Constructionism

"If you can build it, you can understand it. If you can inspect it, you can trust it."

Seymour Papert's educational philosophy: you learn best by building things you can inspect and modify. Not passive consumption. Not abstract explanation. Construction.

The Tradition

Logo Microworlds — Children don't learn geometry from textbooks. They teach a turtle to draw shapes:

TO SQUARE :SIZE
  REPEAT 4 [FORWARD :SIZE RIGHT 90]
END

The child:

1. Builds the procedure
2. Runs it and sees results