Constructivism is a theory that asserts learners construct their knowledge and understanding based on experiences and reflections. Instead of receiving information passively, people interact with the world and create their own mental models.
Core Principles of Constructivism
Learners should be actively engaged in the process of learning, aka Active Learning
Social Interaction: Social interaction is the cornerstone of the basic unit of knowledge construction.
Sequence: Building upon what the learner already knows.
Controlled: Learners need to think back and adapt their understanding.
Implications for Education
Overlays: The learner is the protagonist of the scenario.
Connect it with real life: The activities you use for learning should be connected to a real-life situation.
Collaborative Learning: Encourage students to work in groups to solve problems and exchange their ideas.
Authentic Assessment: Assessments should mirror tasks and problems students will face in the real world.
Strategies for Constructivist Teaching
Collaborative problem-solving: In this approach, students collaborate to find solutions to real-life issues.
Quest-Based Learning — Students explore questions and find answers
Cooperative Learning–students are in groups striving for a common goal.
Types of learning styles: 1) Experiential Learning — Students learn through doing things as well as with experiences.
Challenges and Limitations
Time-Consuming: The use of a constructivist approach may take more time than traditional methods.
Training: Teachers might need more training in order to execute the constructivist strategies.
Assessment issues: It can be difficult to assess complex higher order thinking skills.
The Future of Constructivism
With each passing technological advancement, we are moving closer to scaffolding on a constructivist approach as more and more things become possible and cheaper. Innovative opportunitiesTo provide for learner engagement in content and knowledge construction toward a new kind of education development online learning platforms,virtual reality,augmented reality etc.
In this way, the script laid constructionists to establish them with constructivism in order to create active and critical components of learning.
