Piaget’s Constructivism:

Piaget’s developmental theory explains that the organisms’ interaction with the
environment helps in development of cognitive structures, where small and large group
discussions are crucial for its development(Hassard, 2005). Piaget defines schema as the
mental representations which are the basic building blocks of thinking (Woolfolk, 1987) are
derived from the dynamic interaction of the organism and the environment by means of a
process called self-regulation or equilibration (Lawson & Renner, 1975). Piaget (1983)
formulated the development of new cognitive structures based on three mental processes
which are assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. Assimilation is relied on the
existence of internal structure, with that the new information could be integrated.
Accommodation provides the adjustment of internal structures to the specific characteristics
like situations, events or properties of new objects. Equilibration refers to the maintenance of
steady state within itself and with the environment to deal with the new events.
Conceptual Change Model for Science Teaching:
Knowledge is not directly received through senses but it is constructed by the learner
with the aid of different senses.Constructivism has strongly influenced education through
recent paradigm shifts in science teaching (Yager, 1991). Mental representations are essential
for knowledge construction and it can be said that concepts, which are mental representations
that allow us to draw appropriate inferences about the type of entities we encounter in our
everyday lives (Murphy, 2002) and are packages of meaning they capture regularities,
patterns, or relationships among objects, events, and other concepts (Novak, 1996).
According to the theory, conceptual change takes place due to the improvement in analytical
capacity which is involved in learning, makes reorganisation in the cognitive structures
(Schnotz et al., 1999). Many of the concepts which students carry to the science classroom as
part of prior knowledge are naive and misconceptions. Viennot (1979) and Driver & Easley
(1978) stated that misconceptions are strongly rooted although teaching can correct them.
The central tenet of the conceptual change model is that of the learner becomes
dissatisfiedwith an existing conception as a prerequisite to initiating radical conceptual
change, a process which explicitly parallels that of ‘paradigm shift’ in science (Heywood &
Parker (2010).
If conditions of learning precipitate dissatisfaction and an intelligible, plausible and/or
fruitfulreplacement conception are made available to the learner, thenconceptual change will
ensue (Hewson & Thorley, 1989). The learner should understand the meaning of the new
conception that must be sensible and non-contradictory, believable and useful in problem
solving conditions. The meaningfulness part is said that intelligible, truthfulnessmentions the
condition plausible and finally the usefulness part is stated as fruitful.
Constructivism and Science Teaching:
Piaget’s theory of constructivism has been used in science teaching learning cycles.
Exploration, concept introduction and application are the processes which are parallel to
assimilation, accommodation and equilibration of Piaget’s cognitive development. The
conceptual change model of Posner et al. (1982) and later refined and developed (Hewson
1981, 1982, 1996; Hewson and Hewson 1984, 1988; 1992; Strike and Posner 1992)
synthesizes Piaget’s views on assimilation and accommodation with the ideas of Kuhn
(1970). Barman (1990) and Lawson & Renner (1989) proposed a science teaching-learning
cycle based on the work of Karplus (1977) with a different terminology having four different
phases of teaching under constructivist approach.
(A) Invitation Phase:
In this phase of teaching the teacher invites the students to learn the new concepts in
connection with the prior knowledge or experiences which they possess by asking questions
and demonstrations. Invitation phase helps the teacher to know the ideas which students have
about the topic.
During this phase, students possess some conceptions which are comfortable for them
and applying these conceptions on problems and events. By probing questions,
demonstrations, small group activities with presentation of their ideas and through interviews
with the students the teacher can understand the naive concepts or the misconception which
the students have in their mind.
(B) Exploration Phase:
Students explore a new concept with minimum help from the teacher. Students make
observations for classifying objects, collecting data for testing their hypotheses and testing
their own concepts against the new concepts. Exploration phase helps students to explore new
concepts and or phenomena through focused activities.
Through assimilation the teacher can strengthen the existing conceptions which he/she
discovered at the invitation phase. During this time, the students experience dissatisfaction
with the new conception. By doing experiments the students assimilate new situations
through different senses. Assimilation results from an individual interpreting sensory
information from the environment that subsequently is incorporated into the individual’s
mental cognitive schemata and accommodation is the process by which the cognitive
structure is adapted to make sense of the information (Piaget, 1964). Accommodation of the
new conception takes place when the strength of the new conception exceeds the existing
conception in students’ mind. The teachers’ part is important in accommodating the new
correct concept which happens at the next phase.
(C) Concept Explanation or Introduction Phase:
In this phase the teacher plays an active role and uses the activities done in the
previous phase for introducing the correct concept to students. This phase assists students to
create explanations based on their own activities through which they construct new concepts.
This phase is called as conceptual invention (Renner & Marek, 1988).
The accurate concept is introduced by the teacher which leads to disequilibrium in
students’ mind with the existing conception. In this phase the teacher plays vital role in
accommodating new conceptions through different activities. When the new conception
becomes stronger than the existing conceptions, through different activities which are
conducted by the teacher the students construct new concepts in their mind through the
process known as accommodation. The final stage of accommodation leads to equilibrium in
students’ mind with the newly built in concepts.
(D) Taking Action Phase:
In this phase, the students play an active role by participating in various application
level activities which are introduced by the teacher or by own to develop further knowledge
about the concepts learned in the previous phases. The activities undertaken by the students
in this phase could be, applying the newly learned concepts by sharing information, asking
new questions, making decisions and developing new products.
This phase is analogous with equilibrium state and students apply their newly
incorporated concepts in different situations. Students reach disequilibrium state during
engagement with different situations and they further need to expand their learning process
in-order to reach equilibrium again, to develop new concepts. Piaget suggests equilibration is
not an immobile state, but rather a dynamic process that continuously regulates behavior
(Bell-Gredler, 1986). There are some other chances for disequilibrium, when students’
existing ideas are not impacted through teaching at the conceptual explanation phase. Finally
all kinds of disequilibrium leads to follow the learning cycle again from the beginning and
students should be exposed to invitation phase from the point where they reached the
disequilibrium state.
Constructivist Approach Learning Cycle Model Lesson:
Radiation- Black and White Bodies
The concept discussed in this model lesson is 'Radiation'.
 (A) Invitation Phase:
The teacher asks some questions to the students related to their previous knowledge
and experiences. When we warm our hands in front of fire during winter, we feel warmth
although we are not directly touching it. How does the heat transfer happen? Why do we feel
warmer in black coloured clothes than white coloured clothes? Why do petrol carrying
tankers are painted white in colour? Students work in small groups and derive their ideas and
report to the teacher.
(B) Exploration Phase:
Students are divided into groups and are given a white coloured painted metallic
cylinder and a black coloured painted metallic cylinder for further exploration of the concept.
The teacher asks them to pour some normal water having room temperature into both the
cylinders, insert a thermometer and leave it under the Sun for about an hour. After sometime
the teacher asks the students to check the temperatures of the water and make a note of it.
Based on the experiment and the previous knowledge of the students the teacher provides the
following statements, to each group related to the concepts to test their understanding
whether they are correct or incorrect to understand the misconceptions: Is air a good
conductor of heat? Does heat reach the cylinders due to convection? Is there any medium
require for conduction of heat? How do we feel Sun's heat energy on earth? Why do black
coloured bodies absorb more heat? What is the relationship between colours and
absorbtion/reflection?
Students may have contradictory concepts and the teacher asks them to explain an
alternative idea. Suppose the idea they propose is correct the answer should not be revealed at
this phase and the teacher should ask the students to test their hypotheses in different ways.
Giving opportunities for the students to test their explanations rather than immediately
accepting it is the major focus of the phase.
(C) Explanation Phase:
After having an analysis from the students’ side, at this phase the teacher should
explain the correct concepts. By giving answers to the questions raised in the previous phase,
the teacher clearly elaborate the concepts.
The answers for the questions in the previous phases are based on the concept of
radiation. Heat cannot reach us by conduction because air is a poor conductor of heat and also
it cannot reach us by convection because hot air does not move in sideways rather it is lighter
and so moves upward. The process which happened here is due to the transfer of heat from
one body to another body directly without heating the medium in between two bodies is
known as radiation in which the medium is not heated. Due to this process, we receive heat
from the Sun also. When we observe the temperature changes in the experiment done during
the exploration phase, white coloured cylinder absorb less heat than the black coloured
cylinder. This happens because of colours of light in the visible spectrum, light coloured
objects reflect the heat energy and dark coloured objects absorb the heat energy by changing
the surface properties of the material.
(D) Taking Action Phase:
At this phase the teacher should provide many problem solving situations related to
the concept of 'Radiation'.
For example, which one of the two (black or white) metallic cylinders will lose heat
quickly? Students can apply the concepts learned in the previous phase for this new situation,
and the answer can be found by the students if not, again we can follow the same procedure
from the invitation phase so as to construct new concepts for the new situation.