Constructivist accounts of learning involve the notion of disequilibration, a state of internal conflict which arises through an experience in which a learner's mental representations do not coincide with real-world experience.  Such discrepancies or mismatches, referred to by Dewey as perturbations, lead to a reorganisation of mental structures, or learning, as the learner adjusts his or her world view to reflect a new understanding.

Activity

Read and reflect: Puzzlement.