You may want to use Jo Boaler's longitudinal study of two British poor neighborhood schools, one using procedural math and another project-based math. Kids in the project school did significantly better on standardized tests, and had higher-than-national passing rate (which is incredible given low socioeconomic status). There is a lot of various statistics there, including the fact that project-based learning removed the gender gap. I can send you a review of the book I just did for a grant. While not directly about constructionism, the practices and ideals, as described, are very close. Reference: <div style="line-height: 2em; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;"> Boaler, J. (2002). Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches To Teaching and Their Impact on Student Learning, Revised and Expanded Edition (Rev Enl.). Lawrence Erlbaum. <span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=urn%3Aisbn%3A0805840052&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Experiencing%20School%20Mathematics%3A%20Traditional%20and%20Reform%20Approaches%20To%20Teaching%20and%20Their%20Impact%20on%20Student%20Learning%2C%20Revised%20and%20Expanded%20Edition&rft.publisher=Lawrence%20Erlbaum&rft.edition=Rev%20Enl&rft.aufirst=Jo&rft.aulast=Boaler&rft.au=Jo%20Boaler&rft.date=2002-09-01&rft.isbn=0805840052"> </div> Cheers, Maria Droujkova <a href="http://www.naturalmath.com">http://www.naturalmath.com</a> Make math your own, to make your own math. <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Yamandu Ploskonka <<a href="mailto:yamaplos@gmail.com">yamaplos@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I have received an inquiry on implementing constructionism from a high official in the Bolivian government. Since my opinion may be biased :-), I request you help us with clear, simple and please objective answers (no vapor-stuff), if at all possible 1) How do constructionist pupils do on standardized tests, such as University entrance exams. (please inform about other demographic situations besides children of highly trained scholars - most Bolivian kids do not fit THAT bracket, alas) 2) How do they do with usual classroom tests, especially in the University. Core question is, are alumni of constructionism better, or at least competitive there? What evidence do we have to prove this? 3) Is there any evidence (objective, unbiased) as to the impact of constructionism in education? The big maybe here is further impact on development, yes ? (I may be mistaken here, please correct) 4) any other solid, statistically valid data supporting constructionism Please avoid treatises - I will be presenting this this week, and if anyone would volunteer, it may be possible to put you directly in touch with this official and/or his staff. It is, or should be widely known that I see the current conctructionist stance within OLPC and Sugar as a misguided, feel-good attempt that is bound to do more harm to most kids than good compared to what could be achieved with a solid curricular-content approach, but I honestly would be happier I were mistaken, if determined by solid evidence. I looooove constructionism, it just doesn't seem to me to be what kids need, and all in all, I wish it worked, but I cannot prove it does for most kids. I am certain, but cannot prove either, that it does work within classrooms with highly trained teachers, or for gifted kids, or when there is a lot of educated support from home, in any case not a basis to adopt it for a country like Bolivia. Yama _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) <a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a> </blockquote></div>