Skip to main content

Constructivism (learning theory) - Wikipedia, the free encycl...

Popularity Report

Total Popularity Score: 0
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

Rank

Bookmark History

Saved by 62 people (-7 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-03-22


Public Comment

on 2008-09-06 by davidhilton

That is typical white elitist condescension. These theories are nonsense, and worse they give incurious, complacent 'educators' the false belief that they are super-teacher. The world is not a bubble we create for ourselves; it is a rich journey of wonder which defies such reductionism.

Public Sticky notes

Constructivism is a psychological theory of knowledge (epistemology) [1] which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.

Highlighted by mcgrath4th

humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.

Highlighted by clarkmusic

humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences

Highlighted by mac65k

on 2009-07-23 by mac65k

DCSD Digital Eduactors- share an example of a constructivist lesson that really worked for your students. Please include grade level and content area. My fourth graders engaged deeply in the scientific method when we created terrariums in our ecosystem unit of study. They observed the plant and animal life, recorded findings, asked amazing questions and were eager to research to learn more.

is an underlying theme of many education reform movements.

Highlighted by journeyman

some research supporting these techniques and other research contradicting those results

Highlighted by alroberts

In past centuries constructivist ideas were not widely valued due to the perception that children's play was seen as aimless and of little importance. Jean Piaget did not agree with these traditional views, however. He saw play as an important and necessary part of the student's cognitive development and has provided scientific evidence for his views.

Highlighted by rpells

Today, constructivist theories are influential throughout much of the so-called informal learning sector.

Highlighted by journeyman

play as an important and necessary part of the student's cognitive development

Highlighted by clarkmusic

accommodation and assimilation,

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

When individuals assimilate, they incorporate the new experience into an already existing framework without changing that framework.

Highlighted by clarkmusic

Many people confuse constructivist with maturationist views. The constructivist (or cognitive-developmental) stream "is based on the idea that the dialectic or interactionist process of development and learning through the student's active construction should be facilitated and promoted by adults" (DeVries et al., 2002). Whereas, "The romantic maturationist stream is based on the idea that the student's naturally occurring development should be allowed to flower without adult interventions in a permissive environment" (DeVries et al., 2002).

Highlighted by rpells

through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences.

Highlighted by journeyman

knowledge is internalized by learners.

Highlighted by amyleefagan

Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning: when we act on the expectation that the world operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail, but by accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world works, we learn from the experience of failure, or others' failure.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning: when we act on the expectation that the world operates in one way and it violates our expectations, we often fail, but by accommodating this new experience and reframing our model of the way the world works, we learn from the experience of failure, or others' failure.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

accommodation is the process of reframing one's mental representation of the external world to fit new experiences. Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning

Highlighted by clarkmusic

However, Constructivism is often associated with pedagogic approaches that promote active learning, or learning by doing.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

It is important to note that constructivism itself does not suggest one particular pedagogy. In fact, constructivism describes how learning should happen

Highlighted by bethstill

n both cases, the theory of constructivism suggests that learners construct knowledge out of their experiences. However, Constructivism is often associated with pedagogic approaches that promote active learning, or learning by doing.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

Highlighted by bethstill

on 2008-08-24 by bethstill

This is so important when teaching students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

mechanisms by which knowledge is internalized by learners

Highlighted by jaredstein

Social constructivism encourages the learner to arrive at his or her version of the truth, influenced by his or her background, culture or embedded worldview.

Highlighted by dansmith

acknowledges the uniqueness and complexity of the learner, but actually encourages, utilises and rewards it as an integral part of the learning process

Highlighted by alroberts

Young children develop their thinking abilities by interacting with other children, adults and the physical world.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

Social constr

Highlighted by amyleefagan

Social constructivism thus emphasizes the importance of the learner being actively involved in the learning process, unlike previous educational viewpoints where the responsibility rested with the instructor to teach and where the learner played a passive, receptive role.

Highlighted by journeyman

it is argued that the responsibility of learning should reside increasingly with the learner

Highlighted by mrssalahi

ustaining motivation to learn is strongly dependent on the learner’s confidence in his or her potential for learning. These feelings of competence and belief in potential to solve new problems, are derived from first-hand experience of mastery of problems in the past and are much more powerful than any external acknowledgment and motivation

Highlighted by mrssalahi

Vygotsky’s "zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky 1978) where learners are challenged within close proximity to, yet slightly above, their current level of development.

Highlighted by journeyman

By experiencing the successful completion of challenging tasks, learners gain confidence and motivation to embark on more complex challenges.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

instructors have to adapt to the role of facilitators and not teachers (

Highlighted by journeyman

Furthermore, it is argued that the responsibility of learning should reside increasingly with the learner (Von Glasersfeld 1989)

Highlighted by arche0

This dramatic change of role implies that a facilitator needs to display a totally different set of skills than a teacher

Highlighted by journeyman

According to the social constructivist approach, instructors have to adapt to the role of facilitators and not teachers

Highlighted by mrssalahi

A facilitator should also be able to adapt the learning experience ‘in mid-air’ by using his or her own initiative in order to steer the learning experience to where the learners want to create value.

Highlighted by journeyman

This dramatic change of role implies that a facilitator needs to display a totally different set of skills than a teacher (Brownstein 2001). A teacher tells, a facilitator asks; a teacher lectures from the front, a facilitator supports from the back; a teacher gives answers according to a set curriculum, a facilitator provides guidelines and creates the environment for the learner to arrive at his or her own conclusions; a teacher mostly gives a monologue, a facilitator is in continuous dialogue with the learners (Rhodes and Bellamy, 1999). A facilitator should also be able to adapt the learning experience ‘in mid-air’ by using his or her own initiative in order to steer the learning experience to where the learners want to create value.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

The critical goal is to support the learner in becoming an effective thinker.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Instructors as facilitators

According to the social constructivist approach, instructors have to adapt to the role of facilitators

Highlighted by nikappi

According to social constructivists, the process of sharing individual perspectives-called collaborative elaboration (Meter & Stevens, 2000)-results in learners constructing understanding together that wouldn't be possible alone

Highlighted by journeyman

A teacher tells, a facilitator asks; a teacher lectures from the front, a facilitator supports from the back; a teacher gives answers according to a set curriculum, a facilitator provides guidelines and creates the environment for the learner to arrive at his or her own conclusions; a teacher mostly gives a monologue, a facilitator is in continuous dialogue with the learners

Highlighted by nikappi

Other constructivist scholars agree with this and emphasize that individuals make meanings through the interactions with each other and with the environment they live in. Knowledge is thus a product of humans and is socially and culturally constructed

Highlighted by mrssalahi

agrees that learning is a social process.

Highlighted by mrssalahi

Dynamic interaction between task, instructor and learner

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

the instructor and the learners are equally involved in learning from each other as well

Highlighted by journeyman

The social constructivist model thus emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the student and the instructor in the learning process.

Highlighted by journeyman

Some learning approaches that could harbour this interactive learning include reciprocal teaching, peer collaboration, cognitive apprenticeship, problem-based instruction, web quests, anchored instruction and other approaches that involve learning with others.

Highlighted by journeyman

reciprocal teaching,

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

web quests

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

If students have to present and train new contents with their classmates, a non-linear process of collective knowledge-construction will be set up.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Learners with different skills and backgrounds should collaborate in tasks and discussions in order to arrive at a shared understanding of the truth in a specific field

Highlighted by cchellis

The social constructivist paradigm views the context in which the learning occurs as central to the learning itself (McMahon 1997).

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Cognitive apprenticeship

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Highlighted by nikappi

Learners with different skills and backgrounds should collaborate in tasks and discussions in order to arrive at a shared understanding of the truth in a specific field

Highlighted by alroberts

dynamic assessment

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Most social constructivist models, such as that proposed by Duffy and Jonassen (1992), also stress the need for collaboration among learners, in direct contradiction to traditional competitive approaches

Highlighted by nikappi

The role of the assessor becomes one of entering into dialogue with the persons being assessed to find out their current level of performance on any task and sharing with them possible ways in which that performance might be improved on a subsequent occasion. Thus, assessment and learning are seen as inextricably linked and not separate processes (Holt and Willard-Holt 2000).

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

One social constructivist notion is that of authentic or situated learning, where the student takes part in activities which are directly relevant to the application of learning

Highlighted by journeyman

assessment and learning are seen as inextricably linked and not separate processes

Highlighted by journeyman

instructors should first introduce the basic ideas that give life and form to any topic or subject area, and then revisit and build upon these repeatedly.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

It is also important for instructors to realize that although a curriculum may be set down for them, it inevitably becomes shaped by them into something personal which reflects their own belief systems, their thoughts and feelings about both the content of their instruction and their learners (Rhodes and Bellamy 1999). Thus, the learning experience becomes a shared enterprise. The emotions and life contexts of those involved in the learning process must therefore be considered as an integral part of learning. The goal of the learner is central in considering what is learned (Brown et al. 1989; Ackerman 1996).

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

is the constructivist viewpoint that the foundations of any subject may be taught to anybody at any stage in some form (Duffy and Jonassen 1992). This means that instructors should first introduce the basic ideas that give life and form to any topic or subject area, and then revisit and build upon these repeatedly.

Highlighted by journeyman

It is important to achieve the right balance between the degree of structure and flexibility that is built into the learning process. Savery (1994) contends that the more structured the learning environment, the harder it is for the learners to construct meaning based on their conceptual understandings. A facilitator should structure the learning experience just enough to make sure that the students get clear guidance and parameters within which to achieve the learning objectives, yet the learning experience should be open and free enough to allow for the learners to discover, enjoy, interact and arrive at their own, socially verified version of truth.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

Teachers will find that since the students build upon already existing knowledge, when they are called upon to retrieve the new information, they may make errors. It is known as reconstruction error when we fill in the gaps of our understanding with logical, though incorrect, thoughts. Teachers need to catch and try to correct these errors, though it is inevitable that some reconstruction error will continue to occur because of our innate retrieval limitations.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

wondering aloud and posing questions to the students for promotion of reasoning (DeVries et al., 2002). (ex: I wonder why the water does not spill over the edge of the full cup?) Teachers also intervene when there are conflicts that arise; however, they simply facilitate the students' resolutions and self-regulation, with an emphasis on the conflict being the students' and that they must figure things out for themselves.

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci

"constructionism." It included everything associated with Piaget's constructivism, but went beyond it to assert that constructivist learning happens especially well when people are engaged in constructing a product, something external to themselves such as a sand castle, a machine, a computer program or a book.

Highlighted by journeyman

It is possible to see social constructivism as a bringing together of aspects of the work of Piaget with that of Bruner and Vygotsky (Wood 1998: 39).

Highlighted by sabanciyabanci