Young Children's Construction of Knowledge

Abstract

The term social constructivism is used in many descriptions of children's learning. The meanings applied to this term vary from author to author. This paper explores two major variants of social constructivism — those derived from the work of Piaget and Vygotsky — and considers the implications of these approaches for the learning of young children. Differences and similarities between these two variants are analysed with reference to the roles of both children and adults. In particular, attention is given to the nature of social interactions and the importance of these in the construction of shared knowledge. While several differences are considered, it is concluded that the similarities between the approaches are of much greater importance to children's learning than these differences.