Omnipresent in educational discourse, constructivist learning theory is often misrepresented in the literature as a theory of instruction. Appearing as social or personal constructivism or a hybrid, underpinning it is a belief that learning manifests as the reorganisation of cognitive schemata. In recent years, there have been moves to rethink constructivist theory from a critical, realist-materialist perspective. The result has been the emergence of social constructionism. In this paper we argue that social constructionist theory is more useful as a theory to guide curriculum development. We cite evidence of our work with pre-service and practising teachers to support this argument.
32nd Australian Teacher Education National Conference. Making Spaces: Regenerating the Profession: Proceedings of the 2004 Australian Teacher Education Association National Conference (Bathurst, N.S.W. 7-10 July, 2004) p. 407-414