Constructivism

Definition

Constructivism is a theory of learning based on the idea that knowledge is constructed by the knower based on mental activity. Learners are considered to be active organisms seeking meaning. Constructivism is founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world consciously we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences. Constructions of meaning may initially bear little relationship to reality (as in the naive theories of children), but will become increasing more complex, differentiated and realistic as time goes on.

Guiding principles of constructivism

1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning.
2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.
3. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.
4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the "right" answers and regurgitate someone else's meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.

How Constructivism Impacts Learning

Constructive teaching is based on the belief that students learn best when they gain knowledge through exploration and active learning. Hands-on materials are used instead of textbooks, and students are encouraged to think and explain their reasoning instead of memorizing and reciting facts. Education is centered on themes and concepts and the connections between them, rather than isolated information.

Instruction : Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.

Assessment : Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.

Faces Of Constructivism

Dougiamas (1998) describes the major "faces of constructivism" separately. Each of these types of constructivism are "points of view", perspectives loosely defined by a collection of writings of particular individuals in each case. These sections represent popular labels in constructivist literature used as shorthand to indicate these different groups of ideas.

Trivial constructivism

The simplest idea in constructivism, root of all the other shades of constructivism described below, is trivial constructivism (von Glasersfeld, 1990), or personal constructivism or cognitive constructivism. In this principle, Knowledge is actively constructed by the learner, not passively received from the environment. (See More...)

Radical constructivism

Radical constructivism adds a second principle to trivial constructivism (von Glasersfeld, 1990) :Coming to know is a process of dynamic adaptation towards viable interpretations of experience. The knower does not necessarily construct knowledge of a "real" world. (See More ...)

Social constructivism or Socio-Constructivism

The social world of a learner includes the people that directly affect that person, including teachers, friends, students, administrators, and participants in all forms of activity. This takes into account the social nature of both the local processes in collaborative learning and in the discussion of wider social collaboration in a given subject, such as science. (See More...)

Cultural constructivism

Beyond the immediate social environment of a learning situation are the wider context of cultural influences, including custom, religion, biology, tools and language. For example, the format of books can affect learning, by promoting views about the organisation, accessibility and status of the information they contain. (See More...)

Critical constructivism

critical constructivism looks at constructivism within a social and cultural environment, but adds a critical dimension aimed at reforming these environments in order to improve the success of constructivism applied as a referent. (See More...)

Constructionism

constructionism asserts that constructivism occurs especially well when the learner is engaged in constructing something for others to see. (See More...)

Conclusions

Constructivism is a way of thinking about knowing, a referent for building models of teaching, learning and curriculum (Tobin and Tippin, 1993). In this sense it is a philosophy.
Constructivism also can be used to indicate a theory of communication. When you send a message by saying something or providing information, and you have no knowledge of the receiver, then you have no idea as to what message was received, and you can not unambiguously interpret the response.
Viewed in this way, teaching becomes the establishment and maintenance of a language and a means of communication between the teacher and students, as well as between students. Simply presenting material, giving out problems, and accepting answers back is not a refined enough process of communication for efficient learning. Some of the tenets of constructivism in pedagogical terms:

• Students come to class with an established world-view, formed by years of prior experience and learning.
• Even as it evolves, a student's world-view filters all experiences and affects their interpretation of observations.
• For students to change their world-view requires work.
• Students learn from each other as well as the teacher.
• Students learn better by doing.
• Allowing and creating opportunities for all to have a voice promotes the construction of new ideas.

A constructivist perspective views learners as actively engaged in making meaning, and teaching with that approach looks for what students can analyse, investigate, collaborate, share, build and generate based on what they already know, rather than what facts, skills, and processes they can parrot. To do this effectively, a teacher needs to be a learner and a researcher, to strive for greater awareness of the environments and the participants in a given teaching situation in order to continually adjust their actions to engage students in learning, using constructivism as a referent.

Tools

Most educational technologists that adopt some kind of constructivist stance also believes in collaborative learning (see socio-constructivism, situated learning, etc.).

E.g. Jonassen and Land (2002) suggests three cornerstones for constructivist learning environments:

• Context
• Construction
• Collaboration.

This minimal set can be expanded, e.g. in Marcelo Milrad's (2002) Instructional design model for interactive learning environments (ILEs), we find the following elements:

• Authentic activities: presenting authentic tasks that conceptualise rather than abstract information and provide real-world, case-based contexts, rather than pre-determined instructional sequences.
• Construction: learners should be constructing artefacts and sharing them with their community;
• Collaboration: to support collaborative construction of knowledge through social negotiation, as opposed to competition among learners for recognition;
• Reflection: fostering reflective practice;
• Situating the context: enables context and content dependent knowledge construction; and,
• Multi-modal interaction: providing multiple representations of reality, representing the natural complexity of the real world.

This list implies that most or all of these elements should be computer-supported ...

Regarding appropriate constructivist learning environments, see, see educational technologies, and then entries like: CSCL, C3MS, Cognitive tool, Hypermodel, Hypertext, Knowledge Forum, LMs like Moodle, WISE, ...

Links

Other articels of interest

socio-constructivism, discovery learning, WebQuest,...

External links

• Constructivist epistemology (Wikipedia)
• Constructivism (learning theory)

References

College Of Education : http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/Skaalid/definition.html

Costa, A. & Liebmann, R. (1995). Process is as important as content. Educational Leadership. 52(6), pp 23-24.

Dougiamas, M. (1998). A journey into Constructivism, http://dougiamas.com/writing/constructivism.html

Ellis, C. (1996). Evocative Autoethnography: Writing Emotionally about our lives. In: W.G. Tierney and Y.S. Lincoln (Eds) Reframing the Narrative Voice. Funderstanding : http://www.funderstanding.com/constructivism.cfm

Jonassen, D. (1994). Towards a constructivist design model. Educational Technology, 34(4), 34-37.

Jonassen, D., Davidson, M., Collins, M., Campbell, J., & Bannan-Haag, B. (1995). Constructivism and computer-mediated communication in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 9(2), 7-26.

Jonassen, D & Land, S. (2000). Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Jonassen, D; Peck, K. & Wilson, B. (2000). Learning with Technology.: A Constructivist Approach. Prentice Hall.

McBrien, J.L. & Brandt, R.S.(1997). From The Language of Learning: A Guide to Education Terms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.d36b986168f3f8cddeb3ffdb62108a0c/

Milrad, Marco (2002), Using Construction Kits, Modeling Tools and System Dynamics Simulations to Support Collaborative Discovery Learning, Educational Technology & Society 5 (4) 2002, ISSN 1436-4522 HTML

Tobin, K. & Tippins, D (1993) Constructivism as a Referent for Teaching and Learning. In: K. Tobin (Ed) The Practice of Constructivism in Science Education, pp 3-21, Lawrence-Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

Von Glasersfeld, E. (1990) An exposition of constructivism: Why some like it radical. In R.B. Davis, C.A. Maher and N. Noddings (Eds), Constructivist views on the teaching and learning of mathematics (pp 19-29). Reston, Virginia: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Wood, T., Cobb, P. & Yackel, E. (1995). Reflections on learning and teaching mathematics in elementary school. In L. P. Steffe & J.Gale (Eds) Constructivism in education (pp 401-422). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.