- CONSTRUCTIVISM NOTES ( Discussed in
class)
-
- A movement associated with teaching and
learning Science.
- Central thesis- humans construct knowledge
as opposed to knowledge being transmitted to their
minds
- Constructivism Stresses
- Prior learning as a starting
point
- Active process where students construct
personal meaning of the subject matter through interactions
with the physical and social world
- Students must make sense of the
experiences
- Knowledge comes from many areas &endash;
experiences, information "out there" and is incorporated into
existing knowledge structures, which in turn are modified.
- Effective teaching must take into account
what students know, then modify this knowledge (use strategies
so students have an opportunity to confront their beliefs) so
that they reflect scientific views.
History
Some significant scholars associated with
Constructivism:
1. Piaget- Personal experience with physical
world- interaction with objects and events stimulates the
construction of knowledge ( rather than just listening passively)
(Thus teaching has promoted more experience
with concrete materials, manipulating materials, testing ideas,
organizing data, use of discrepant events, & contradictions to
cause cognitive dissonance motivating students to wonder and find
out how.)
2. Vygotsky focused on social interaction. The
role of others in facilitating the construction of knowledge.
Interaction with the social world. Peers & others greatly
influence learning and the acquisition of science concepts.
3. von Glasserfeld- one of today's top scholars
in constructivism. a foremost name now in scholars of
constructivism. &endash; "Once a teacher abandons that knowledge
is a commodity transferable to children, then that notion must be
replaced with an attempt to discover what is actually going on in
a child's mind as he/she learns." What children learn is the
result of their own thinking and processing.
- CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE
- Recognize that attitudes & values are
brought to class
- Equilibrium and contradictions Set up
"cognitive disequilibrium" or "cognitive dissonance".
(Discrepant events can be a starting point for doing this and
motivating students to want to construct knowledge)
Other ways to help students construct learning
are through:
-
- Discovering alternate conceptions or
"misconceptions" and arranging many experiences to help bring
about conceptual change that closely aligns with the scientific
view.
- Concept maps
- Images, Analogies and Models
- "Competent teachers jump into the heads of
their students to see how they are constructing
information…..competent teachers combine content knowledge
with a flexible and creative mind, constructing and reconstructing
subject matter in multiple ways as they teach the children. They
get inside the children's heads. They listen to them. They remain
alert to students' interpretations and the ways they are making
sense."1
This is the essence of the constructivist
theory of learning according to David Jerner Martin
1 Jennifer Lanier Dean of College of Education,
Michigan State University in Address to Holmes group in
1987.