2. What is Constructivism
• Learners build their own understanding of the
topic.
• Learning is not linear. We use prior
knowledge/ experiences to expand what we
know and learn.
• Learning is an active, engaging process
3. Constructivism
• Is a theory or a philosophy about teaching and
learning that supports the notion that:
– Learners must be independent thinkers (cognitive)
– Learners create their own knowledge
– Learners should be independent thinkers
– Learners expected to understand in addition to knowing
– Learners are expected to question, question
– Learners work in teams
– Learning is active & student-centered
– Learning is evident is Behavioral change (do)
4. Lev Vygotsky…1970s
• Learning is a product of discrepancies between existing
and new experiences
• Learning is connective---link of new knowledge to
exiting knowledge
• ZPD—gap between what a learner can do alone and
with help of others
• Learning is enhanced in a social/team/cooperative
setting
5. Zone of proximal development,
• The zone of proximal development, often abbreviated
as ZPD, is the difference between what a learner can do
without help, and what they can't do.
• The concept was introduced, but not fully developed, by
psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) during the last ten
years of his life.
• Vygotsky stated that a child follows an adult's example and
gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without
help.
• Vygotsky and some other educators believe that the role
of education is to give children experiences that are within
their zones of proximal development, thereby encouraging
and advancing their individual learning such as skills and
strategies.
6. Definitions
• The zone of proximal development is an area of
learning that occurs when a person is assisted by a
teacher or peer with a higher skill set.
• The person learning the skill set cannot complete it
without the assistance of the teacher or peer.
• The teacher then helps the student attain the skill
the student is trying to master, until the teacher is
no longer needed for that task.
7. Scaffolding
• The concept of the ZPD is widely used to study
children's mental development as it relates to
education.
• The ZPD concept is seen as a scaffolding, a
structure of "support points" for performing an
action.
• This refers to the help or guidance received from an
adult or more competent peer to permit the child to
work within the ZPD.
• Although Vygotsky himself never mentioned the
term, scaffolding was first developed by Jerome
Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross, while applying
Vygotsky's concept of ZPD to various educational
contexts.
8. Educational Implications
• Teachers should assign tasks that students cannot do on
their own, but which they can do with assistance; they
should provide just enough assistance so that students
learn to complete the tasks independently and then
provide an environment that enables students to do
harder tasks than would otherwise be possible.
• Teachers can also allow students with more knowledge to
assist students who need more assistance. Especially in
the context of collaborative learning, group members who
have higher levels of understanding can help the less
advanced members learn within their zone of proximal
development.
• In the context of adults, peers should challenge each
other in order to support collaboration and success.
9. Different views on Construction of Knowledge
• Vygotsky believed that learning needs to be
engaging.
• Vygotsky believed that learning takes place as
children are interacting with each other and
exploring their environment.
• He believed that learning is simultaneous to social
interaction and exploration.
• In other words, he did not feel as though one was
more important than the other.
• Piaget believed that children learn through
organization and schemas.
• He believed that by organizing concepts and ideas,
children place them into schemas.
10. • He believed that children are in control of the
knowledge that they are provided and move
forward in construct their own learning by
taking part in social activities and exploration
• Maria Montessori believed Children learn
through experience.
• If children are provided the tools for their
developmental age level, they will be
successful learners.
• children learn by participating in hands-on
group activities, and that children should be
free to explore their environments.
11. How Do Teachers Support a Constructivist Environment?
• The 5 E's
• Engage
• Explore
• Explain
• Elaborate
• Evaluate
• Teacher engages students by providing
knowledge expansion tools the students use,
collaboratively and cooperatively through
inquiry, exploration, teamwork, whole group
discussions, and evaluation.
12. Advantages:
• Each person in the world builds their own
knowledge.
• Focuses on student- centered learning.
• Teacher guides students in building their own
understanding and knowledge.
• Students actively engaged in their learning
process.
Disadvantages:
• Lack of teacher preparation for constructivist
classrooms.
• Difficult to break the cycle of those who have
been taught in a classroom where they were
expected to solely absorb information.
13. Characteristics of constructivism
1. Learners construct understanding
2. New learning depends on current
understanding
3. Learning is facilitated by social interaction
4. Meaningful learning occurs within authentic
learning tasks.
15. Knowledge construction
• Knowledge construction refers to the processes
by which students solve problems and construct
understanding of concepts, phenomena, and
situations, considered within cognitive
psychology.
• It is effortful, situated, and reflective, and can be
individual or social.
• The basic assumption of constructivism is that
the student must make ideas meaningful in
relation to his or her prior knowledge and to the
situation in which the need for ideas arises.
16. • The cognitive processes are “situated” because
they are mediated (enabled) by social interactions
within the particular group that is working together
and by the particular technologies used.
• Knowledge construction is often associated with
deep learning, which involves “qualitative changes
in the complexity of students’ thinking about and
conceptualization of context-specific subject
matter” .
• Dole and Sinatra (1998) conceptualize the effort
students invest in information processing as
“engagement,” ranging from simple processing that
leads to assimilation (low), to deeper processing
and some reflection that leads to knowledge
restructuring (moderate), and on to substantially
metacognitive processing (high).
17. • At moderate to high levels of engagement,
knowledge construction can lead to the
substantial restructuring of knowledge, which
may include the invention of new concepts
and enhanced meta-conceptual knowledge
(e.g., knowledge about the hierarchical nature
of networks of concepts).
• For example, students may initially consider
the motion of an apple that falls from a tree to
be unrelated to the motion of the earth in its
orbit around the sun, but then come to realize
that both can be described using the universal
law of gravitation.
18. • This change would imply deeper insight into the nature
of gravity and would lead to a restructuring of
knowledge; the resulting knowledge structure would
explain a greater range of observations and require
fewer assumptions.
• More generally, synthesis that results in understanding
phenomena on a higher plane and the creation of new
concepts is an important form of knowledge
advancement.
• For example, Mendeleev’s introduction of the periodic
table of the elements accelerated progress in chemistry
by predicting the existence of unobserved elements
and the creation of new concepts to explain the
partially observed patterns.
19. • Knowledge construction involves a range of
cognitive processes, including the use of
explanation-seeking questions and problems,
interpreting and evaluating new information,
sharing, critiquing, and testing ideas at different
levels
• (e.g., conjectures versus explanations that refer to
concepts and/or causal mechanisms), and efforts to
rise above current levels of explanation, including
summarization, synthesis, and the creation of new
concepts.
• However, educational approaches vary
considerably in the extent to which they make it
possible for students to engage in these processes.
20. • 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.
21. • Vygotsky believed that learning needs to be
engaging.
• Vygotsky believed that learning takes place as
children are interacting with each other and
exploring their environment.
• He believed that learning is simultaneous to
social interaction and exploration.
• In other words, he did not feel as though one
was more important than the other.
22. • “ Teaching is not about filling up the pail, it is
about lighting a fire” .
• Constructivism: focuses on knowledge
construction .
• It is a theory of knowledge that argues that
humans generate knowledge and meaning from
an interaction between their experiences and
their ideas
23. Organizing knowledge Concepts:
• a concept is a way of grouping or categorizing
objects or events in our mind.
• • Concepts as feature lists –learning a concept
involves learning specific features that
characterize positive instance of the concept
a. Defining feature- characteristic present in
ALL instances
• b. correlation feature-present in many positive
instances but not essential for concept
membership
24. Making concept-learning effective
A. Provide a clear definition of the concept
B. Make the defining features very concrete and
prominent
C. Give a variety of positive instances
D. Give negative instances
E. Cite a “best example” or a prototype
F. Provide opportunity for learners to identify
positive and negative instances
G. Ask learners to think of their own example of
the concept
H. Point out how concepts can be related to each
other
25. Schemas and scripts
• Schema is an organized body of knowledge
about something.
• Script is a schema that includes a series of
predictable events about a specific activity.
26. Applying constructivism in facilitating learning
• Aim to make learners understand a few key
ideas in an in-depth manner, rather than taking
up so many topics superficially.
• Give varied examples
• Provide opportunities for experimentation
• Provide lots of opportunities for quality
interaction
• Have lots of hands-on activities
• Relate your topic to real life situations
• Do not depend on the explanation method all
the time.
27. Role of Teachers in construction of Knowledge
• Teachers help learners construct knowledge through:
– Authentic experiences
– Collaborative activities
– Discussions & reflections
• Increased participation by:
– using U-shaped and circle space..
–Using cooperative strategies such as Think-
pair-share, Buzz groups, Beach ball, etc.
28. Difference between learning as construction of
knowledge and learning as transmission and
reception of knowledge
29. Learning as construction of knowledge
• Learning as construction of knowledge is the way
of assimilating the changes that happen during a
meaning search and it is an individual process.
• The process has been described to be both
intentional and incidental learning.
• It involves complete individual features.
• A person's desire to get new knowledge about
subjects and objects is related to an individual
inquiry about things.
30. • Learning is the process of creating and
constructing knowledge and some individuals’
learning may occur in educational system.
• As students try to improve their learning, they
take part in the learning-teaching process.
• Students’ learning in school is intentionally
designed to monitor their learning and this
process is called the teaching-learning process.
• Teaching-Learning process operates by means
of interaction between students, teachers and
knowledge.
31. • Students and teachers don’t have sufficient time
to create and construct knowledge in the
teaching-learning process and teachers mostly
transmit and distribute ready-made knowledge in
this process.
• Thus, students must follow their teachers’ plans
and other education policy-makers who decide
what type of knowledge and experiences are
important for students’ learning.
• Creating and constructing knowledge cannot be
the primary aims for them in the formal learning-
teaching system.
• However, the creation and construction of
knowledge must be the main issues in the
learning-teaching process.
32.
33. Learning as transmission of knowledge
• Learning as transmission and reception of
knowledge includes the following.
• As per studies conducted by organizations, a
collaboration can terminate at various levels of
development (Frey, Lohmeier, Lee, & Tollefson,
2006; Gajda, 2004).
• They have defined it more closely as: “Complete
knowledge is achieved from scholarships and
research, with an aim to generalize all types of
findings”, that deals in “knowing that”, rather than
“knowing how”
34. • Knowledge transmission refers to sharing or
disseminating of knowledge and providing inputs
to problem solving.
• In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the
practical problem of transferring knowledge from
one part of the organization to another.
• Like knowledge management, knowledge transfer
seeks to organize, create, capture or distribute
knowledge and ensure its availability for future
users.
• It is considered to be more than just
a communication problem.
35. • Knowledge transfer is more complex because:
– Knowledge resides in organizational members, tools, tasks,
and their sub networks and
– Much knowledge in organizations is tacit or hard to
articulate.
• Two kinds of knowledge transfer mechanisms have
been noticed in practice. 1. Personalization and 2.
codification.
• Personalization refers to the one-to-one transfer of
[knowledge] between two entities in person. A very
good example of this is the act of teaching a person
how to ride a bicycle.
• On the other hand, codification refers to the act of
converting knowledge into knowledge artifacts such as
documents, images and videos that are consumed by
the knowledge recipients asynchronously.
36. • Personalized knowledge transfer results in
better assimilation of knowledge by the
recipient when knowledge tactic is higher
and/or when information content in a
knowledge object is high.
• On the other hand, codification is driven by
the need to transfer knowledge to large
number of people and results in better
knowledge reuse.
37. Challenges of knowledge Transmission
• The inability to recognize & articulate "compiled" or
highly intuitive competencies – tactic knowledge idea
• Different views on explicitness of knowledge
• Geography or distance
• Limitations of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs)
• Lack of a shared/super ordinate social identity
• Language
• Areas of expertise
• Internal conflicts (for Ex: Professional territoriality)
• Generational differences
• Union-management relations
• Incentives
38. • Problems with sharing beliefs, assumptions, and
cultural norms.
• The use of visual representations to transfer
knowledge (Knowledge visualization)
• Previous exposure or experience with something
• Misconceptions
• Faulty information.
• Organizational culture non-conducive to
knowledge sharing (the "Knowledge is power"
culture)
• Motivational issues
• Lack of trust
• Capability
39. Reception of Knowledge:
• According to Ausubel, people acquire knowledge
primarily through RECEPTION rather than through
discovery. Concepts, principles, and ideas are
presented and understood, not discovered.
• The more organized and focused the presentation,
the more thoroughly the individual will learn.
• He stresses MEANINGFUL VERBAL LEARNING.
• Rote memory, for example, is not considered
meaningful since memorization omits the
connection of new knowledge with existing
knowledge.
• Ausubel also proposed his EXPOSITORY
TEACHING model to encourage meaningful rather
than rote reception learning.
40. • In his approach to learning, teachers present
material in a carefully organized, sequenced, and
finished form.
• Students receive the most usable material in the
most efficient way in this manner.
• Ausubel believes that learning should progress
deductively - from the general to the specific -
and not inductively as Bruner recommended.
• Before entering into the expository lesson,
Ausubel dictates the use of his most famous
contribution to cognitive educational
psychology.
41. • Optimal learning generally occurs when there is
a potential fit between the student's schemas
and the material to be learned.
• To foster this association, Ausubel suggests that
the lesson always begin with an advanced
organizer - an introductory statement of a
relationship of high-level concept, broad
enough to encompass all the information that
will follow.
• The function of the advanced organizer is to
provide SCAFFOLDING or support for the new
information. It is a conceptual bridge between
new material and a student's current
knowledge.
42. • An important part of teaching in Reception is
through 'interactions'.
• Adults observe the children closely as they
play, and join in sensitively to support them
and move their learning on, extending their
language and thinking, and helping to develop
their skills.
43. • The classrooms and outdoor space are organized
so that children can access most resources by
themselves, and they can extend their own
learning independently.
• These are called ‘enabling environments’. We
follow children’s interests and provide ‘hands on’
experiences to engage the children.
• Our resources are ‘open ended’, and can be used
flexibly so that the children are not restricted and
can follow their interests and ideas creatively.
• Our timetable allows for long periods of ‘free flow’
independent play, inside and outside, which
enables children to become deeply involved in
their learning.
