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The term social construction finds its origin in John Dewey's Pedagogic Creed (1963). Here Dewey asserts that the "psychological and social sides of education are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other" (20). Further, Dewey sees education coming as a result of the empowerment of the learner in a social situation. He sees the learner as becoming a member of a community, able to see herself, not from an egocentric view, but rather from the perspective of the welfare of the community. Dewey believes that school is one form of community which can help learners construct knowledge socially so that they may fully participate in the "social consciousness of the race" (26).
Dewey maintains that the only way to make learners conscious of their social heritage is for them to construct learning experiences which are fundamental to making civilization what it is, and that, through language as a mediating tool for learning, learners come to collaborate with their own and others' thoughts and feelings.
THEORETICAL DEFINITION OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivism is a way of building knowledge about self, school, everyday experience, and society through reflection and meaning making (Shor 1992). One of the primary goals of constructivism is to provide a democratic and critical learning experience for students. It serves to open boundaries through inquiry, not through unquestioned acceptance of prevailing knowledge. It is the realization that knowledge is never neutral, that the ways in which knowledge is mediated and created are as dynamic and important as the knowledge itself.
In a learning community grounded in constructivism, learners mediate knowledge within a social context. The role of language in a constructivist environment is that of mediator between the learner and the world, shaping and extending thought. The child actively constructs a world, and language helps shape the construction" (Kutz and Roskelly 1991, 39). Similarly, Lev Vygotsky notes that "learners are moved forward through stages of cognitive development through socially mediated situations" (1986, 34).
The primary function of speech in children and adults is communication--social contact (Vygotsky 35). Words, both spoken and written in a social context, mediate meaning that helps lead to the construction of concepts or knowledge. Words function...