third-person style, which is not intended to impart a sense of objectivity, but to make it easier to read passages describing the ideas of others.

Entry added by Christian Lebe - 28 Nov 1998
Last updated - 11 Jan 2010