CHEMISTRY EDUCATION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN EUROPE 2001, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 215-226	REVIEW OF RESEARCH Methods and issues of teaching and learning

Richard K. COLL ¹ and T.G. Neil TAYLOR ^2
1 University of Waikato, Chemistry Department (New Zealand)
² University of Leicester, Faculty of Education

USING CONSTRUCTIVISM TO INFORM TERTIARY CHEMISTRY PEDAGOGY

ABSTRACT: There have been many reports in the science education literature exhorting educators to teach from a constructivist view of learning. However, these reports typically fail to confront the difficulties associated with this stance. This review considers some of the implications and difficulties associated with a constructivist view of learning. The paper begins with an overview of paradigms and description of the origins of the constructivist paradigm that has become so dominant in science education research and scholarship, before discussing the principal criticisms of constructivism. The authors conclude that constructivism offers tertiary chemistry educators some valuable insights into classroom practice, but that appropriate pragmatism with regard to pedagogy is more important than adherence to any particular metaphysical belief system. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 215-226]

KEY WORDS: alternative conceptions; constructivism; positivism; epistemology; ontology; paradigm; metaphysics; pedagogy; tertiary chemistry

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