Constructivist approaches and the teaching of science

The teaching methods for science that developed in France from the 1970s onwards, in conjunction with various attempts to renew science teaching, were largely inspired by constructivism. Approaching epistemology as constructivists, the physicists interested in science education found in Piaget’s work a model child in tune with their own representation: a child who is active and curious, spontaneously attentive to objects and phenomena, working out concepts of the world, experimenting tirelessly, alive to contradictions, keen to be rational and intelligible, and so on. This article covers the beginnings of science-teaching theory in France, the development of research in that area and the renewed interest in constructivism by decision-makers and practitioners.