Social constructivism holds that knowledge is constructed through social interaction and negotiation with others. In a social constructivist classroom, the focus shifts from the teacher to the students, who are actively involved in their own learning process rather than passively receiving knowledge from the teacher. Instruction moves from whole-class lectures to small group work, with the teacher facilitating learning rather than lecturing. Students engage with each other and learn to work together to build knowledge. Implementation strategies include shifting students beyond their current understanding through support and scaffolding, using tools like Bubble Us for brainstorming and online collaborative spaces like wikis for sharing and extending ideas.

1. Social Constructivism
Knowledge is socially constructed through
interaction and negotiation of the ideas of
others (Chen, 2014).

2. Social Constructivism
In the constructivist classroom, the
focus tends to shift from the teacher to
the students.
The classroom is no longer a place
where the teacher pours knowledge into
passive students; now students are
actively involved in their own process of
learning.

3. Social Constructivism and
Technology
Instruction goes from whole class to
groups
Facilitating rather than lecturing
Students are engaged and learn to work
with others

4. Implementation into the
Classroom
Know your students
The aim is to shift students beyond what
they already know, to what they are
capable of learning with support and
scaffolding

5. Implementation into the
Classroom
Bubbl Us- students brainstorm a new
concept. Each student introduces an
idea while their peers extend on the
ideas and current understanding.
Pose problems relevant to students

6. Implementation into the
Classroom
Online collaborative spaces- e.g. wikis,
blogs, prezi. Students share their
current understanding and knowledge,
their peers extend on this and add new
ideas.
Students find information about their
class members- Q and A.

7. DE BONO’S SIX THINKING
HATS
Social constructivism creates a student centred
learning experience and environment. This can be
achieved by utilizing a wiki space and the Six
Thinking Hats developed by Andrew De Bono. The
De Bono activity completed in Week 2 (mobile
phones) of my blog introduced the concept of
working and contributing ideas to a group editing
page. A similar activity can be used in the
classroom.

8. The De Bono activity was a beneficial scaffolding tool that
allowed for a large number of people to collaborate and
communicate their thoughts and ideas. Collecting and
collating the perspectives from 5 to 6 people, identified
and increased my understanding of the topic and
encouraged reconsideration of my knowledge and
teaching methods. Using De Bono's Hats and the
wiki produced an appealing and fun learning task, while at
the same time stimulated participation, collaboration,
sharing of perspectives, various teaching methods and
interaction.
De Bono’s Six Thinking
Hats