IntroductionMeaning

Basic ideasPrinciples of Constructivism

How children constructs knowledge

Constructivism

IntroductionThe concept was founded by Von

Glaserfeld (Mujis and Reynolds, 2011) The philosophical origin of

constructivism is related to Socrates’, John Dewey’s, Pestallozzi’s, Montesori’s and Freire’s ideas and their teaching approaches.

Socrates: the goal of education is to develop the power of thinking and intellectual capacity (Plato’s ‘Apology of Socrates’ in Concise Readings in Philosophy,1981).

Dewey contends that education is a

‘reconstruction and reorganization of experience’ (Dewey in Education and Society,1960).

What is Constructivism?Elliott et al (2000:256) puts it that it

is ‘an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner’.

In elaborating constructivists’ ideas Arends (1998:6) puts it that constructivism believes in personal construction of meaning by the learner through experience ……..and that meaning is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new events.

Key Constructivist Ideas The crucial action of constructing

meaning is mental. It happens in the mind. Mind and

physical actions work together.

Individual’s interpretation of information is different from another as it is made in the light of his or her own experiences.

Construction of understanding and interpretation of material or information occur by making sense of one’s own experience.

Construction of meaning occurs through reflection and meta-cognition.

Knowledge is changing as learners confront new challenges that builds and modifies existing knowledge.

Learners are actively involved in the process of acquisition and construction of their knowledge. Learning is an active process in which learners use sensory inputs and constructs meaning out of it. The learner must act, practice or do something.

Knowledge is subjective as every individual has unique experience.

Hence, interpretation becomes different

because interpretation of information is made in the light of one’s own experience.

The learner constructs his own understanding and interpretation of the material.

Not two people can construct the same knowledge.

Learning is influenced by social interaction through dialogue, challenging situations or exchange of experiences and understanding.

Learning involves language. The language we use conveys meaning that influences learning.

Learning is socially constructed. Learning is intimately associated with our connection with other human beings; teachers, peers, parents and others. There is need to encourage group work, seminars and discussions.

Learning is contextual: we do not learn isolated facts and theories separate from the rest of our lives.

We learn in relation to what else we know, what we believe, our prejudices and perceptions.

It takes time to learn. We need to revisit

ideas, ponder them, try them out, play with and use them. There is need for repeated exposure and thought.

Motivation is a key component in learning; how the knowledge can be used; why we learn something, or goals of learning and feelings of ability to learn something.

Teaching is about empowering the learner, allowing the learner to discover and reflect on realistic experiences leading to authentic and deeper understanding, compared to the surface memorization. It is emphasized to use hands-on and real life materials than text books.

Piaget on constructivism: Children construct their knowledge through exploration and adaptation to their environment.

Curiosity motivates their explorations and make meaning about their environments.

The growth of ability to construct meaning and interpret events depends on development of language and memory capacity.

Lev VygostkyMental development occurs when

children face new and puzzling experiences trying to resolve problems.

They link new knowledge with prior knowledge. New ideas enhance the learners’ intellectual development.

Society has a profound impact on the construction of knowledge. Society provides the challenges and assistance.

The society helps individuals to fill the Zone of Proximal Development.

Zone of proximal development is the difference between actual development and potential development

Actual development: individual’s current intellectual functioning.

Potential development: increased individual’s intellectual functioning when assisted.

Bruner Students use their own direct experience and observations to gain information and to solve problems.

Learning through discoveryLearning through scaffoldingReadiness to learn (willingness and mental capability)

Teachers are facilitators and question askers.

Common activities for constsruction of knowledge

Experimentation;Observation and manipulation objects

and symbols;Posing thought provoking questions Relating events and objects; Projects;Case studies

Exchanging views, knowledge and

experiences through dialogue and discussion

Discovery and Problem solving activities

Excursion or fieldtripsScaffolding

Teachers strategiesScaffolding: give challenging tasks, give

assistance and support and, gradually withdraw your support. Questioning, prompting, giving tasks, provide available resources or encourage learners to use available resources, challenge them, allowing them to help each other in small group tasks.

Coaching: motivate learners analyze their performance and providing feedback and teachers help. It helps in making learners aware of their own thinking process their strengths and weaknesses and be more reflective in their learning.

Articulation: help learners articulate their

ideas, thoughts and solutions through expressing their ideas and views.

Reflection This happens when: pupils compare their solutions to experts

or other pupils. the teacher gives counter examples and

the views put forward by others (teacher, pupils).

The teacher allows pupils to discuss their findings, ideas and strategies.

The teacher asks learners how they have

solved the problems, the strategies they have used and whether they are effective.

This activity develops meta-cognition skills reflecting on one’s own learning.

Meta-cognitive skills: Bertlett and Burton (2007:129) define

meta-cognition as the process of coming to know more about one’s own learning strategies, such as strategies for remembering, ways of presenting information and when thinking approaches to problems.

Learners should be encouraged to

explore their own ways of knowing and remembering, to experiment with learning strategies, to appreciate teaching and learning techniques which help them learn best and monitor their own learning.

The teacher should emphasize critical thinking through games, problem solving tasks, study skills, collaborative learning and experimental learning.

Collaboration (learning with others).Create situations and encourage learners

to learn from each other. This should include reciprocal teaching,

peer collaboration and group problem-based activities.

Collaboration should be purposeful talk that allows pupils to examine, elaborate, assess and build their knowledge in a social context.

This can be done through seminars, conferences, group discussions and classroom discussions

Exploration problem solving activitiesHelp learners to search for data and

process them rather than mere acquisition of large store of information.

Involve learners in search for data that answers a question or helps solve a problem.

This can be done through projects and field activities.

Learners should be allowed to choose tasks, projects or assignments they are doing.

Teachers work with pupils to design.

Flexibility of lessonsLesson plan should be flexible and reactive. React to pupils questions and responses and

ideas and the lesson can go to different directions from that originally planned.

Pupils’ comments or questions should lead to the discovery of new knowledge and ideas.

Teachers need to be adaptive to individual’s ability and accommodating learner’s different ways of learning.

The teacher to allow different ways of solving problems or pointing out that different answers are possible.

The teacher to stress the existence of

multiple realities-moving away from thinking that there is always the right answer.

Flexibility will help learners to become more thoughtful and engage in deeper learning.

Time must be given to explore as some students may take more time to understand.

Assessment techniques must allow pupils to express their personal understanding of concepts in individual ways. Use portfolios and observation of pupils, alternative to traditional testing.

Questions for discussion (it is very much important to discuss these question)If you were to use choose one learning

theory to apply in teaching between behavioral learning theory and cognitive learning theory which one would you choose and why?

OrIf you were to give strengths and

weaknesses of Cognitive learning theories in comparing to Behavioral learning theories, what would be your comments (read and discuss the conclusions made to behavioral learning theories)?

ReferencesArends, R (1998): Learning to Teach.

Boston: McGraw HillBertlett, S and Burton, D (2nd edition)

(2007): Introduction to Education Studies. Sage publications: Los Angeles.

Bruner, J ‘Folk Pedagogies’. Leach, J & Moon, B (editors) (1999): The Power of Pedagogy; Los Angles: Sage.

Bruner J (1977): The Process of Education. Harvard University Press

Elliott et al (2000): Educational Psychology:

Effective Teaching, Effective Learning. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Goodson, I ‘Towards and Alternative Pedagogy’ 1998 in Kincheloe et al (editors) Routeledge New York

Jenny Leach & Bob Moon (editors) (1999): The Power of Pedagogy. Los Angles: Sage. Mujis, D and Reynolds, D (2011): Effective Teaching: Evidence and Practice. Sage: Los Angeles

Paul Ramsden (2003): Learning to Teach in Higher Education (2nd Edition). Routeledge/Falmaer: London.

Dewey, J (1960): Education and Society. www.cafanet.com/linkclick.aspx?filetiket.ta

bid