Constructivism is a theory that people construct their own understanding and knowledge through experiences and reflecting on those experiences. There are two major strands of constructivism: cognitive constructivism which focuses on helping students assimilate new information with existing knowledge, and social constructivism which stresses the importance of social interactions and culture. Jean Piaget was influential in developing constructivism and proposed that children think differently than adults, going through sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages of cognitive development based on building blocks of knowledge called schemas and processes of equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation.

1. CONSTRUCTIVISM
Falian

2. OVERVIEW
 Constructivism is the theory that people construct their
own understanding and knowledge of the world, through
facing things and reflecting on those experiences. When
learners encounter something new, they settle it with
previous knowledge and experience. They may change
what they believe, or they may discard the new
information as irrelevant. To be active inventors of their
knowledge however, they must be able to ask questions,
explore and assess what they know. In the classroom,
the constructivist view of learning means inspiring
students to use active techniques such as experiments
and real-world problem solving using true data if
possible, and to create knowledge and reflect on their
understanding.

3. TWO MAJOR STRANDS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
THEORY
Cognitive Social
o Aim to assist students in o Encourages student to arrive at
assimilating new information to his or her vision.
existing knowledge, and enabling o Historical developments and
them to make the appropriate symbol systems, such as
modifications to their existing language, logic, and
intellectual framework to mathematical systems, are
accommodate that information. inherited by the learner as a
o It allows for the use of “skill and member of a particular culture
drill” exercises in the and these are learned
memorization of facts, formulae, throughout the learner's life.
and lists, they place greater o Stresses the importance of the
importance on strategies that nature of the learner's social
help students to actively interaction with knowledgeable
assimilate and accommodate members of the society.
new material.

4. JEAN PIAGET
 Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic
study of cognitive development.
 His contributions include a theory of cognitive child
development, detailed observational studies of cognition
in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to
reveal different cognitive abilities.
 Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in
psychology was that children are merely less competent
thinkers than adults.
 Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly
different ways compared to adults. According to Piaget,
children are born with a very basic mental structure on
which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

5. PAIGET’S THREE COMPONENTS FOR
COGNITIVE THEORY
 Schemas
 (building blocks of knowledge)
 Processes that enable the transition from one stage
to another (equilibrium, assimilation and
accommodation)
 Stages of Development:
 sensorimotor
 preoperational
 concrete operational
 formal operational

6. CREDITS
o Wikipedia.org
o ndt-ed.org
o Google pictures
o Integrating technology in a connected world (book)