What is constructivism?

What is constructivism?

Constructivism concept to classroom
Source:  http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/exploration.html 

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

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. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO LEARN.

You might look at it as a spiral. When they continuously reflect on their experiences, students find their ideas gaining in complexity and power, and they develop increasingly strong abilities to integrate new information. One of the teacher's main roles becomes to encourage this learning and reflection process.

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.

Contrary to criticisms by some (conservative/traditional) educators, constructivism does not dismiss the active role of the teacher or the value of expert knowledge. Constructivism modifies that role, so that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to reproduce a series of facts. The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment. Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook.

Constructivism is also often misconstrued as a learning theory that compels students to "reinvent the wheel." In fact, constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity about the world and how things work. Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to understand how it turns, how it functions. They become engaged by applying their existing knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings.

The best way for you to really understand what constructivism is and what it means in your classroom is by seeing examples of it at work, speaking with others about it, and trying it yourself. As you progress through each segment of this workshop, keep in mind questions or ideas to share with your colleagues.

How do I apply constructivism in my classroom?

As you have seen, there are a number of ways and styles in which the constructivist approach can be applied in the classroom. However, Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks set forth some guiding principles in their book IN SEARCH OF UNDERSTANDING: THE CASE FOR CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOMS.

They are:

Principle . Pose problems that are or will be relevant to the students.

In many cases, the problem you pose is or will be relevant to the students, and they will approach it sensing its relevance to their lives.

For example, the general music class in an American middle school is a popular one -- the students find musical composition relevant because of their interest in popular music. The fact that there is an electronic keyboard connected to a computer on which to compose only heightens their interest.

A group of Australian middle-school students whose siblings, aunts, uncles, fathers, mothers, or neighbors are living in East Timor find issues of global peace immediately relevant. Their teacher acknowledges their strong feelings by creating a writing unit that allows the students to write about these feelings.

But relevance need not be preexisting for students. When connected to their Australian peers via the Internet, the American middle-school students can empathize and sense the relevance of peacekeeping in East Timor. The Australian students can e-mail the American students some of their writing. The teachers exchange digital photographs of their respective classes, and the children get to see their peers and their peers' surroundings.

Relevance can emerge through teacher mediation. Teachers can add elements to the learning situation that make the activity relevant to the students.

For instance, the Australian and American teachers can set up an interchange where the Australian youngsters write poetry and song lyrics about peace that the American students set to music. Both groups then post the results on a Web page. The teachers structure the situation so that the students gain skills in several areas (writing, music, communication, and Web-page construction) that have increasing meaning as the project proceeds.

Principle . Structure learning around essential concepts.

Encourage students to make meaning by breaking wholes into parts. Avoid starting with the parts to build a "whole."

For example, young storywriters can approach the concept of "telling a story" through discovery activities. These can include a class library of illustrated storybooks, a visit by a storyteller, and some Web activities sponsored by a book publisher. The teacher prepares the students for writing their own stories, and introduces the idea of sequencing through visuals. Students can rearrange parts of a known story or even digitized video material. This last activity might allow the students to reconstruct the order in which a visiting storyteller told her story.

Or, considering the world of a terrarium might help students construct knowledge about flora and fauna in relation to each other. Facts about mosses can make more sense in the context of microhabitats that the students have observed.

You can define or find "essential concepts" in different ways. You might refer to the list of standards your professional group publishes. Or, you can organize your constructivist work by exploring significant historical events (e.g., the Holocaust) or seminal works (e.g., a Mozart opera) from multiple perspectives.

Applying "Big Ideas" to Various Subject Areas

First Column: Concept

The following list of "big ideas" contains conceptual themes that emerge across various content areas. We chose to set down samples from two professional organizations. You might wish to examine the lists of similar materials from other organizations. Several states have published thematic and content-area standards as well.

Second Column: Examples of Areas of Study

We have suggested various content areas where the concept might find fertile ground. These are starter phrases, meant only to suggest areas that would need much deeper development.

From The Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy
cause and effect	Science: inertia
change and conservation	Science: terrarium
diversity and variation	History: immigration
energy and matter	Science: gases, fluids, solids
evolution and equilibrium	Art: design studies
models and theories	Mathematics: geometry
probability and prediction	Mathematics: statistics
structure and function	English: film study -- CITIZEN KANE
systems and interactions	Science: habitats
time and scale	Social studies: ancient civilizations
From the National Standards for Social Studies Teachers 1997
culture and cultural diversity	English: world literature
time, continuity, and change	Science: genetics
people, places, and environments	Media studies: learning about people in other countries
individual development and identity	Language arts: novels about growing up
individuals, groups, and institutions	Social studies: Visiting a healthcare institution
power, authority, and governance	Social studies: the Constitutional Convention
production, distribution, and consumption	Social studies: the Pineapple Project/Where does the food you eat come from?
science, technology, and society	Social studies: the Internet and the spread of cultural values
global connections	Language arts: world mythology
civic ideals and practices	Social studies: political internships

Principle . Be aware that students' points of view are windows into their reasoning.

The challenging of ideas and the seeking of elaboration threatens many students. Students in the traditional classroom who cannot guess what the teacher has in mind for the right answer quickly drop out of class discussion. They must be "gentled" into the constructivist learning environment through open-ended, nonjudgmental questioning.

Students also need to have an opportunity to elaborate and explain. Sometimes, how you feel about something or what you think is not as important as WHY. Using evidence/proof to present your opinion is most important! The construction of knowledge calls for not only time to reflect but also for time and practice in explaining. Neil Gershenfeld of the Media Lab notes that it is only through constant demonstration that his MIT students become good scientists. The many opportunities to explain what they're doing help them understand what they are learning.

Principle . Adapt curriculum to address students' suppositions and development.

Presenting developmentally appropriate work is a place to start. Most high-school students would find the preparation of a film script or a legal brief more engaging and relevant than the report format they mastered in sixth grade. Role plays are also interesting ways for students to present information.

As students engage in the work, the teacher must monitor their perceptions and ways of learning.

For example, a middle-school social studies teacher prepares for her students to study the concept of immigration through films, readings, examinations of firsthand accounts and photographs, and a field trip. In class discussion, she comes to perceive that her students found the multimedia presentations on the kiosks at Ellis Island effective. She also senses how many of her students empathize with the stories of the immigrants. She collaborates with the computer teacher to offer lessons in multimedia-presentation skills. The students work in groups to archive material and give multimedia presentations depicting the immigration experiences of families.

Principle . Assess student learning in the context of teaching.

Shift from measuring how well or poorly a student performs to assessing how much and what kind of help a student needs to be successful.

Removing bell-curve assessment frees students from the need to out-achieve others and allows them to collaborate, say, as specialists on the design and construction of a desalinization plant.

Authentic assessment ¹ occurs most naturally and lastingly when it is in a meaningful context and when it relates to authentic concerns and problems faced by students. The students who assess their efforts to pass a bill in a mock legislature are likely to demonstrate greater mastery of government than those who face a multiple-choice test on the legislative branch of Congress. Tests -- particularly short-answer, multiple-choice tests -- ask, "Do you know this material?" Authentic assessment activities ask, "What do you know?"

1.

What are the benefits of constructivism?

. Benefit

Children learn more, and enjoy learning more when they are actively involved, rather than passive listeners.

. Benefit

Education works best when it concentrates on thinking and understanding, rather than on rote memorization. Constructivism concentrates on learning how to think and understand.

. Benefit

Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist classrooms, students create organizing principles that they can take with them to other learning settings.

. Benefit

Constructivism gives students ownership of what they learn, since learning is based on students' questions and explorations, and often the students have a hand in designing the assessments as well. Constructivist assessment engages the students' initiatives and personal investments in their journals, research reports, physical models, and artistic representations. Engaging the creative instincts develops students' abilities to express knowledge through a variety of ways. The students are also more likely to retain and transfer the new knowledge to real life.

. Benefit

By grounding learning activities in an authentic, real-world context, constructivism stimulates and engages students. Students in constructivist classrooms learn to question things and to apply their natural curiousity to the world.

. Benefit

Constructivism promotes social and communication skills by creating a classroom environment that emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students must learn how to articulate their ideas clearly as well as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in group projects. Students must therefore exchange ideas and so must learn to "negotiate" with others and to evaluate their contributions in a socially acceptable manner. This is essential to success in the real world, since they will always be exposed to a variety of experiences in which they will have to cooperate and navigate among the ideas of others.

How does this theory differ from traditional ideas about teaching and learning?

As with many of the methods addressed in this series of workshops, in the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher ("expert") pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions more as a facilitator who coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and thereby their learning. One of the teacher's biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.

And, in the constructivist classroom, both teacher and students think of knowledge not as inert factoids to be memorized, but as a dynamic, ever-changing view of the world we live in and the ability to successfully stretch and explore that view.

The chart below compares the traditional classroom to the constructivist one. You can see significant differences in basic assumptions about knowledge, students, and learning. (It's important, however, to bear in mind that constructivists acknowledge that students are constructing knowledge in traditional classrooms, too. It's really a matter of the emphasis being on the student, not on the instructor.)

Curriculum begins with the parts of the whole. Emphasizes basic skills.	Curriculum emphasizes big concepts, beginning with the whole and expanding to include the parts.
Strict adherence to fixed curriculum is highly valued.	Pursuit of student questions and interests is valued.
Materials are primarily textbooks and workbooks.	Materials include primary sources of material and manipulative materials.
Learning is based on repetition.	Learning is interactive, building on what the student already knows.
Teachers disseminate information to students; students are recipients of knowledge.	Teachers have a dialogue with students, helping students construct their own knowledge.
Teacher's role is directive, rooted in authority.	Teacher's role is interactive, rooted in negotiation.
Assessment is through testing, correct answers.	Assessment includes student works, observations, and points of view, as well as tests. Process is as important as product.
Knowledge is seen as inert.	Knowledge is seen as dynamic, ever changing with our experiences.
Students work primarily alone.	Students work primarily in groups.

Source:  http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/exploration.html