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Work 1: Knowledge Process Analysis

Project Overview

Project Description

Analyze a work according to the "Knowledge Processes" Framework.

Icon for Constructivism in the Classroom

Constructivism in the Classroom

Introduction

"Constructivism is the philosophical and scientific position that knowledge arises through a process of active construction." (Mascolol & Fischer, 2005)

I first learned about the Constructivist Theory in college when I was studying to become an elementary school teacher. It struck me as perfect sense and the way that all teachers should be shaping their pedagogy around. Nine years later, I can say that I still believe the constructivist approach to learning is the way in which most people learn best. The quote above illustrates it in a great way. We gain knowledge through processes of active construction. We learn best by doing, experiencing, trying, and even failing. I always encourage my students to learn from their mistakes. I like to show them ideas in as many different ways as possible in order for them to create their own meaning. I find as many resources that I can from first hand experiences: videos, pictures, books, articles, and even experts that can share their knowledge on the topic. I love to watch the discovery in student’s eyes as they ideas become more clear. I have used a lot of thematic units and project based learning experiences which puts students at the center of their learning, rather than just sitting and getting information thrown at them and showing their knowledge by performing on a test.

I currently teach first grade and this is one of our social studies learning standards for geography: SS.Geog2.a.K-1 Analyze where and why people live in certain places. Classify the local community as rural, suburban, urban, or tribal. My first grade team decided that in order for students to grasp this concept we incorporated various books from homes around the world. The students created their own Home book where they drew a picture and wrote a descriptive statement about each different type of home we covered each day (rural, urban, mountain, coastal, etc.). They shared their work with their peers as we progressed through the different homes and their relation to purposeful living. We watched videos of different types of people and the homes they lived in, and through it all they knew they were choosing one type of home to make a diorama to present to the class describing one of these types of homes and why people would choose to live there.

This project is a great way to involve families as students are constructing the different meanings and exploring the different homes and the areas of the world they might find them in. They had discussions with each other about their own homes, their family members helped explain their ancestry and the types of homes they may have lived in, and even sparked conversations about what homes may look like in the future. Seeing how much students immerse themselves in these kinds of learning experiences is proof enough that this theory if an effective way to run a classroom and it will continue to be something I refer to when lesson planning and thinking of how to best meet the needs of my students.

The above graphic perfectly illustrates constructivism. It isn’t something that is utilized once in a remote setting, it is an ongoing way of learning building on the past, present, and continuing into the future. It is the way we create meaning and understanding over our entire lives.

What is the Constructivist Theory?

According to the Journal of Education and Training Studies, constructivism illustrates, “Teaching is understood as creating situations in which pupils are given the opportunity to (re) construct - to create, modify and improve their existing knowledge. Assessing the learning outcomes by distinguishing right / wrong does not seem reasonable, because no knowledge is itself privileged. Learning is an act of constructing in a community of learners.” (Jitka, Jitka, Plischke, & Kobzová, 2018). Students are the center of their learning and the teacher is there to guide them. It is a theory of the way in which learning takes place, rather than a way of teaching. If you provide enough pathways and resources it aides students in creating their own understanding of a concept rather than being given a list of facts and told to memorize and repeat them to be assessed on at a later time. It promotes higher order thinking and deeper meaning making. The chart below clearly compares the traditional classroom to a constructivist classroom.

One of the easiest ways to understand this theory is to compare it to a traditional classroom setting like the chart from WNET Education does above. It states that in a traditional classroom setting the teacher’s role is directive and based on authority. This relates to didactic education where the teacher has a fixed point in the front of the classroom and students are in rows facing the teacher ready to listen. On the contrary, in a constructivist classroom students are the center of their learning the teacher’s role is interactive. This means the teacher asks questions and steps back allowing time and space for exploration, discussion, and discovery. Students build on the knowledge they already possess. Traditional teaching focuses on the claim that knowledge is inert, but in the constructivist classroom knowledge is ever changeable, shifting, constantly being created and manipulated by our experiences.

Just as the above pieces of the puzzle fit together to create a whole image, knowledge and curriculum are presented first as a bigger picture and then each part and piece are analyzed in order to fit into the bigger scheme of making meaning, inferences, connections, and conclusions.

 

What Does it Look Like in the Classroom?

The video below states, “Constructivism utilizes interactive teaching strategies to create meaningful contexts that help students construct knowledge based on their own experiences.” (BlueSofaMedia, 2012).

Media embedded June 27, 2019

The teacher in the video was looking for a way to engage his students in their learning and it listed the possible ways to do this: “role playing or simulating a historical event or time period, debating controversial current event issues or topics, utilizing cooperative learning groups to teach multiple perspectives, and allowing students to enroll in real world activities like internships” (BlueSofaMedia, 2012). All of these methods are examples of ways to engage students in higher order thinking. Students learn from each other and from putting themselves in interactive, hands-on learning experiences. In constructivist classrooms, teachers pose questions and guide students to find the answers. They may also, “prompt students to formulate their own questions (inquiry), allow multiple interpretations and expressions of learning (multiple intelligences), encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (collaborative learning).” ("Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning", 2004).

The learning model above demonstrates one way that constructivism could look like in a classroom. Notice the arrows continually going around, symbolizing that this model never ends. Reading, reflecting, displaying, and doing with no certain beginning or end. While in the center of this model are the key concepts that are involved. The higher order and meaning making strategies and skills that result as students explore a topic; solution evaluation and knowledge transfer, problem orientation and knowledge acquisition, solution seeking analysis and knowledge representation, problem clarification and knowledge construction. This model proves that students learning by making mistakes, interpreting results and presenting information in a variety of ways. Depending on your preferred learning style, the constructivist approach to learning is effective in a variety and endless number of ways.

 

WNET education gives a good example of what a constructivist lesson could look like in a classroom: “An elementary teacher believes her students are ready to study gravity. She creates an environment of discovery with objects of varying kinds. Students explore the differences in weight among similarly sized blocks of Styrofoam, wood, and lead. Some students hold the notion that heavier objects fall faster than light ones. The teacher provides materials (stories, posters, and videos) about Galileo, Newton, etc. She leads a discussion on theories about falling. The students then replicate Galileo's experiment by dropping objects of different weights and measuring how fast they fall. They see that objects of different weights actually usually fall at the same speed, although surface area and aerodynamic properties can affect the rate of fall.” ("Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning", 2004)

The students are presented with a problem relating to gravity and its effect on different objects. They are then allowed to hypothesize and work with various materials to engage in self discovery. They are able to have discussions about their findings and discover ways in which their previous thoughts were wrong or prove how their initial thoughts were right. Students are motivated through inquiry based learning, which is constructivism in action.

 

Related Theories and Theorists

John Dewey is often referred to as the founder of constructivism. He was controversial for his time and was one of the first theorists to reject the idea of rote memorization. He believed in exploration and hands-on experiences. He wrote, "If you have doubts about how learning happens, engage in sustained inquiry: study, ponder, consider alternative possibilities and arrive at your belief grounded in evidence." (UCD Dublin).

Media embedded June 27, 2019

The video above discusses Dewey’s history and his findings. He theorized that learning is a coordinating act involving the sensory and the motor actions of a child and the context in which the situation occurs. The context includes the child’s past experiences, the environment in which the event takes place, and the level of engagement.

Piaget is another theorist closely tied to constructivism. He rejected the idea that knowledge can be a passive action, but rather he proposed that learning is a dynamic process that occurs in stages and learners construct their own knowledge by creating and testing their own theories.

 

Another noteworthy theorist when discussing constructivism is Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. He rejected Piaget’s idea that learning can be separated from its social context. Hence him developing the social constructivism theory. He believed that learning was driven by external factors including social interaction, culture, and language. According to him, “Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals. (p. 57)” (UCD Dublin).

 

Limitations

There are many various viewpoints on constructivism. Some critics believe that this theory is elitist. They say that it benefits students from privileged backgrounds, those from a higher economic status, with committed parents, outstanding teachers, thus giving them a wealth of background knowledge. Critics also call this learning method as subjective and relativist. Since the assessment isn’t completed on right or wrong answers, the grading and understanding of individual learners could be different from teacher to teacher. “In addition, constructivist practice is said to privilege children’s innate capacities, free expression, and constructed understanding over teachers’ abilities to organize and guide instruction, resulting in an unwillingness or inability to correct student errors (Hirsch, 1996; Geary, 2001)”(Lorch). Further, another critical viewpoint is that allowing students to construct their own knowledge takes too long, when they could just be directly told the information in a much quicker fashion. The response to this critique is that in order for deeper meaning and for it to be logged in long term memory, hands-on experiences have proven time and again to be more effective. Just as Benjamin Franklin said which relates perfectly to the constructivist methodology, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

 

Conclusion

Whether they know it or not, teachers everywhere are probably incorporating the constructivist learning theory in their classrooms in one way or another. This well known theory focuses on learners being critical thinkers and the center of their education. Knowledge is dynamic, adaptive, and constantly developing and changing. Learning best occurs when hands-on experiences such as role playing, social debates, internships, and experiments are presented in an inquiry based manner. Students are driven to engage with their education with teachers there to help guide and question rather than to authoritatively instruct. According to constructivist theory, assessment is completed as a result of observations of the learner as a whole, not just by a score of right or wrong on a test. I think that the constructivist theory is an effective learning theory and helps all students, no matter their background, reach their own personal level of excellence.


References

BlueSofaMedia. (2012, December 30). Use a Learning Theory: Constructivism. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa59prZC5gA

 

(2004). Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved June 26, 2019, from https://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

 

Davidson Films, I. (2010, June 21). John Dewey's Theories on Education and Learning: An Introduction to His Life and Work. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGjSMqwlP3E

 

Funderstanding. (2011, April 14). Constructivism. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.funderstanding.com/theory/constructivism/

 

Jitka, Jitka, Plischke, & Kobzová. (2018, October 31). Teacher's Concept of Constructivism in Real Conditions of School Teaching. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1208419

 

Lorch, S. (n.d.). Critiques of Constructivism. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.lookstein.org/journal/critiques-of-constructivism/

 

Sharma, P. (2015, October 14). Constructivism. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.slideshare.net/super1942/constructivism-53913590

 

The Contribution of Educational Robotics and ... (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2019, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329905687_The_Contribution_of_Educational_Robotics_and_Constructivist_Approach_to_Computational_Thinking_in_the_21st_Century

 

UCD Dublin. (n.d.). Constructivism and Social Constructivism. Retrieved June 27, 2019, from http://www.ucdoer.ie/index.php/Education_Theory/Constructivism_and_Social_Constructivism