Constructivism

Meaning:

Constructivism is a learning theory found in psychology which explains how people might acquire knowledge and learn. It therefore has direct application to education. The theory suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. Constructivism is not a specific pedagogy.  Research support for constructivist teaching techniques has been mixed, with some research supporting these techniques and other research contradicting those results. We invent our own concepts and ideas, linked to what we already know.  This “meaning-making” theory of learning is called ‘constructivism’.

So it is important to use teaching methods that:

1.   Require students to form constructs that is require them to form their own meaning or interpretation of the material being studied

2.  Allow the learner and the teacher to detect misconceptions, errors and omissions in learning and correct these.

In Classroom:

       In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing

Constructivist Teaching – Brain friendly teaching

• Learning requires a stage where students are required to process the information given them. They need activities which require them to make personal sense of the material and so construct their own meanings. 
• Research shows that learning activities that require active student processing improve recall by as much as a factor of ten, are more enjoyed, and create deeper learning.
• Meaning is personal and unique, and is built upon personal prior learning and experience, which differs from student to student.  There is no one way to learn something and a variety of tasks and experiences are required to meet individual need.

• The brain is a parallel processor not a sequential processor.  So learners need to think about parts and wholes at the same time, and to integrate topics.
• Skills such as high order reasoning need to be taught along with content, not separately.
  
• Example:
  
• For example: Groups of students in a science class are discussing a problem in physics. Though the teacher knows the "answer" to the problem, she focuses on helping students restate their questions in useful ways. She prompts each student to reflect on and examine his or her current knowledge. When one of the students comes up with the relevant concept, the teacher seizes upon it, and indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue for them to explore. They design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and teacher talk about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped (or did not help) them to better understand the concept.

    Use:

• ‘Teaching by Asking’ or guided discovery
• Explaining tasks that require students to express their understanding to each other, and to develop this understanding before expressing it (e.g. peer explanation, and Jigsaw)

• Ask ‘diagnostic’ question and answer, and use wrong answers to explore and correct misunderstandings.  ‘Socratic Questioning’.
• Use thought provoking tasks and questions that are high on Bloom’s Taxonomy, rather than simple recall as these require more thought and processing.

Analysis: ‘why’ questions,

Synthesis: ‘how’ could you.. questions

Evaluation: judgement questions.

These high order questions require student to construct their own conceptions of the new material.  You can’t reason with material until you have conceptualized it, so questions that require reasoning force conceptualization.

Teaching Strategy:

• Use Case studies that relate the topic to real life or former experience and so former learning

• Use Group work requiring students to discuss the material, so that peer checking and teaching takes place
• Learning involves ‘pattern making’, so use mind maps and summaries that point out the relation of the parts of a topic to the whole.  Also point out the relation of today’s topic to other topics
• Teach skills in the context of the topic of your subject.  Think of yourself as a skills teacher who uses content to teach the skills.
• Stimulation increases the learning rate.  So Use rich multi-sensory resources, lively activities and generate a sense of fun where you can.

      1- Back                       2- Discovery Education       3- Education of a good quality.