Learning by building

Jean Piaget described the child as a researcher who builds knowledge by acting on the world. His work on the origins of intelligence shows that thought takes shape through action, well before abstract language.

Seymour Papert, who worked with Piaget in Geneva, drew a pedagogy from this. In Mindstorms, in 1980, he described children programming a turtle, a small robot that draws shapes. To make it turn, the child has to imagine the movement from the turtle’s point of view, and geometry becomes an experience. This is constructionism: we learn particularly well by building an object that we can show and make work.

What this looks like in the classroom

• The student forms a hypothesis, programs it, observes and corrects. This is a scientific approach.
• Mistakes are visible and harmless. The robot does not do what was intended, so you look for the reason.
• Mathematics, physics and language become tools for meeting a concrete challenge.