Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory

When to use Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory

When setting up maker spaces, innovation labs, or designing curriculum for self-directed learning environments.

How Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory works

Use these ideas as a checklist for session design: ensure learners are making something they want (Idea 1), allow for 'hard fun' (Idea 3), and explicitly model the struggle of learning (Idea 7).

Phases of Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory

1. Learning by Doing: People learn better when learning is part of doing something they find really interesting. The facilitator lets participants pick a project they care about and learn what they need along the way.
2. Technology as Building Material: Technology is used to make things, which lets learners build much more interesting things. Participants use digital tools to create and test their own projects rather than consume content.
3. Hard Fun: People learn best and enjoy most what is challenging and absorbing. The facilitator sets demanding tasks participants chose themselves and resists making them easier.
4. Learning to Learn: No one can teach you everything you need to know; you take charge of your own learning. Participants find resources, ask peers and reflect on how they solved problems.
5. Taking the Time: Learners need time to do a job properly instead of being told what to do every few minutes. The facilitator protects long, uninterrupted work blocks and lets participants manage their own time.
6. Getting it Right by Getting it Wrong: You cannot get it right without getting it wrong first; mistakes are part of the process. Participants look at what went wrong in their projects and fix it, with failure treated as normal.
7. Making Ourselves what we Make our Students: Facilitators are learners too and model the learning they ask of others. The facilitator works on their own project in the room and shares their struggles and mistakes openly.
8. Entering a Digital World: Knowing about digital technology is as important as reading and writing. The facilitator makes working with digital tools a normal part of every activity, not a separate topic.

Key principles

• Learner autonomy and time management
• The necessity of 'bugs' and errors in the learning process
• Facilitator transparency in their own learning journey
• Digital fluency as a medium for learning all subjects

Best for

• Maker education
• Self-directed professional development
• Engineering and design thinking
• Growth mindset cultivation

Considerations

• Learners accustomed to traditional 'teaching' may initially struggle with the lack of structure
• Facilitators must be comfortable not having all the answers
• Time management is often the most difficult skill for learners to master in this framework

Attribution & sources

Developed by Dr. Seymour Papert, documented by Gary Stager (1999)

Primary source

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