Guided by concepts such as passion and undecidability, this book uses empirical studies and phenomenological analyses of knowing and learning science to argue that the 'constructivist metaphor' suppresses other modes of thinking about scientific learning.

This book argues that the 'constructivist metaphor' has become a self-appointed overriding concept that suppresses other modes of thinking about knowing and learning science. Yet there are questions about knowledge that constructivism cannot properly answer, such as how a cognitive structure can intentionally develop a formation that is more complex than itself; how a learner can aim at a learning objective that is, by definition, itself unknown; how we learn through pain, suffering, love or passion; and the role emotion and crises play in knowing and learning.

In support of the hypothesis that passibility underlies cognition, readers are provided with a collation of empirical studies and phenomenological analyses of knowing and learning sciencein schools, scientific laboratories and everyday lifeall of which defy a constructivist explanation. The author argues that 'passibility' constitutes an essential factor in the development of consciousness, with a range of essential experiences that cannot be brought into the linguistic realm. His exploration is guided by concepts such as 'otherness', passion, passivity and undecidability, and concludes by resituating the construction metaphor to accord it its proper place in a more comprehensive theory of learning.

Radically new, empirically based epistemology in science/technology-related knowing and learning Integrative treatment of emotion, motivation, and the passions in a comprehensive theory First/third person perspectives on critical aspects of learning in science

Inhalt

Frontispiece.- Preface.- 1. De/Constructing the Blind Spots of Constructivism.- PART A: PASSIVITY, UNCERTAINTY, UNDECIDABILITY.- 2. Learning and the Erasure of Knowledge.- 3. Radical Passivity in Learning.- 4. Radical Uncertainty in Acting.- 5. Emergence of Duality.- PART B: OTHERNESS.- 6. Talking Conceptions without Conceptions.- 7. Thought Follows Communication.- 8. Otherness of Self.- 9. The Nonsense of Meaning.- PART C: PASSIONS.- 10. Emotion, Motives, Motivations.- 11. Crises, Suffering, Joy.- 12. From Incarnation to Responsibility.- PART D: EPILOGUE.- 13. Sublating the Constructivist Metaphor.- References.- Index.