Certificate No.

AJA19-0226

CHAPTER 3 CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING: INTERACTIVE, COLLABORATIVE,

INTEGRATIVE, AND INQUIRY-BASED

I.INTRODUCTION
In the chapter summary of Chapter 2 it was said that the indirect and inductive
methods are more constructivist than the direct and deductive methods of teaching.
What is constructivist teaching?

II. LEARNING OUTCOMES

 Show how constructivist teaching is done by the use of interactive,
collaborative, integrative, and inquiry-based activities.

III. CONTENT / DISCUSSION

Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs when

learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction
as opposed to passively receiving information.
Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. The following are the
characteristics of constructivist teaching called from related conceptual literature:
1. Authentic activities and real-world environments
 Learning situations, environments, skills, content and tasks are relevant,
realistic, and authentic and represent the natural complexities of the real
world.
 Primary sources of data are used in order to ensure authenticity and real-
world complexity.
 Assessment is authentic and interwoven with teaching.
 Learners are provided with the opportunity for apprenticeship learning in
which there is an increasing complexity of tasks, skills, and knowledge
acquisition.
2. Multiple Perspectives
 Learning environment should support multiple perspectives or
interpretations of reality, knowledge construction, and context-rich,
experience-based activities. (Jonassen, 1995)
 Activities, opportunities, tools and environment are provided to encourage
metacognition, self-analysis, regulation, reflection, and awareness.
3. Holistic, integrative
 Knowledge complexity is reflected in an emphasis on conceptual
interrelatedness and interdisciplinary learning.
4. Self-directed learners
 The student plays a central role in mediating and controlling learning.
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 Goals and objectives are derived by the student or in negotiation with the
teacher or system.
 Exploration is a favored approach in order to encourage students to seek
knowledge independently and to manage the pursuit of their goals.
 Scaffolding is facilitated to help students perform just beyond the limits of
their ability.
5. Meaningful Learning
 Knowledge construction and not reproduction is emphasized.
 The learners’ previous knowledge constructions, beliefs and attitudes are
considered in the knowledge construction process.
 Errors provide the opportunity for insight into students’ previous knowledge
constructions.

Interactive Teaching
The word interactive reminds us of people with whom the learner interacts in
order to learn. In the classroom, first, we have the teachers; second, are the other
learners in class. Beyond the classroom are the school head and the non-teaching
staff. The interaction can be collaborative and so we have collaborative teaching and
learning.

This interaction can also be between the learner and learning material like a
module, a film, a video clip, a poem, a map, a model of the digestive system. These
learning materials are products of experts. Interacting with instructional materials is
also interacting with people. Today we speak of interactive viewing.

Why do we promote interactive teaching? For many reasons:

1. Learning is an active process. Only the student can do the learning for
himself. The more intense the involvement, the better the learning.
2. Learning is also a social process. Vygotsky’s (1998) social learning theory
states that we learn from others. No one has the monopoly of the truth. Then
it must be good to listen to other perspectives in our search for answers and
for truth. If there are fifty students in class, that which being studied is seen
from fifty (50) perspectives. In the process of interaction, other perspectives
may come into being, so the fifty becomes fifty-one or fifty-two. The
discussion gets very much enriched all because there is interaction.
3. Another reason why we encourage interactive teaching is related to the
second. Every student can serve as a resource person. Every student has so
much to share. Just ask the right questions. Many times, students have the
appropriate answers but it seems some teachers don’t ask the questions or if
they do, they ask the wrong questions. So what should the teacher do to
promote lively interaction in class?
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Teacher’s Tasks in Interactive Teaching-Learning

Teacher:
1. Must ask specific, non-intimidating feedback questions and HOTS questions.
 “Do you have any questions?” is quite general. Find out if they understood the
lesson by asking them questions like “Why did Edgar Dale describe direct
experiences at the bottom of his cone purposeful? Will it make any difference
in the cone if the word purposeful is deleted?” “Who did not understand?” is
specific but intimidating for those who would not want to be singled out for
his/her ignorance.
 Ask HOTS questions. Don’t get fixated at low-level of questioning. “What is
the definition of drug addiction?” is simply restating memorized definition and
does not stimulate discussion. “Why do some people take drugs?” is more
thought provoking and can spur a lively interaction.
2. Must make the focus of interaction clear.
 Of course, the learning outcomes are the bases of interaction, The
questions that guides the interaction are based on your intended learning
targets or outcomes. Whether the interaction is meant to be between
teacher and students or between student/s and student/s or between
student and a learning material or among student, teaching and learning
material, the beginning of interaction is a well-formulated question or
questions.
3. Must create the climate favorable for genuine interaction.
 No sarcastic remarks. Take time to genuinely listen to students’
responses. You ask for their responses so listen to them.
 Give sufficient wait time for students to think of and organize their
responses. So you must feel comfortable when there is a brief period of
silence while students organize their thoughts. You must not mistake their
silence for ignorance or for lack of interest.
4. Must do less talk so students talk more.
 Learn to “decrease” so students “increase.” The more “dumb” the teacher,
the better for the student. Avoid being a non-stop talker. What is worst is
posing questions and answering them yourselves.

COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

An effective class interaction paves the way to collaboration. Interaction is the

beginning of collaboration. “Coming together is the beginning; keeping together is
progress; working together is success,” says American pioneer of the assembly line
production method, Henry Ford.
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Collaboration goes beyond interaction. When students collaborate for

learning, they do not just interact, they work together and help one another for a
common goal. This is peer-to-peer learning. In collaborative learning each one is his
“brother’s/ sister’s keeper”. It takes on many forms:
1. Twinning or partnering or forming dyad (collaboration of two);
2. Triad;
3. Tetrad (the musical quartet); and
4. Small group (beyond four but less than ten).

Teacher’s Tasks in Collaborative Learning

Teacher must:
1. Begin with the conviction that every student can share something in the
attainment of a goal.
 Collaborative learning operates on respect and trust. Respect is basic for
any relationship to prosper. It is being convinced of the basic goodness of
every person in the group. There can be no mutual trust if there is no
respect. Trust is being convince that every member of the group will help
in the realization of the common goal.
 The contribution of every member to the attainment of the goal and the
assistance or help a member receives may vary depending on one’s
capacities. Karl Marx’s slogan “from each according to his ability, to each
according to his need” if applied in the collaborative learning ensures
attainment of group goal.
 Make students realize that those who have been blessed with more are
expected to contribute more and that the more they help, the more
developed they become. Just think that the more you teach a subject the
more you master it. That is the abundance of mentality.
2. Structure tasks in such a way that the group goal cannot be realized without
the members collaborating.
 Remind the group that what is important is that everyone works with all the
others in the group for the attainment of the goal, or else it is not
collaborative learning at all. It is a matter of “sink-or-swim” together.
 Motivate them to take part in the collaborative process by reminding them
of the time-tested principle that states “learning is an active process.” The
more one gets involved in the collaborative process, the more he/she
learns. Or the principle of balance “input = output” applies. The amount of
capital (such as effort) that one exerts in a learning activity determines the
dividends that he/she harvests.
3. Make the goal clear to all.
4. Ensures that guidelines on procedures are clear especially on how their
performance is assessed.
 For instance, learning is a collaborative process but each student is
accountable for his/her learning. This means that the group will do
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everything it can help to every group member learn but the individual
student is ultimately responsible and accountable for his/her learning.
 Therefore, summative assessment of learning will be individual. There will
be no such thing as cooperative test or assessment. The group is
successful if and only if all the members of the group attain the intended
outcome. So, if you intend to ask each one to evaluate individual
member’s participation in the collaborative activity by means of a scoring
rubrics, tell them and show them the scoring rubrics.
5. Must make clear that at the end of the activity, they have to reflect together.
 Another thing to emphasize in cooperative learning is the fact that the task
does not end with assessment. It culminates in a group processing where
they reflect and analyze what made or not made them realize their group
goal, make decisions on what need to be sustained or improved in future
collaborative process.

Integrative Teaching and Learning

Interdisciplinary teaching
 Integrate comes from the Latin word “integer” which means to make
whole. Integrative teaching and learning means putting together separate
disciplines to make whole. This affirms the “boundlessness” of disciplines.
There are no demarcation lines among disciplines taught.
 When you teach geography in science you are at the same time teaching
Anyo ng Lupa (land forms) and Anyo ng Tubig (water forms) in Araling
Panlipunan. Or you may teach content of Science in the language class or
Health class or the Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) class
particularly Home Economics. Art is used to teach Math, Math is taught in
Art, Integrative teaching and learning interdisciplinary.
 In the first place there is only one curriculum, i.e., life. For purposes of
study, life is separated into Math, Natural Science, Social Science,
Language, Art, Physical Education and the like. To breathe life into the
subject matter or for meaningful teaching and learning, that subject matter
must bring together the various disciplines. This is integrative teaching.
Trans-disciplinary Teaching
 Integrative teaching is also trans-disciplinary. This means connecting
lifeless subject matter to life itself. When the subject matter gets connected
to real life, it becomes alive and interesting. Remember “there are no dull
textbooks, no dull subject matter, only dull teachers.”
How can teachers connect subject matter to life?
1. Depart from teaching content for test purposes only. Learning is robbed of
its joy and excitement when the only reason why students have to master
something is it will be covered in the test.
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2. Reach the application phase of lesson development. If you apply the 4As
(Activity, Analysis, Abstraction, Application) in the development of your
lesson, your application comes after your students have undergone an
activity, analyzed the activity, and have come up with abstraction and
generalization based on their analysis. This is an inductive teaching
method. If you develop your lesson deductively, your application may
come after your lesson presentation and deepening.

Three-level Teaching
 Integrative teaching is also done when you integrate knowledge, skills and
values in a lesson. Corpuz and Salandanan described a three-level
teaching approach.

val
ues
concepts, more
complex skills

facts, skills

 In the 3-level teaching approach, you teach as planned, either deductively

or inductively, but cap your teaching with value level teaching. Connect
your cognitive or skill lesson with value teaching. In fact, it is only when
you give your lesson an affective or value dimension that your lesson
becomes meaningful because that is when we connect cold subject matter
with warm-blooded people. Lifeless subject matter becomes alive.
 The three-level teaching is teaching information for information and
transformation. Whatever information a student learns must somehow
form and transform his/her way of thinking, acting and living. It is making
teaching whole by integrating the cognitive, psychomotor and affective
dimensions of teaching and learning.

Formation
Information
Transformation
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Multiple-Intelligences-based and Learning Styles-based teaching

 If integrative teaching is making things whole, it also means putting
together the multiple intelligences (MI) of the learner as identified by
Howard Gardner.
 It is also considering varied learning styles (LS). This doesn’t not mean,
however, that you will be overwhelmed with 9 different ways of teaching
content at one time in making use of a variety of teaching activities to cater
these MIs and LSs.

Teacher’s Task in Integrative Teaching

1. To do integrative teaching, a teacher needs a broad background for him/her to
see readily the entry points for interdisciplinary integration. A multi-specialist
teacher will definitely have an advantage over that one with just one field of
specialization.
2. To do integrative teaching by trans-disciplinary and 3-level teaching mode, a
teacher must be able to connect subject matter to values and to life as a
whole. This calls for a grounding in the humanities.
3. To be able to integrate MI and LS, the teacher must be familiar with MIs and
LSs and must have a reservoir of teaching activities to be able to cater to
students with diverse MIs and LSs.

Inquiry-Based Teaching
Constructivist teaching is also inquiry-based. As the name implies, this is
teaching that is focused on inquiry or question. But effective inquiry is more than
simply answering questions or getting the right answer. It espouses investigation,
exploration, search, quest, research, pursuit and study.
It is enhanced by involvement with a community of learners, each learning
from the other in social interaction (Kuklthau, Maniotes and Caspari, 2007).

Why do we encourage inquiry-based teaching and learning?

In a knowledge economy, knowing has shifted from being able to remember
and repeat information to being able to find and use it. The capital is intellectual-
knowledge. Therefore, students must be taught to nurture inquiring attitudes
necessary to continue the generation and examination of knowledge throughout their
lives. The skills and ability to continue learning should be the most important
outcomes of teaching and learning. Besides, with knowledge explosion it is
impossible to teach all the information we want to teach students. Teach them
instead how to look for and evaluate information.
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Unfortunately, more often than not, schools overload students with isolated
bits of information, information which may be true today but outdated tomorrow. The
knowledge base for disciplines is constantly expanding and changing. Somebody
said, “If we are only teaching what we know, our children can only do as bad as we
are doing, and this the challenge we are facing we have to go beyond it” (Pauli,
2009, TEDx).
One of the 16 Habits of Mind are questioning and posing problems. Effective
problem solvers know how to ask questions to fill in the gaps between what they
know and what they don’t know. Effective questioners are inclined to ask range of
questions:
 What evidence do you have?
 How do you know that it’s true?
 How reliable is this data source?
They also pose questions about alternative points of view:
 From whose viewpoint are we seeing, reading or hearing?
 From what angle, what perspective, are we viewing this situation?
Effective questioners pose questions that make causal connections and
relationships:
 How are these (people, events or situations) related to one another?
 What produced this connection?
Sometimes they pose hypothetical problems characterized by “if” questions:
 What do you think would happen if…?
 If that is true, then what might happen…?
Inquirers recognize discrepancies and phenomena in their environment, and
they probe into their causes:
 Why do cats purr?
 How high can birds fly?
 Why does the hair on my head grow so fast, while the hair in my arms and
legs grows so slowly?
 What would happen if we put a saltwater fish in a freshwater aquarium? What
are some alternative solutions to international conflict, other than wars?

Teacher’s Task in Inquiry-Based Teaching-Learning

When using inquiry-based lessons, teachers are responsible for:
1. Starting the inquiry process;
2. Promoting student dialogue;
3. Transitioning between small groups and classroom discussions;
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4. Intervening to clear misconceptions or develop students’ understanding of

content material; and
5. Modeling scientific procedures and attitudes.

Inquiry-Based Learning Activities

Some specific learning processes that people engage in during inquiry-learning

include:
 Creating questions of their own
 Obtaining supporting evidence to answer the question(s)
 Explaining the evidence collected
 Connecting the explanation to the knowledge obtained from the investigative
process

Inquiry-based learning covers a range of activities to learning and teaching including:

 Field-work
 Case studies
 Investigations
 Individual and group project
 Research project

IV. SUMMARY

A constructivist approach to teaching has the following features: authentic

activities and real world tasks, multiple perspectives, holistic and integrative, self-
directed learners, meaningful learning, collaborative and interactive learning. These
features are found in interactive and collaborative, integrative and inquiry-based
teaching-learning activities.
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V. ASSESSMENT TASK

Answer the following questions:

1. Collaborative learning among students may be termed peer-to-peer learning.

What is the advantage of peer-to-peer learning over teacher-student
collaborative teaching-learning?
2. Does inquiry-based teaching say “No more content teaching?” Explain your
answer.
3. Up to the present many school heads require a particular value to be
integrated per lesson. Is this integrative teaching? Why?

VI. REFERENCES

 Arthur L. Costa, Describing the Habits of Mind.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Describing-the-
Habits-of-Mind.aspx Retrived September 8, 2014
 Anna J. Warner and Brian E. Myers, Implementing Inquiry-Bsed Teaching
Methods
 Principles of Teaching (with TLE) 2. pp. 27-38. Corpuz Brenda B; Salandanan
Gloria G.