#constructivism — Public Fediverse posts

Stuck on some point, and fighting the realization that, once again, the main problem is someone writing *there is an equivalence* without explicitly defining an instance of said equivalence.

#constructivism

Stuck on some point, and fighting the realization that, once again, the main problem is someone writing *there is an equivalence* without explicitly defining an instance of said equivalence.

#constructivism

Why Books Don't Work: Constructivism over Transmissionism (2021)

https://www.masterhowtolearn.com/2021-01-30-why-books-dont-work-constructivism-over-transmissionism/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49295666

#HackerNews #books #education #constructivism #learning #theory #transmissionism

Why Books Don't Work: Constructivism over Transmissionism (2021)

https://www.masterhowtolearn.com/2021-01-30-why-books-dont-work-constructivism-over-transmissionism/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49295666

#HackerNews #books #education #constructivism #learning #theory #transmissionism

What are the conditions which make it possible to learn with AI?

This thoughtful pre-print by Favero et al offered a pleasingly straight forward answer to this question. Ultimately we know what makes for effective learning:

• It has to involve active engagement in which the learner is reflecting, connecting and synthesising material rather than simply passively receiving it.
• It has to integrate the new understanding which emerges into their existing understanding through direct experience and dialogue.
• It has to involve the phased withdrawal of support as learners gain competence and confidence.

Rather than ask ‘what are the conditions which make it possible to learn with AI’ we can instead ask ‘what are the conditions which make it possible to use AI in these ways‘? The problem with commercial chatbots is not the technology itself but rather the design decisions involved in making a technology for a mass audience (as Nick Srnicek has plausibly argued AGI is ultimately an ambition to create a product which work universally without sector-specific fine tuning) which mean that, not only is it not adapted to these specific educational requirements, it actively works against them in a number of ways:

• The role of prompting has become decreasingly important with successive models
• The models are increasingly agentive in the sense of able and willing to actively do stuff for the user
• The role of model memory makes it easier for habits to form over time so that users get locked into certain ways of using the chatbot

This means there’s a fundamental tension in using these chatbots for educational purposes. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible. We also shouldn’t look the perfect be the enemy of the good: as the WonkHE report plausibly argued their widespread use reflects weaknesses of existing provision in that students are drawing on them to meet needs we are failing to meet. But we need to be realistic about the underlying tension, even as we try and mitigate it through AI literacy. In part this means helping students relate to chatbots in a way which doesn’t avoid difficulty. I really like how the authors describe the problem here:

However, learners often try to avoid such an effort. Studies show that high perceived difficulty and low short-term performance can discourage engagement, despite clear long- term benefits. Interestingly, Deslauriers et al. [29] found that students in active learning environments learned more but felt they learned less. Mental effort was misinterpreted as failure, while smooth lectures mistakenly felt more effective, though they were not. This cognitive bias leads students to favor fluent, low-effort activities that give the illusion of learning, such as re-reading polished explanations, without fostering deep processing [27, 30, 16].

AI tools, and particularly chatbots, may exacerbate this issue. By offering quick, fluent, and simplified answers, they reduce the cognitive struggle which is essential to learning [14]. Their convenience may lead to passive consumption, decreased research and reasoning skills, and a growing dependence on pre-digested knowledge [31]. Ease of use is appealing, but true learning comes from effort, complexity, and time.

This isn’t just significant for their studies. There’s AI slop proliferating in academic workplaces which appear to embody the same tendency, in which people in a rush can produce something superficially plausible which lets them tick it off a list and leaves them feeling more accomplished. Knowing how to sit with difficulty, to avoid the temptation of superficially fluent outputs, will I’m fairly confident be a skill that employers will value ever more in the coming years. This means recognising the difference between ‘desirable difficulties’ and contingent barriers which can be automated away. It’s impossible to do this unless use remains active throughout what Milan Sturmer and I call the user-model interaction cycle:

• Positioning: establishing a role for the model in interaction
• Articulation: putting ideas into words which are provided by the model
• Attunement: feeling the model has ‘understood’ what the user has brought to the interaction

Each of these dimensions can be (relatively) passive. Each of these dimensions can be active. The thread uniting active use is metacognition, in the sense the authors talk about here:

Routine use of AI tools can hinder the development of metacognitive skills, independent thinking, and intellectual agency [5, 12]. As students begin to outsource decision-making to the ma- chine, they risk becoming passive recipients of information rather than critical participants in the learning process [4]. This passivity is linked to broader deficits, including reduced creativity, increased mental laziness, and diminished capacity for critical thought [16]. Moreover, dependency on AI tools can lead to the uncritical acceptance of their outputs. When students perceive these systems as convenient, accurate, and reliable, they may stop questioning the information provided, which fosters cognitive dependency, i.e., the erosion of the ability to assess, verify, and challenge content independently

We need to help students name what it feels like to be actively thinking when interacting with a model. There’s a distinct phenomenology to this. It’s also something which cannot be sustained indefinitely. As you get tired, it’s easy to slide into increasingly passive uses of the model, with ever more capable models almost seamlessly picking up the load from you.

What are the conditions which make it possible to learn with AI?

This thoughtful pre-print by Favero et al offered a pleasingly straight forward answer to this question. Ultimately we know what makes for effective learning:

• It has to involve active engagement in which the learner is reflecting, connecting and synthesising material rather than simply passively receiving it.
• It has to integrate the new understanding which emerges into their existing understanding through direct experience and dialogue.
• It has to involve the phased withdrawal of support as learners gain competence and confidence.

Rather than ask ‘what are the conditions which make it possible to learn with AI’ we can instead ask ‘what are the conditions which make it possible to use AI in these ways‘? The problem with commercial chatbots is not the technology itself but rather the design decisions involved in making a technology for a mass audience (as Nick Srnicek has plausibly argued AGI is ultimately an ambition to create a product which work universally without sector-specific fine tuning) which mean that, not only is it not adapted to these specific educational requirements, it actively works against them in a number of ways:

• The role of prompting has become decreasingly important with successive models
• The models are increasingly agentive in the sense of able and willing to actively do stuff for the user
• The role of model memory makes it easier for habits to form over time so that users get locked into certain ways of using the chatbot

This means there’s a fundamental tension in using these chatbots for educational purposes. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible. We also shouldn’t look the perfect be the enemy of the good: as the WonkHE report plausibly argued their widespread use reflects weaknesses of existing provision in that students are drawing on them to meet needs we are failing to meet. But we need to be realistic about the underlying tension, even as we try and mitigate it through AI literacy. In part this means helping students relate to chatbots in a way which doesn’t avoid difficulty. I really like how the authors describe the problem here:

However, learners often try to avoid such an effort. Studies show that high perceived difficulty and low short-term performance can discourage engagement, despite clear long- term benefits. Interestingly, Deslauriers et al. [29] found that students in active learning environments learned more but felt they learned less. Mental effort was misinterpreted as failure, while smooth lectures mistakenly felt more effective, though they were not. This cognitive bias leads students to favor fluent, low-effort activities that give the illusion of learning, such as re-reading polished explanations, without fostering deep processing [27, 30, 16].

AI tools, and particularly chatbots, may exacerbate this issue. By offering quick, fluent, and simplified answers, they reduce the cognitive struggle which is essential to learning [14]. Their convenience may lead to passive consumption, decreased research and reasoning skills, and a growing dependence on pre-digested knowledge [31]. Ease of use is appealing, but true learning comes from effort, complexity, and time.

This isn’t just significant for their studies. There’s AI slop proliferating in academic workplaces which appear to embody the same tendency, in which people in a rush can produce something superficially plausible which lets them tick it off a list and leaves them feeling more accomplished. Knowing how to sit with difficulty, to avoid the temptation of superficially fluent outputs, will I’m fairly confident be a skill that employers will value ever more in the coming years. This means recognising the difference between ‘desirable difficulties’ and contingent barriers which can be automated away. It’s impossible to do this unless use remains active throughout what Milan Sturmer and I call the user-model interaction cycle:

• Positioning: establishing a role for the model in interaction
• Articulation: putting ideas into words which are provided by the model
• Attunement: feeling the model has ‘understood’ what the user has brought to the interaction

Each of these dimensions can be (relatively) passive. Each of these dimensions can be active. The thread uniting active use is metacognition, in the sense the authors talk about here:

Routine use of AI tools can hinder the development of metacognitive skills, independent thinking, and intellectual agency [5, 12]. As students begin to outsource decision-making to the ma- chine, they risk becoming passive recipients of information rather than critical participants in the learning process [4]. This passivity is linked to broader deficits, including reduced creativity, increased mental laziness, and diminished capacity for critical thought [16]. Moreover, dependency on AI tools can lead to the uncritical acceptance of their outputs. When students perceive these systems as convenient, accurate, and reliable, they may stop questioning the information provided, which fosters cognitive dependency, i.e., the erosion of the ability to assess, verify, and challenge content independently

We need to help students name what it feels like to be actively thinking when interacting with a model. There’s a distinct phenomenology to this. It’s also something which cannot be sustained indefinitely. As you get tired, it’s easy to slide into increasingly passive uses of the model, with ever more capable models almost seamlessly picking up the load from you.

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev or Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев, who died OTD in 1949, designed Lenin's mausoleum in #Moscow's Red Square https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/russia/moscow.html?s=mb #travel #Russia #Constructivism

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev or Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев, who died OTD in 1949, designed Lenin's mausoleum in #Moscow's Red Square https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/russia/moscow.html?s=mb #travel #Russia #Constructivism

TIL The Sound's Jeopardy album artwork is a remix of a 1926 Soviet-Georgian film poster, so if you had sensed 1920s avantgarde vibes in that cover, that was for a reason.

The film in question is Преступление княжны Ширванской (The Crime of Princess Shirvanskaya), dir. Ivane Perestiani, poster design by the Stenberg brothers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crime_of_Shirvanskaya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenberg_brothers

#TheSound #postpunk #constructivism #sovietavantgarde

TIL The Sound's Jeopardy album artwork is a remix of a 1926 Soviet-Georgian film poster, so if you had sensed 1920s avantgarde vibes in that cover, that was for a reason.

The film in question is Преступление княжны Ширванской (The Crime of Princess Shirvanskaya), dir. Ivane Perestiani, poster design by the Stenberg brothers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crime_of_Shirvanskaya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenberg_brothers

#TheSound #postpunk #constructivism #sovietavantgarde

Vladimir Tatlin
Flowers
---
#VladimirTatlin #Russianavantgarde #Constructivism #art #painting

Vladimir Tatlin
Flowers
---
#VladimirTatlin #Russianavantgarde #Constructivism #art #painting

It's a cold weather day, time for some Guy Madden movies.
#GuyMadden #surrealism #constructivism

The Constructivist Lens card is my favourite kind of philosophical troublemaker: a reminder that seeing is never neutral and knowledge is always built on scaffolding. MTG parody card.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/09/contructivist-lens-parody-artefact/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtg
#Constructivism #Perspective #Epistemology #Philosophy #Psychology #Language #metaphor #Reality #truth

The Constructivist Lens card is my favourite kind of philosophical troublemaker: a reminder that seeing is never neutral and knowledge is always built on scaffolding. MTG parody card.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/10/contructivist-lens-parody-artefact/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mtg
#Constructivism #Perspective #Epistemology #Philosophy #Psychology #Language #metaphor #Reality #truth

New card in the Critical Theory parody set: Language Game

Wittgenstein’s warning still stands: meaning isn’t a thing, it’s a use.
We live in the friction between saying and doing, countering and reframing.

👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DQi2rvWjucT/

#Philosophy #CriticalTheory #Wittgenstein #Language #PhilosophyOfLanguage #Postmodernism #Constructivism #Philosophics #Epistemology #Meaning #Society #Communication #Instagram #MTG

New card in the Critical Theory parody set: Language Game

Wittgenstein’s warning still stands: meaning isn’t a thing, it’s a use.
We live in the friction between saying and doing, countering and reframing.

👉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DQi2rvWjucT/

#Philosophy #CriticalTheory #Wittgenstein #Language #PhilosophyOfLanguage #Postmodernism #Constructivism #Philosophics #Epistemology #Meaning #Society #Communication #Instagram #MTG

Artifact drop: Constructivist Lens.
Tap to rewrite your ontology as metaphor. Because “truth” was always a house rule.

🔗 https://philosophics.blog/2025/10/31/constructivist-lens-artifact/

#Philosophy #Constructivism #MTG #Satire #CriticalTheory #parody #Postmodernism #Rorty #blog #sociology #psychology #LanguageGames #Philosophics

Artifact drop: Constructivist Lens.
Tap to rewrite your ontology as metaphor. Because “truth” was always a house rule.

🔗 https://philosophics.blog/2025/10/31/constructivist-lens-artifact/

#Philosophy #Constructivism #MTG #Satire #CriticalTheory #parody #Postmodernism #Rorty #blog #sociology #psychology #LanguageGames #Philosophics

Used the whiteboard in my lecture today. Free speaking, working through the case in open dialogue.

No slides. Slides destroy the student's engagement, they present the material as fixed, whereas it is alive and needs to be called out.

My institution has rules that require us to use slides. I could not bear the suffocation any longer and just broke the rules. I will have to find some acceptable mix that maintains overall compliance, with the occasional free session smuggled in.

It was so liberating to be able to be in open dialogue with the material, no predetermined progression, the students experiencing the actual construction of knowledge live, sensing the personal investment needed to obtain truth.

The students were on board. Took notes, asked questions, talked to each other when I set them a task. Real learning, live in the classroom. Learning as joyful work, not as consumption. It is possible.

#lectures #pedagogy #HigherEducation #AcademicChatter #noSlides #constructivism

Used the whiteboard in my lecture today. Free speaking, working through the case in open dialogue.

No slides. Slides destroy the student's engagement, they present the material as fixed, whereas it is alive and needs to be called out.

My institution has rules that require us to use slides. I could not bear the suffocation any longer and just broke the rules. I will have to find some acceptable mix that maintains overall compliance, with the occasional free session smuggled in.

It was so liberating to be able to be in open dialogue with the material, no predetermined progression, the students experiencing the actual construction of knowledge live, sensing the personal investment needed to obtain truth.

The students were on board. Took notes, asked questions, talked to each other when I set them a task. Real learning, live in the classroom. Learning as joyful work, not as consumption. It is possible.

#lectures #pedagogy #HigherEducation #AcademicChatter #noSlides #constructivism

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev or Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев, born OTD in 1873, designed Lenin's mausoleum in #Moscow's Red Square https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/russia/moscow.html?s=mb #travel #Russia #Constructivism

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev or Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев, born OTD in 1873, designed Lenin's mausoleum in #Moscow's Red Square https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/russia/moscow.html?s=mb #travel #Russia #Constructivism

"Olly and Dolly Sisters," László Moholy-Nagy, 1925.

Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was a Hungarian-born painter and photographer of the Bauhaus and Constructivist schools, who embraced photography as an artistic medium and sought to use it as an art form, rather than just a documentary technology.

The Dolly Sisters were Hungarian-born twins Rosie (1892-1970) and Jenny (1892-1941) who were popular dancers and silent film actresses in the 1920s, famed for their dancing and flamboyant, scandalous lifestyles. While the photograph appears to be one of them, it hints at both with the placement of one to one side and the one black circle hanging in space on the other.

Exactly what he was getting at with this work is anyone's guess, although it eerily prefigures how Jenny would die by suicide in her 40s. However, it's an arresting image, and a great demonstration of how Moholy-Nagy believed that technology and industry can be incorporated into art. He later did a number of innovative installations involving electronics and other technology.

From the Getty Museum.

#Art #Photography #Bauhaus #Constructivism #LaszloMoholyNagy #DollySisters

"Olly and Dolly Sisters," László Moholy-Nagy, 1925.

Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was a Hungarian-born painter and photographer of the Bauhaus and Constructivist schools, who embraced photography as an artistic medium and sought to use it as an art form, rather than just a documentary technology.

The Dolly Sisters were Hungarian-born twins Rosie (1892-1970) and Jenny (1892-1941) who were popular dancers and silent film actresses in the 1920s, famed for their dancing and flamboyant, scandalous lifestyles. While the photograph appears to be one of them, it hints at both with the placement of one to one side and the one black circle hanging in space on the other.

Exactly what he was getting at with this work is anyone's guess, although it eerily prefigures how Jenny would die by suicide in her 40s. However, it's an arresting image, and a great demonstration of how Moholy-Nagy believed that technology and industry can be incorporated into art. He later did a number of innovative installations involving electronics and other technology.

From the Getty Museum.

#Art #Photography #Bauhaus #Constructivism #LaszloMoholyNagy #DollySisters

Heterosexuality is a regime of political oppression 🧶

"Just as racism produces race and not the other way round, sexism produces sex through the relationship of domination that reduces the dominated to things or natural objects."
… said Natacha Chetcuti-Osorovitz summarizing Monique Wittig

#materialism #beliefs #subjugation #radicality #EstelleSays #materialistFeminism #naturalism #appropriation #sexism #heteroSexuality #saphism #heteroNormativity #feminisms #history #MoniqueWittig #Wittig #literature #homosexuality #lesbianism #feminism #internationalism #patriarchy #linguistics #writing #minorityStudies #universalism #queer #constructivism #antagonism #culturalHistory #lesbians

Heterosexuality is a regime of political oppression 🧶

"Just as racism produces race and not the other way round, sexism produces sex through the relationship of domination that reduces the dominated to things or natural objects."
… said Natacha Chetcuti-Osorovitz summarizing Monique Wittig

#materialism #beliefs #subjugation #radicality #EstelleSays #materialistFeminism #naturalism #appropriation #sexism #heteroSexuality #saphism #heteroNormativity #feminisms #history #MoniqueWittig #Wittig #literature #homosexuality #lesbianism #feminism #internationalism #patriarchy #linguistics #writing #minorityStudies #universalism #queer #constructivism #antagonism #culturalHistory #lesbians

Vladimir Tatlin
Meat
---
#constructivism #Russianavantgarde #VladimirTatlin #art #painting

Vladimir Tatlin
Meat
---
#constructivism #Russianavantgarde #VladimirTatlin #art #painting

Vladimir Tatlin
Flowers
---
#VladimirTatlin #Russianavantgarde #constructivism #art #painting

Vladimir Tatlin
Flowers
---
#VladimirTatlin #Russianavantgarde #constructivism #art #painting

"Cetacea" was a piece out of four pieces which allowed it to take on different forms and shapes.
Finally shipped of to La 🇫🇷

for available work 🛒
https://thuhstudio.etsy.com

#minimalism #constructivism #architecture #sculpture #decor #art

#void #abstract #brutalism #architecture #layers #lampoon #light #lantern #maquette #architectuur #kunst #museum #light #interior #design #lamp #artwork #productdesign #led #lightingdesign #handmade #robot #beton #concrete

Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev or Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев, who died OTD in 1949, designed Lenin's mausoleum in #Moscow's Red Square https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/russia/moscow.html?s=mb #travel #Russia #Constructivism

Varvara Stepanova, Книга и революция (The Book and the Revolution), 1929 and 1930.

Often mentioned only alongside her husband, Alexander Rodchenko (whose photography was used here), Stepanova was an accomplished artist in her own right. She designed the covers and interiors of this journal of politics, culture, criticism, and bibliography.⁠

#VarvaraStepanova #WomenDesigners #Constructivism #Lettering #Russian #GraphicDesign #1920s