Page 129 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

112 H. Siebert

Fig. 10.1 Constructivist
disciplines

own kind through its senses, as well as cognitively and emotionally. This thesis is
also fruitful for pedagogical and communication sciences (Fig. 10.1).
The world is not directly accessible by our knowledge system. Even our visual,
acoustic, olfactory and tactile perceptions are translations of chemical and physical
stimuli. For example, hearing is a translation of sound waves. Our brain may be
‘structurally coupled’ with the environment, but ‘inputs’ from the environment are
merely triggers for highly individual and experience-dependent thought processes.
The system itself decides what it considers to be relevant input. In this perspective
learning is also a self-regulated, emerging construction of reality. Although adults
are capable of learning, they are ‘unteachable’, that is they cannot be directly
2
instructed or raised like little children.
Teaching and learning are structurally separate systems. Learning systems cannot
be determined from outside. They can only perceive and process information that can
be processed by the cognitive system. To formulate it as a paradox: We do not see
what we do not see; we hear only what we hear. “In the psychological and especially
in the biological testing of this hypothesis, we have discovered that every brain con-
structs, that is to a certain degree discovers ‘reality’ differently” (Lenzen 1999: 155).
In a seminar 20 students will then construct 20 different ideas of the learning
content of the seminar, so that each student is learning something different. This
means that we cannot ‘educate’ someone to be moral. Ecological responsibility
must be experienced and lived as self-referential.

Cognition and Emotion

In the 1990s constructivism was mainly discussed as a theory of cognition. In recent
years – not least because of advances in brain research – it has become clear that our
constructs of reality are just as much emotional as cognitive. Roth, a brain researcher,

2 As the saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.