Theories of Childhood, Second Edition (Carol Garhart Mooney) / quote 47 of 70
Construction is superior to instruction
While others of his time argued that learning is either intrinsic (coming from the child) or extrinsic (imposed by the environment or taught by adults), Piaget thought that neither position by itself explains learning. Rather, he thought that children’s interactions with their environment are what create learning. He claimed that children construct their own knowledge by giving meaning to the people, places, and things in their world. He was fond of the expression “construction is superior to instruction” (Hendrick 1992, 476). By this he meant that children learn best when they are actually doing the work themselves and creating their own understanding of what’s going on instead of being given explanations by adults. He was a student of Montessori’s work and built on her idea that meaningful work is important to children’s cognitive development. Like Montessori, Piaget believed children needed every possible opportunity to do things for themselves. For example, children might be interested in how things grow. If a teacher reads them a finely illustrated book on how things grow, this instruction will increase the children’s knowledge base. But if the children have the opportunity to actually plant a garden at school, the process of digging, watering, observing, and actually experiencing growing things will help them to construct a knowledge of growing things that they cannot ever achieve merely by being read to and looking at pictures.