3. Two Views of Constructivism
Individual Constructivism
– It emphasizes individual,
internal construction of knowledge.
Social Constructivism
– It emphasizes that “knowledge exist in a social
context and is initially shared with others instead
of being represented solely in the mind of an
individual”.
4. 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.
5. Organizing Knowledge
Concepts
– It is a way of grouping or
categorizing objects or events in our mind.
Concept as Feature Lists
Defining Feature – It is a characteristic present
in ALL instances.
Correlational Feature - One that is present in
many positive instances but not essential for
concept membership.
6. Concept as Prototypes
– It is an idea or a visual image
of a “typical Example”.
Concept as Exemplars
– It represent a variety of
examples.
7. Making Concept-learning Effective
Provide a clear definition of the concept
Make the defining features very concrete and prominent
Give a variety of positive instances
Give a negative instances
Cite a “best example” or a prototype
Provide opportunity for learners to identify
positive and negative instances
Ask learners to think of their own example of
the concept
Point out how concepts can be related to each
other
8. Schema
– It is an organized body of
knowledge about something.
Script
– It is a schema that includes a series
of predictable events about a specific
activity.
10. Aim to make learners understand a few key
ideas 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.