Holistic/constructivist Principles of the Teaching/Learning Process: Implications for the Field of Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Structuralist philosophy, constructivist theory, and holistic beliefs define the learning enterprise in opposition to reductionistic behavioral learning theory and suggest that the task of schools is to help students develop new meanings in response to new experiences rather than to learn the meanings others have created. This change in the very definition of learning reveals principles of learning that beg consideration in designing classroom instruction. Twelve principles are drawn here from the structuralist, constructivist, and holist literature and are applied to teaching students with learning disabilities. Looking at learning from this paradigm, one can see a different classroom environment emerging, one in which instruction is seen through the eyes of the students rather than through preferred methodologies, mandated curricula, and student assessments and diagnoses.