Learning and adaptation in the theory of constructivism

Abstract

Learning and adaptation are conceptually distinct and refer to different processes. Both concepts are incorporated in Piaget’s genetic epistemology and in the more radical constructivist model of cognition that has sprung from it. Misinterpretation of the different roles the two terms play in that theoretical model is one of the reasons why the constructivist approach has often been misunderstood by educators. In this paper I shall lay out the use of the two terms in the constructivist theory and give some indication of its application to learning and the practice of teaching. THE CONCEPT OF ADAPTATION In everyday language the difference between the terms learning and adaptation is sometimes blurred because both refer to a fundamental requirement. If we were not adapted to our environment, we would be unable to survive, and if we could not learn, we would die of our mistakes. For the biologist, however, there is an important difference: adaptation refers to the biological make-up, the genetically determined potential with which we are born; and learning is the process that allows us to build up skills in acting and thinking as a result of our own experience. Another way of bringing out this difference would be to explain that biological adaptation is the result of accidental mutations in the genes that determine possibilities of development, whereas learning can be engaged in deliberately in view of goals that we or others choose. This means that learning is an activity that we, consciously or unconsciously, have to carry out ourselves. In contrast, the basic meaning of adaptation is not an activity of organisms or species. I am here not concerned with the much looser meaning of the word in everyday language, where it may refer also to deliberate modifications (e.g. we adapted our plan to the change in the weather). Adaptation in the technical sense, merely ascribes, to whatever organisms are alive today, the physical and behavioral characteristics that are necessary to survive and have offspring in their present environment. What further tends to mislead about the biological meaning of the term adaptation, is its definition as the outcome of a process called natural selection. This seems to relate the process to the deliberate, goal-directed selecting that is done, for example, by breeders of dogs or horses. Natural selection, in contrast, happens quite aimlessly as the result of changes in the environment which simply wipe out all those that do not have the characteristics necessary for Ernst von Glasersfeld http://www.vonglasersfeld.com