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Meeting Educational Objectives
in the Affective and Cognitive Domains:
Personal and Social Constructivist
Perspectives on Enjoyment, Motivation
and Learning Chemistry
Keith S. Taber
Abstract Constructivist ideas about learning have been highly influential in sci-
ence education over several decades. Debate continues between some educational
scholars about the value of constructivism as the basis for informing effective
instruction. However, in teaching the sciences, some core constructivist ideas
have largely been accepted and indeed commonly even become taken for granted.
Most commonly, constructivist accounts focus on learning, either as an individual
act of knowledge construction or as participation within a community of practice,
and have tended to relate to issues of knowledge and/or authenticity that reflect a
cognitive focus. This chapter revisits constructivist ideas about learning to ask what
they can offer when considering educational objectives in the affective domain. It is
argued that guidance that largely derives from cognitive perspectives on learning
often also makes good sense when our focus is on affect. It is suggested that the
traditional emphasis of research within the constructivist research programme on
what
is learnt should be supplemented by a simultaneous consideration of how
learning activities are experienced by the students.
1
Introduction
Within the broader educational community, constructivism is understood in diverse
ways and has been the subject of quite intense debate (Phillips,
2000
). Construc-
tivist approaches to teaching have sometimes been seen as equivalent to
'
progres-
sive
education or synonymous with discovery learning or teaching by
enquiry. Some association with such terms is certainly justified, but unfortunately,
given such diversity in use,
'
or
'
reform
'
'
constructivism
'
has become a rather vague term that
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