Reflections Upon Problems In Adopting Constructivism During China's Basic Education Reforms

Constructivism started in Europe and American in the late 1980s.Since thenit has become a strong tidal current of thought in theory, and its influence hasquickly reached many fields. It has especially had a strong and deep influenceupon the theory and practice of modern pedagogy, which is called a basic theoryto renovate the traditional instruction.In the round of new curriculum reforms, constrnctivism has graduallybecome one kind of powerful theory. This theory has criticized many flaws oftraditional education and proposed a different teaching principles.Constructivism has its practical significance, but it has insurmountable flaws initself, shown as follows: First, constructivism confuses relations between theobtain of knowledge and the invention of knowledge. The knowledge is not apurely objective reflection to the reality, but is one kind of explanation to theobjective world, a supposition or a hypothesis,which is regarded as individual,temporary and regional. Next, it believes that it is contradictory between thetransmission of knowledge in teaching process and the construction of students'own cognition structure. This viewpoint can possibly mislead the teachingpractice. Third, this theory emphasizes the situated construction toomuch,which is difficult to carry out in the teaching practice. Constructivismbelieves that a teacher is a positive supporter,who helps students constructknowledge, who needs to arrange learning situations and carry out the situatedteaching. In fact, the teaching goal is not merely to enable students to grasp theconcrete contents, but grasp general methods of solving problems and promotethe transfer of knowledge.As a foreign theory, it can be adapted to Chinese culture? Therefore,it hasexisted so many questions to be settled.This paper has made some reflections upon constructivism from thefollowing perspectives: epistemology, methods of learning,the relationshipsbetween teachers and students, situated instruction, the relationships betweenindividuals and texts.From the above-mentioned analysis, we believe that the idea ofconstructivism is only a tool for retrospection, and an idea for teaching andlearning. It is not a model or method for teaching, for the environment andconditions for teaching and learning are relatively high. In brief, constructivismhas some significance to us, but it is not a universal truth. Therefore, in theprocess of basic educational reforms, we need to regard it scientifically. So weshould pay more attention to the applications of Constructivism in China's newround curriculum reforms.