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Constructivism as a theory of learning (foundations and significance)

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BASICS OF LEARNING THE LATEST
THEORIES AND METHODS

Proceedings of the IX International Scientific and Practical Conference

Boston, USA
March 07 – 10, 2023
 BASICS OF LEARNING THE LATEST THEORIES AND METHODS

UDC 01.1

The 9th International scientific and practical conference “Basics of learning the latest
theories and methods” (March 07 – 10, 2023) Boston, USA. International Science
Group. 2023. 464 p.

ISBN – 979-8-88896-529-0
DOI – 10.46299/ISG.2023.1.9

EDITORIAL BOARD

Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology

Pluzhnik Elena Odessa State University of Internal Affairs Candidate of Law,
Associate Professor
Department of Accounting and Auditing Kharkiv
Liudmyla Polyvana National Technical University of Agriculture named after Petr
Vasilenko, Ukraine
Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of
Mushenyk Iryna Mathematical Disciplines, Informatics and Modeling. Podolsk State
Agrarian Technical University
Odessa State University of Internal Affairs,
Prudka Liudmyla
Associate Professor of Criminology and Psychology Department
PhD, Associate Professor, Lecturer, Deputy Dean on Academic
Marchenko Dmytro
Affairs Faculty of Engineering and Energy
Candidate of Technical Sciences, specialty 05.22.20 - operation and
Harchenko Roman
repair of vehicles.
Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Security
Belei Svitlana
of Enterprise
PhD in specialty 05.17.11 "Technology of refractory non-metallic
Lidiya Parashchuk
materials"
Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, Scientific
Levon Mariia
direction - morphology of the human digestive system
Hubal Halyna
Ph.D. in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Associate Professor
Mykolaivna

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BASICS OF LEARNING THE LATEST THEORIES AND METHODS

CONSTRUCTIVISM AS A THEORY OF LEARNING

(FOUNDATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE)
Tsulaia Nino
Doctor of Education Sciences
Sokhumi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

Abstract
The epistemological basis of the constructivist learning theory traces back to the
ideologies of ancient philosophers – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, as well as philosophers,
thinkers and educators of later periods, Immanuel Kant, John Dewey, Jerome Bruner
and others. In the psychological groundwork of the constructivist learning theory
cognitive constructivism, rooted in Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and
social constructivism, based on Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive
development, are differentiated. Constructivism theory of learning started significant
shifts in teaching methodology towards more student-driven learning. Constructivism
theory of learning arose an opportunity to replace an authoritarian classroom,
controlled, content-based and individualistic learning with an active, autonomous,
skills-based, collaborative, and knowledge-building paradigm of learning.
Keywords: Constructivism, bases, transformation, significance

Constructivism is a learning theory with the premise that individuals construct new
knowledge based on prior knowledge and experiences. This process of knowledge
acquisition contradicts the conventional practice of the mere of seizing information
from others.
Constructivism has gained great popularity in the past decades but its ideology can
be traced back to ancient times. Kim (2005) distinguishes between epistemological and
psychological bases of constructivism. Epistemologies or philosophical views of
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle on knowledge contributed to the development of learning
theories. The Socratic method – holding a dialogue between individuals in a question-
and-answer form that involved discussions, debates, critical thinking, and logical
reasoning – can be seen as the first sign of constructivist thinking. The works - ‘The
Critique of Pure Reason’ (1959) by Immanuel Kant, ‘Democracy and Education’
(1916) by John Dewey and ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolution’ (1962) by Thomas
Kuhn also contributed to the contemporary constructivist epistemology of knowledge.
John Dewey (1859-1952), an American educational philosopher, the originator of
pragmatism and proponent of progressive education has immensely contributed to the
evolvement of constructivism. According to John Dewey's theory of learning, students
learn best through hands-on learning that is learning by doing. His theory promoted
experiential learning. For Dewey, learning was a process of intellectual growth based
on personal experience. Dewey stressed the importance of students’ interaction with
their social environments. He emphasized the necessity of relating learning to real-life
situations and supporting learners to gain practical life skills. John Dewey’s philosophy
of education, in general, stemmed from democratic ideas. His model of the classroom

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was quite revolutionary offering more freedom to students to act, regulated by the
teacher. Dewey advocated embodying complex tasks in learning that would promote
independent inquiry as well as cooperative activities. In Dewey’s views on education,
the teacher’s function is to create a real-world context for students and guide them to
“pursue their interests and construct their own paths for acquiring and applying
knowledge” (Sikandar, 2016, p. 197). John Dewey’s proposals paved the way for
problem-based, project-based and inquiry-based methods of learning.
As mentioned above, constructivism has a psychological basis as well. In this
respect, scholars differentiate between different types of constructivism, among them
three main classifications can be distinguished: cognitive constructivism, social
constructivism and sociological constructivism. Cognitive constructivism is rooted in
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (Piaget, 1936) and it represents an
individualistic perspective. Contrary to the behavioral learning theory which asserts
that learning is achieved by behavioral reinforcements and only observable
performance is possible to measure, cognitive constructivism refers to learning as an
active process of knowledge building by learners, where measuring concerns cognitive
abilities. Piaget (1936) described how children construct their knowledge about the
world. He identified four stages in the cognitive development of a person from birth to
adulthood: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.
According to him, cognitive structures go through two major processes: organization
and adaptation. Adaptation is of two kinds: assimilation and accommodation. When
learning a piece of new information, either it is assimilated to the already existing
cognitive schema of a person, or the prevailing cognitive schema is altered by the
person in order to accommodate the external information to it (ibid.). In short, Piaget
showed how a child actively builds up knowledge about the world through the
cognitive stages of development.
Cognitive constructivism has a branch known as radical constructivism. It was
introduced by Ernst von Glasersfeld in 1974. According to Von Glassersfeld (1974),
we would never know what objective reality is therefore radical constructivism insists
that reality is experiential, it is formed by each person in his or her subjective
experience. Von Glassersfeld states that “all knowledge is constructed from subjective
experience” (p. 160). As extended by Loyens (2007), “formal knowledge receives a
minor role in radical constructivism, because knowledge depends on individual
perceptions” (p. 19).
The second type of constructivism, social constructivism, is based on Lev
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1978). A
sociocultural approach to cognitive development implies that the cognitive
development of an individual is largely determined by the social and cultural context
he is in. According to Vygotsky (1978), “Every function in the child’s cultural
development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level;
first, between people (interpsychological), and then inside the child
(intrapsychological)” (p. 57). He later extends that children learn from social
interactions with family and community members. McLeod (2020) analyzes two major
points in Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. The first point deals with the

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More Knowledgeable Other. It refers to someone who is more knowledgeable, skillful,

or experienced than the learner. It can be a teacher, a family member, an older person
or a peer. The learner gains knowledge from social interaction with him. The second
point is related to the Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky (1978) defines the
zone of proximal development as “the distance between the actual developmental level
as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development
as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with
more capable peers” (p. 86). In other words, the zone of proximal development
illustrates how significantly more one can achieve with the help of interaction,
partnership and encouragement rather than all alone. Scaffolding, a modern widely-
employed teaching approach has its origin in Vygotsky’s model of providing external
scaffolding to learners to support their construction of higher levels of understanding.
Though both Piaget and Vygotsky concur that learning is an active process of
constructing one’s own knowledge, some distinctions between their theories have to
be pointed out. While Piaget focuses on the individual cognitive development of a
person, Vygotsky considers learning with its cultural and social context. Piaget
emphasizes the role of active involvement in own learning, self-formation and creation
of new schemas whereas Vygotsky underlines the role of cultural and social factors in
the process of mental development. Vygotsky puts forward the importance of social
interaction in learning and signifies that interacting with peers contributes to the mental
growth of learners. Moreover, for him, the process of acquiring intelligence starts at
the social level, after which it becomes internalized within the person. Besides,
Vygotsky views learning as a process proceeding development whilst, in Piaget’s view,
development leads to learning.
The third type of constructivism, sociological or socio-cultural constructivism,
considers humankind’s knowledge from historical or sociological perspectives.
According to sociological constructivism, “knowledge is not an individual’s
possession, but all knowledge is socially constructed” (Loyens, 2007, p. 20).
Based on the above-mentioned ideologies a constructivist paradigm for teaching
and learning was developed. Dagar and Yadav (2016) enumerate four major features
of constructivist teaching and learning:
▪ assisting learners to construct their own knowledge and understanding
instead of transmitting information to them;
▪ providing learning where the building of new knowledge occurs on the basis
of previous learning;
▪ holding learning fostered by social interactions;
▪ turning learning into meaningful practice by realistic context or authentic
tasks.
Similarly, Loyens (2007) lists four major assumptions of constructivist learning:
▪ knowledge construction;
▪ cooperative learning or social interactions with teachers and fellow learners;
▪ self-regulating learning including the setting of objectives, observing
yourself, evaluating yourself, etc.;
▪ relating learning to real-life or authentic situations.

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According to Marlowe and Page (2005) (cited in Liu & Chen, 2010), constructivist
learning is a “cycle of questioning, interpreting, and analyzing information, combining
information and thinking to develop, build, and alter meaning and understanding of
concepts, and integrating new understandings with past experiences” (Liu & Chen,
2010, p. 65).
Constructivism makes paradigm shifts in education:
▪ pedagogy shifts from teaching-centered to learning-centered, the role of the
teacher changes from teaching to learning facilitation;
▪ classroom setting switches from teacher-fronted to student-centered;
▪ the instruction transfers from content-based to outcome-based;
▪ rote learning is replaced by meaningful learning (Sharma & Bansal, 2017;
Taber, 2012).
Bada and Olusegun (2015), as well as Sarita (2017), attribute essential benefits to
constructivist learning. These benefits are as follows:
▪ constructivist learning is an active process, students are no longer passive
receptors of information;
▪ constructivist learning is transferrable as students are able to transfer their
constructed knowledge from the classroom setting to real life;
▪ learning involves students’ initiatives and exploration, and learning is
implemented in social experience.
Constructivist learning includes activities such as exploration, inquiry,
elaboration, discussion, discovery, drawing conclusions, generalization, etc. Due to
the fact that constructivist teaching is becoming more and more actual, many countries
try to replan their curricula according to the constructivist approach. Scholars and
educators acknowledge that learning is the process of the construction of knowledge
rather than absorption of the information. The constructivist approach to teaching
develops learners as active, autonomous, collaborative, and skillful learners.
In conclusion, the epistemological and psychological premises of prominent
scientists laid the groundwork for the learning theory of constructivism which started
making inroads into deficiencies of traditional teaching and made significant changes
in transforming conventional teaching into student-driven learning.

References:
1. Bada, S.O., & Olusegun, S. (2015). Constructivism learning theory: A paradigm
for teaching and learning. Journal of Research & Method in Education, 5(6), 66-70.
2. Dagar, V., & Yadav, A. (2016). Constructivism: A paradigm for teaching and
learning. Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 7(4), 1-4.
3. Kim, J. S. (2005). The effects of a constructivist teaching approach on student
academic achievement, self-concept, and learning strategies. Asia Pacific Education
Review, 6(1), 7-19.
4. Liu, C. C., & Chen, I. J. (2010). Evolution of constructivism. Contemporary
Issues in Education Research, 3(4), 63-66.
5. Loyens, S. (2007). Students’ Conceptions of Constructivist Learning. Doctoral
Dissertation. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Optima Grafische Communicatie.

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6. McLeod, S. (2020). Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html#google_vignette
7. Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of Intelligence in the Child. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.
8. Sarita, P. (2017). Constructivism: A new paradigm in teaching and learning.
International Journal of Academic Research and Development, 2(4), 183-186.
9. Sharma, M.S., & Bansal, D. (2017). Constructivism as paradigm for teaching
and learning. International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health, 4(5),
209-212.
10. Sikandar, A. (2016). John Dewey and his philosophy of education. Journal of
Education and Educational Development, 2(2), 191-201.
11. Von Glasersfeld, E. (1974). Piaget and the radical constructivist epistemology.
In C. D. Smock & E. Von Glasersfeld (Eds.), Epistemology and Education (pp. 1-24).
Athens, GA: Follow Through Publications.
12. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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