Emergent Constructivism

Passive versus active ontologies for modeling the nature of representation impose powerful constraints on the conceptual possibilities for the different versions of constructivism. The neoconstructivism outlined by N. S. Newcombe (2011) is convergent with an active, action-based approach to representation; however, it does not directly address the issue of representational emergence. If cognition is fundamentally emergent from (inter) action, then an emergent constructivist approach to development is necessary to fully transcend the limitations of the passive ontologies inherent to nativist and empiricist perspectives.