From Instruction to Construction: What Does “Platonic” Teaching Teach?
In my last article, I described two kinds of educational approach: the “Platonic,” that prizes “pure” abstract or conceptual information, and the “Aristotelian,” that focuses on embodiment and application of knowledge in learning-by-making and real-world contexts. In other words, it’s the difference between instruction and construction as teaching strategies. As I discussed, these approaches represent a dichotomy in today’s educational practice. However, they’re not evenly distributed. Despite copious evidence to support a more “Aristotelian” approach, the “Platonic” approach prevails in schools throughout much of the world. Instruction has eclipsed construction. And this poses a profound challenge for our collective future that most educators haven’t even considered….
Why does instructionism pose a threat? Because these differences in educational approach involve far more than differences in how teachers understand and manage information in a classroom. Fundamentally, they generate different cultures and different ways of shaping and assimilating learners. This means that people see and understand the world, their place in it, and even their own identity differently depending on which learning culture they’ve experienced. It should hardly be surprising, therefore, that when people begin their lives and careers after school…
