2. Lev S. Vygotsky (Virginia)
• 1896-1934
• A Russian Psychologist
• Commonly considered the “Father of
Constructivism”.
• He was mainly concerned mainly with the social
and cultural aspects in human learning.
• His work was mainly unknown, especially in the
west, until its “rediscovery” in the 1960’s.
3. Jean Piaget
• 1886-1980
• A Swiss Cognitive Psychologist
• Founded four key concepts :
1.Assimilation
2.Accommodation
3.Equilibration
4.Schemas
4. Jerome Bruner
• 1915-Present
• An American psychologist
• His Principles on Instruction are:
1.Concerned with experiences and contexts to
influence the student to be willing to learn.
(readiness)
2.Structured to be easy for students to
grasp.(spiral organization)
3.Designed to fill all gaps. (beyond basic
instruction)
5. Learn by doing! –Trial And Error
(Matt)
• Constructivism is a theory to explain how knowledge is constructed
in the human being when information comes into contact with
existing knowledge that had been developed by experiences.
(Wikipedia) May require rephrasing
• Constructivism has implications for the theory of instruction.
Discovery learning, hands-on, experiential, collaborate, project-
based, tasked-based are a number of applications that base
teaching and learning on constructivism. (Wikipedia) May Require
Rephrasing
• Learning is based on the student’s experiences and interactions with
the environment and the reflecting on those experiences.
• Knowledge is gained through personally doing the activities and
constructing/forming knowledge based on success or failure.
• Constructivism is a Student-Based learning theory, not a teacher-
based theory.
• Team activities are a key part of the Constructivism Model.
• Learning online is benefitted greatly through the Constructivism
Model. IE. Team activities we’re doing right now!
6. Assimilation: Information is incorporated into the beliefs that already
exist.
• Assimilation: Information is incorporated into the beliefs that
already exist.
• Accommodation: If we try something and we do not get the
expected reaction, then we change our beliefs to accommodate
that new information.
• Equilibrium: Achieving balance of Assimilation and
Accommodation.
• Spiral Curriculum: It is a constant learning process, constantly
building information/knowledge on top of itself. Greater depth
and higher learning. IE. 1st Grade Math, 2nd Grade math, 3rd
grade math, etc.
• Socratic Method : Learning by asking questions, personal quest
for knowledge.
7. Principles of learning
(Constructivism)
• 1. Learning is an active process in which the learner uses sensory input and
constructs meaning out of it. 2. People learn to learn as they learn: learning
consists both of constructing meaning and constructing systems of
meaning.
• 3. The crucial action of constructing meaning is mental: it happens in the
mind.
• 4. Learning involves language: the language we use influences learning.
• 5. Learning is a social activity: our learning is intimately associated with our
connection with other human beings, our teachers, our peers, our family as
well as casual acquaintances, including the people before us or next to us
at the exhibit.
• 6. Learning is contextual: we do not learn isolated facts and theories in
some abstract ethereal land of the mind separate from the rest of our lives:
we learn in relationship to what else we know, what we believe, our
prejudices and our fears.
• 7. One needs knowledge to learn: it is not possible to assimilate new
knowledge without having some structure developed from previous
knowledge to build on.
• 8. It takes time to learn: learning is not instantaneous.
• 9. Motivation is a key component in learning.
8. What the teacher does under
Constructivism (John)
• Makes it a point to understand students’
previous notions possessed on a topic, as to
guide an activity to suit and expand them.
• Encourages students to think about how the
presented activities are helping them learn
and/or how they guide them through the
learning process.
• Dissects whole understandings of topics to
enable students’ ability to discover the
“essentials” of an instance in different ways.
9. Continued….(with technology)
• Technology is viewed as a powerful teaching tool to
constructivists.
• Real world relevance in primarily considered when
integrating the use of technology in teaching methods.
• Teachers must be well versed in the technology prior to
using it in the classroom so they can be explained to the
students
• Teachers can create a page on the internet with relevant
recourses for students to browse through and allow
networking between students and the teacher.
10. What the students do under
Constructivism
• Discovery activities such as a visit from guest
who has a story to tell when learning how to tell
a story. Also, a music database for the student
to explore and a lesson from a trained musician
to further the knowledge of music composition
and/or performance.
• The opportunity to elaborate and explain.
• Lessons centered around general personal
interests to promote meaningful and relevant
work.
11. Continued…(with technology)
• Networking with fellow students and teachers.
• Using information technology, students can
increasingly initiate searches.
• Computers make learning material more readily
available.
• Students can use the internet to maintain
currency with events as they unfold.
• Powerful computer software such as word
processing, spread sheets and digital photo
editing software.
