As a former teacher and trainer, I was (and still) an avid fan of constructivism approach and share the constructivists’ view in terms of teaching and learning. It is believed that we construct our own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on our experiences. When we encounter something new, we reconcile it with our previous ideas and experiences, they may change our beliefs, or discard 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.

The constructivist view of learning can point towards several different teaching practices. 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.

What is Constructivism?

Constructivism is basically a theory — based on observation and scientific study — about how people learn.

There are many flavors of constructivism, but one prominent theorist is Jean Piaget, who focused on how humans make meaning in relation to the interaction between their experiences and their ideas.

Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality. New information is linked to the prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.

Constructivist approach to assessment is a formative rather than a summative. Its purpose is to improve the quality of student learning, not merely to provide evidence for evaluating or grading students. Assessment must respond to the needs and characteristics of the teachers and students.

Three constructs emerge from the literature regarding constructivism and have implications for the learning environment. They are (1) learning is an active process, (2) the learner has prior knowledge, and (3) the learner takes responsibility for their own learning (Yager, 1991; Cobb et al 1992, Magoon, 1977; Hewson & Hewson, 1988).

Learning is an active process

Students learn more effectively when they are active during the learning process. They need to react and respond, perhaps outwardly, perhaps only inwardly, emotionally, or intellectually. But if learning is a process of changing behavior, clearly that process must be an active one.

The learner has prior knowledge

Prior knowledge is the knowledge the learner already has before they meet new information. A learner’s understanding of a text can be improved by activating their prior knowledge before dealing with the text, and developing this habit is good learner training for them.

The learner takes responsibility for their own learning

When students understand their role as agent (the one in charge) over their own feeling, thinking and learning behaviors, they are more likely to take responsibility for their learning. To be autonomous learners, however, students need to have some actual choice and control.

What are the benefits of constructivism?

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

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

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

• 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.

• 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 curiosity to the world.

• 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.

Readings and Sources:

https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/
https://www.learning-theories.com/constructivism.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(philosophy_of_education)
http://www.iqst.upol.cz/e-learning/m1/e-learning-m1-u2.php
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/prior-knowledge
https://www.apa.org/education/k12/learners
https://www.funderstanding.com/theory/constructivism/