CONSTRUCTIVISM

 Came about as an alternative to positivism

 Positivists use scientific methods to establish
“the truth”….
 Assume that truth or knowledge exists
somewhere, that it is absolute and
unchanging.
 All we have to do is discover and prove it.
 Educational implications-Positivism
 Believe in direct instruction.
 Teachers see learners as empty vessels to be
filled knowledge.
 Banking approach to education. (Freire, 1970)
 “talk and chalk” teaching
 Constructivism…..
 Knowledge is not passively received
 Actively constructed
 According to psychologists (Piaget, Bruner)
knowledge is not just ‘taken in’
 Its actively and continuously, constructed
and reconstructed as the individuals continue
to higher levels of learning.
Constructivism in relation to Learner-
centred education (LCE)
 Consider the educational implications of the
constructivist view on education and learning.
 How does it relate to learner centered
approach to education?
 Constructivism and Learning: Key
Concepts
I. Active Agency
 People actively and continuously construct
their own world.
 Continuous construction and reconstruction of
knowledge.
 2. Social Construction of knowledge
 Knowledge is shaped, constructed and
reconstructed in different social contexts.
 Through social interaction.
 Different discourses surround us all the time,
e.g. ways of speaking and writing, values,
assumptions, world views, educational
contexts…….
 3. Metacognition
 Being aware or think about our own thought
process, how we think, plan, remember,
process information……..
 The more you are conscious of your thinking
strategies, the more you can critically look at
them, adapt and refine them.
 4. Tools of Cognition
 People developed cognitive tools for adapting
to the environment, language, mathematical
symbols……….
 Represent the real world.
 Learning to represent the world internally
makes it possible for people to think,
remember, imagine, solve problems and other
cognitive activities.
 Teaching and Learning
 Teaching should lead to active learning.
 Requires a student-centred environment
 Should fit in with outcome-based approach to
education.
 Constructivist principles of practice
1. Process as well as content
 Both what is taught and how it is taught are
important.
 Content:
 Knowledge is not only about facts and
information.
 Structured according to concepts and
relationships.
 Enhance student understanding of a specific topic
by helping grasp the structure that underlies it.
 Principles of practice……
 Process:
 Teachers must help learners develop powerful
learning strategies.
 2. Active learning
 Teachers must create opportunities for active
learning.
 Learning is not a passive, but an active process
 Help learners to turn the unfamiliar into the
familiar.
 Active learning involves different activities,
whole class instruction and interaction, group
activities, individual…..
 As long as all students are actively engaged
 3. Connecting familiar to unfamiliar
• Teaching must connect to what learner's know, the
learners level of understanding.
• …..The familiar to the unfamiliar
• Three aspects of connecting familiar to unfamiliar:
• 1. Connecting individually:
• Integrating the unfamiliar into ones understanding.
• Vygotsky’s ZPD
• Learning occurs when a learner is guided to take their
understanding to a more advanced level.
  Connecting ………
2. Connecting form and content
 Combine familiar form with unfamiliar form to
facilitate the process of connecting
 Think about something familiar, using an
unfamiliar , more advanced form of thinking.
 3. Connecting through cognitive
conflict
 According to Piaget, equilibrium must be
disturbed before a person is motivated to
adapt and re-establish equilibrium.
 Presenting learners with information
conflicting their current knowledge stimulate
their learning.
 4. Guided discovery
 Often misunderstood
 Learners can not be expected to discover everything
for themselves.
 Teachers need to guide students.
 Must be carefully planned.
 Must connect with previous knowledge.
 Must have clear objectives, understood by learners.
 Learners need to move, try things out , discuss, argue,
reflect……….
 Not “ a free for all”
 5. Scaffolding
 Mediating appropriate structures/strategies of
a particular area of knowledge.
 Help learners to reach powerful levels of
understanding, then gradually withdraw the
amount of help given.
 Apprenticeship learning: Spending time
interacting closely with someone who has
mastered a craft of knowledge area.
 6. Group work and co-operative
learning
 ‘the engagement by a group of students with
a significantly challenging task which
necessarily entails their joint involvement in
solving it.”
 Must involve all members of a group.
 Can take many forms: pairs or larger group,
tasks may vary in size, may be academic,
sporting or social.
 Co-operative………..
 Co-operative learning is important because:
Allows mediation at peer level.
Allows stimulation of cognitive conflict
between students with the same level of
understanding.
It promotes active agency.
 7. Language interaction
 An important tool in teaching/learning
 Facilitate interaction…….
 Facilitate cognitive conflict, medium through
which equilibrium is achieved.
Developing and refining language
 Assist learners to develop and refine language,
through formal teaching, interacting, speaking
,reading, writing, discussions, reflection,
debates……
 ASSESSMENT
 Determine the effectiveness of the
teaching/learning process
 Integral part of teaching and learning.
 Always consider why you are doing it and how
it influences further learning.
 The purpose and effects of assessment.
 Normative assessment
Purpose:
 Means a learner/student has reached a norm or
standard and can now move to another grade,
obtain a school leaving certificate, university
diploma, degree…..
Effects:
 Students/learners may only consider recalling
facts and information as most important because
that is what will count for them to pass.
 Formative assessment
Purpose:
 Facilitates learning.
 Helps to form or shape learners development.
Effects:
 Not judgmental.
 Constructivist principles in
assessment
1. Performance-based assessment
 Constructivism stresses active learning.
 Developing effective student action in relation
to knowledge.
 These actions are mostly internal (recognizing,
comparing, analyzing…..)
 The focus of assessment must be on external,
observable actions-on what students can
show they can do.
 2. Form and content assessment
 Make a difference between forms of thinking
and the content of knowledge.
 Forms are characteristic ways of thinking e.g.
experimentation, testing hypotheses,
analyzing results, drawing conclusions….
 Assessment must not be limited to the
content students attained.
 Must also include the degree to which they
have grasped different forms of thinking.
 3. Diagnostic assessment
 Tracking the progress of individual leaners.
 Helps the teachers to determine the needs of
individual learners.
 To know to connect with learners zones of
proximal development(ZPD).
 4. Assessment of potential
 Assessment measuring the
correctness/wrongness of a leaner’s answer
only indicate the learner’s level of
understanding of a specific topic.
 As constructivists teachers must be more
interested in learners potential
understanding.
 The point at which a learner can be helped to
move up to the next level.
 MOTIVATION
 Learner’s will to take on the challenges of
learning.
 Motivation is a complex human process
 Will be explained based on (1) Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs (Humanistic view) and (2)
Beahaviour modification (Behaviourist view).
Humanist view: Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs.
 Primary source of motivation in human
behavior is the fulfillment of needs.
 Higher levels of needs arise once lower needs
are met.
 Hierarchy of needs…….
SELF-ACTUALISATION
ESTEEM (E.G. RESPECT)
BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE
SAFETY (E.G. PROTECTION, HOUSING…..)
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS (E.G. FOOD, WATER……..)
 Behaviourist view of motivation
 Suggest four(4) through which learners can be
motivated to change their behaviour.
 Increase or decrease the frequency of
behaviours.
INCREASE DECREASE
1. Positive reinforcement 3. Punishment
Pleasant consequences Unpleasant consequences
2. Negative reinforcement 4. Extinction
Unpleasant consequences No consequences
(Increase in avoidance)
 Constructivists Principles of
Motivation.
1.Challange, guidance and cognitive conflict
 To grow in understanding, learners need to be
challenged, and guided to connect.
 Challenge learners with what is unfamiliar to
them- set up appropriate degree of cognitive
conflict.
 The internal drive to equilibrate will do the
rest.
2. Timing: The right thing at the right
time
 Learners will be motivated by activities that
connect with their interests or that challenge
them at a particular stage of development.
 How well the teacher connect with the learner
will determine the effectiveness of motivation.
3. Social interaction and co-operative
learning
 Children seek social interaction at all stages.
 Co-operative learning has motivating effects because
of the following reasons:
1. It increases learner’s self-esteem or sense of self-
worth.
2. Helps learners develop more positive attitudes toward
school and learning.
3. Increases academic achievement (problem solving).
4. It increases peer acceptance of learners with
disabilities and learning difficulties.
 4. Agency: Competence and
confidence
 Promoting success and a sense of competence
help to build confidence.
 Competence and confidence increases a sense
of agency.
 Learners with a sense of agency are more
motivated to take on challenges of learning.