Re: LOGO-L> constructionism

[Jeff <jeffr@mugc.cc.monash.edu.au>]

On Sat, 14 Feb 1998 KERRB@Magill.UniSA.edu.au wrote:
> How could constructionism be proved wrong?
> There is one view of science that says if a theory can't be disproved then it 
> is worthless.
This is 'falsificationism'. It is classically expressed by Karl Popper, 
but it has been shown to have several limitations....not the least of 
which is the historical problem that many of the greatest scientific 
theories would have been abandoned before being fully elaborated if 
strict falsificationism had been applied to them. Another problem is the 
inescapable theory-dependence of any methodology or observation in the 
first place. These things have been acknowledged, and falsificationism 
has been modified by followers of Popper such as Imre Lakatos.
However, if faslificationism, useful and illuminating as it is, has 
severe limitations in the 'hard' or more readily predictive disciplines 
such as Physics, it can only have even less to offer in the domain(s) 
where constructionism operates.
Strong alternatives and critiques of scientific method are offered by 
Paul Feyerabend and Michael Polanyi. The idea that there is a single 
'science' and that all areas of knowledge or means of pursuing it can be 
judged 'scientific' or not, is not sustainable. 
Naive falsifiabilty has been used for a long time now, and chewed up a 
lot of research funding, in psychology and education. There is not much 
to show for it in the way of 'hard core' knowledge, which sophisticated 
falsification calss the 'negative heuristic', which has been revealed or 
built by it.
I s'pose what I'm saying is that falsifiability is not a fruitful 
methodoly for continuing the enterprise of constructionism, or anything 
else to do with education.

Jeff Richardson
Faculty of Education
Monash University
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