Borrowing from the biological sciences, enactivism is a recent theory that attempts to overcome the limitations of constructivism. Enactivism underscores the interaction between the human mind and its local conditions. Complex organisms, which must adapt to their surroundings, respond to their environment by applying both internal and external structural changes over time (Reid, 2010).
Learning is understood as this process of response modifications to the changing environment, which in turn, affects the environment again in a continuous feedback loop. When considering instructional design, the learning environment should not only provoke a response in the learner, but the environment must also provide the learner a mechanism to modify itself.
Thus, knowledge is demonstrated by the learner only through action, so that learner cognition is built upon doing, rather than a mere change of state. The components of learner, knowledge and environment must be integrated together into a balanced ecology, where the knowledge flows bilaterally and teaches the environment in addition to the learner (Li, Clark, & Winchester, 2010).
References:
Reid, D. (2010). Enactivism. Retrieved August 2, 2010, from Acadia University: http://www.acadiau.ca/~dreid/enactivism/index.html
Li, Q., Clark, B., & Winchester, I. (2010). Instructional design and technology grounded in enactivism: A paradigm shift? British Journal Of Educational Technology, 41(3), 40-419.
