- Learners are active in constructing their own knowledge
- Social interactions are important in this knowledge construction process
2 forms of constructivism: psychological and social
- Psychological/individual/cognitive constructivism: focuses on how individuals use
information, resources and help from others to build and improve their mental models and
problem-solving strategies
- Social constructivism: views learning as increasing our abilities to participate with others in
activities that are meaningful in the culture
- Piaget: construction of universal knowledge comes from reflecting on and coordinating our
thoughts, not directly from the environment: first-wave constructivism (individual meaning
making)
- Radical constructivism: individuals can never know objective reality/truth but only know
what they believe or perceive
- Vygotsky: cultural tools, social interaction and activity shape individual development and
learning: second-wave constructivism (putting learning in cultural contexts)
- One way to of integrating individual and social constructivism is to think of knowledge as
both individually constructed and socially mediated
Elements of constructivist student-centered teaching
- 5 conditions for learning:
o Embed learning in complex & realistic environments and authentic tasks
o Provide social negotiation and shared responsibility
o Support multiple perspectives and use multiple representations
o Nurture self-awareness and an understanding that knowledge is constructed
o Encourage ownership in learning
Applying constructivist perspective
- Scaffolding: contingency support, fading, and transferring responsibility
- Inquiry learning: teacher presents a puzzling event/problem and the students formulate
hypotheses, collect data to test the hypotheses, draw conclusion and reflect on original
problem and the thinking processes
o Processes of inquiry are:
o Procedural (hands-on, science procedures, collect data, graphing), epistemic
(drawing conclusions, generating/revising theories), conceptual (connecting prior
knowledge, elicit mental models) and social (class discussion, arguing, debating)
, - Problem-based learning: to help students develop useful and flexible knowledge, not inert,
enhance intrinsic motivation, problem-solving skills, collaboration, self-directed learning
etc.
- In true PBL, the problem is real (authentic) and the students’ actions matter
Article 1 – PBL (Loyens, Kirschner, Paas)
- 3 levels: curriculum level, group level and individual level
The curriculum level
Problems:
- The first input that students encounter
- Relates to problems for a particular domain of study
- Must build on prior knowledge
- Must elicit discussion
- Must be ensure the formulation of learning goals
- Must encourage integration and transfer of knowledge
- Must be relevant to future profession
Collaboration in small groups:
- 6 to 10 students meet for 2-3 hours twice a week
- Sessions guided by a tutor, 2 students as chair and scribe
- Lectures are more comprehensive than transmissive
- Collaborative learning stimulates discussion and task involvement
Learning objectives and multiple learning sources:
- Learning objectives are determined by the coordinator for all students
- Novice students in PBL are provided with restricted set of resources for individual study
- With increasing expertise, students are provided with less and less specified resources
The group level
The tutor:
- Role of the tutor is to facilitate and stimulate group discussion
- Ensures that problem content is discussed in depth
- Evaluates the groups members’ contribution
- When needed asks open-ended questions and supports knowledge: induce germane load
- Prevents students from spending time on irrelevant information: reduce extraneous load
- Tutor interventions should diminish over time
- Tutor effectiveness depends on tutor subject-matter expertise, prior knowledge of
students, and amount of structure in the instruction
- Effective tutors have cognitive congruence, social congruence and expertise
o Cognitive congruence: has a language adapted to students’ level
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through EFT, credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying this summary from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller ebru1365. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy this summary for R87,54. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.