What is constructivism?

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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.






In a constructivist classroom, learning is . . .


Students are not blank slates upon which knowledge is etched. They come
to learning situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas, and
understandings. This previous knowledge is the raw material for the new
knowledge they will create.


The student is the person who creates new understanding for him/herself.
The teacher coaches, moderates, suggests, but allows the students room to
experiment, ask questions, try things that don't work. Learning activities
require the students' full participation (like hands-on experiments). An
important part of the learning process is that students reflect on, and talk
about, their activities. Students also help set their own goals and means of
assessment.

The constructivist classroom relies heavily on collaboration among students.
There are many reasons why collaboration contributes to learning. The main
reason it is used so much in constructivism is that students learn about
learning not only from themselves, but also from their peers. When
students review and reflect on their learning processes together, they can
pick up strategies and methods from one another.

Students control their own learning process, and they lead the way by
reflecting on their experiences. This process makes them experts of their
own learning. The teacher helps create situations where the students feel
safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either privately or in
group discussions. The teacher should also create activities that lead the
student to reflect on his or her prior knowledge and experiences. Talking
about what was learned and how it was learned is really important.