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for the construction-renovation of knowledge, can be considered a
forerunner of constructivism. Constructivism has not stopped, how-
ever, with the theories of Piaget, but has gone beyond them thanks
to the contribution of scholars such as Jerome Bruner, L.S. Vygotskij,
Seymour Papert, David Jonassen.
Papert, a student of Piaget, introduced research on arti cial intelli-
gence in the late 1970s, focusing on the development of what Piaget
had called “operating thought”. At a time of important social and
cultural transformation, Papert – thanks to the contribution of new
technologies arriving from the States in those years – intended to
create “gyms for thought”, school environments where there would
be cooperation and support of the teacher and peers. This new per-
spective, de ned as “constructionist” by the scholar, implies sharing,
negotiation, mediation by the teacher in an atmosphere of sharing
and motivation. This theory is incorporated in the psycho-pedagog-
ical perspective of “socio-cultural constructivism”, which today rep-
resents the main theoretical horizon of the modern school. Socio-cul-
tural constructivism refers to knowledge as a shared construction but
subjective in interpretation, requiring a thought process which was
narrative, re ective and with cognitive purpose, different from the
previous “behaviourist” tendency, based on the knowledge transfer
mechanism, according to a stimulus-response structure. For con-
structivism, knowledge is complex, relative, contextualised and sub-
jective, constructed in a relentless exchange of trading and sharing
of meanings. Knowledge is built by the subject gradually, as he tries
to sort out his own experiences; it is built in the mind of the learner.
Thus, learning becomes, “signi cant”, active and collaborative.
Actually, the learning environment also takes on a new signi cance:
it becomes a laboratory, where one can learn to integrate and inter-
act with others, promoting cognitive processes for the solving of the
problems (
problem solving
) and search for new problems to tackle and
overcome (
problem nding
), in an atmosphere of creativity, discussion
and exchange of views.
Jean Piaget, introducing the concept of psychological structure
as a product of a slow process of construction – which happens in
childhood – catches a glimpse of the consequent need for self-reg-
ulation of this process, as a result of the need to manage materials
and experiences that become increasingly complex with age. The
development is a gradual process, tending more and more towards