Constructivism

Constructivism is the theory that we learn most effectively through experience. In Jean Piaget's research on child development, he said that play is important for the child to create new conclusions about his world. Educators such as Montessori, who supported the theory, believed that a child's hands-on experiences increased his learning ability. For example, by writing numbers on sand with his finger a 3 year old child could learn them much faster than just having a teacher telling him. Adult educators use Constructivism as the basis for doing "hands-on" classes for learning any new endeavor, from art history to fiction writing.