In this article, we are concerned with constructivism as a theory of learning. Hence, we are
interested in how people construct meaning and knowledge. It is important to distinguish this
from epistemology of scientific knowledge, i.e. the growth, development and status of
scientific knowledge about the world.
We may ask: What is constructed?
1. Is it our individual knowledge about the world? ("Children construct their own
knowledge.")
2. Is it the shared and accepted scientific knowledge about the world as it exists in
established science? ("Scientific knowledge is socially constructed")
3. Or is it the world itself? ("The world is socially constructed")
The first of these questions is a problem of psychology and educational or learning theory,
while the latter two are part of philosophy and epistemology. Question no 2 is also addressed
by the sociology of knowledge and sociology of science.