4002 ‫إبريل‬
ACII-4A:
"‫المؤتمر العربى الرابع حول "المدخل المنظومى فى التدريس والتعلم‬
‫تعليم الكيمياء من منظور البنائية‬
Chemical Education From A Constructivist
Perspective
J. J. Lagowski
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The University
of Texas at Austin, Texas 78712-0165 USA
E-mail:jjl@mail.cm.utexas.edu
Most current teaching strategies involve the unstated
assumption that knowledge can be passed from teacher to student
intact, and considerable effort has been expended on improving that
process. However, an increasing number of cognitive scientists
believe in a constructivist model of knowledge. The key idea of
constructivsit theory is that the learner must assimilate knowledge
and construct his personal version of that knowledge. In other
words, students are not empty vessels that are filled up in the system
of education. They come to us with some kind of formulation of the
subject that they have acquired in some, perhaps, unknowable
process. Constructivist theory suggests that knowledge cannot be
passed intact from teacher to student. Modern Constructivist theory
is rooted in the ideas of Ausubel, and Piaget before him. If this
analysis is valid, new teaching strategies need to be developed to
make the current teaching processes more attuned to the
constructivist philosophy of education. In this paper, we discuss the
nature of the important attributes of constructivist theory, and relate
them to our development of the systemic approach to teaching and
learning (SATL) chemistry. We attempt to address both lecture and
laboratory components of most undergraduate chemistry.