ABSTRACT
D. H. Jonassen sees the present situation as a shift from a behaviouristic, mechanistic psychology of human behaviour to that of an active, constructive psychology, with learners viewed as organized entities actively constructing their own reality. The essential functions of intelligence consist in understanding and inventing, in other words of building up structures by structuring reality. An implicit assumption in behaviourist, stimulus-response psychology is that knowledge is a copy of reality. In 'The Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child', J. Piaget acknowledged that direct instruction and imposed labour are a necessary part of education but he emphasized that educational programmes should 'give rise to active manipulation and discovery by the child itself.' Piaget's views of the figurative, rote-learning aspect of education are developed more fully in his criticisms of behaviouristic psychology, particularly as applied as an educational psychology. Piaget's contribution to cognitive psychology offers a considerable challenge to educational technology, because it personifies an alternative 'world-view' of educational matters.
