Abstract
Four philosophies of learning are contrasted, namely ‘simple’ constructivism, radical constructivism, enactivism and social constructivism. Their underlying explanatory metaphors and some of their strengths and weaknesses are contrasted, as well as their implications for teaching and research. However, it is made clear that none of these ‘implications’ is incompatible with any of the learning philosophies, even if they sit more comfortably with one of them.
Throughout this paper for brevity what I refer to as learning theories might more accurately be termed philosophies of learning. Some might argue that these ‘theories’ are not specific or testable (i.e., falsifiable) enough to deserve this title.
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Ernest, P. (2010). Reflections on Theories of Learning. In: Sriraman, B., English, L. (eds) Theories of Mathematics Education. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00742-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00742-2_4
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