Constructivism

A presentation by Krista Titsworth

An Overview
Constructivism posits that the learner is an active participant in
creating, buiding, or constructing their knowledge. (Learning
Theories, 2020) New information is related to prior experiences,
understanding, or knowledge and is assimilated into the learning
structures created by the learner. (University at Buffalo, 2020)
These structures are called schemata.

“A reaction to didactic approaches such as behaviorism and

programmed instruction, constructivism states that learning is an
active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather
than acquiring it.” (Learning Theories, n.p ., 2020)
Consequences of constructivist theory are that:
● Students learn best when engaged in learning experiences rather
passively receiving information.
● Learning is a social process because it occurs in a social context as
students and teachers work together to build knowledge.
● The goal of teaching is to provide experiences that facilitate the
construction of knowledge. (University at Buffalo, 2020)
Components to Constructivist Teaching

● Activate Prior Knowledge - In this approach it is important to

connect new information to knowledge the student already has
assimilated into their schemata.
● Create a state of disequilibrium or Cognitive Dissonance -
Knowledge is built as students encounter and solve problems that
challenge their and build their schemata.
● Apply new knowledge and receive feedback from peers or
mentors.
● Reflect on learning - students should be given an opportunity to
show what they have learned. (University at Buffalo, 2020)
 1. Knowledge is constructed not absorbed.
2. Learning is an active process.
3. Learning is a social activity.
4. All knowledge is personal because each
learner brings different background
knowledge to the learning task.
5. Learning exists in the mind and does not
have to match reality.

(McLeod, 2019)

The Principles of Constructivism

A Timeline of
Contructivistic
Thought and
Evolution
1897 - John Dewey publishes My Pedagogical Creed
John Dewey is considered the Father of
Constructivism. He began his work early,
but it wasn’t until the 1960’s, after the peak
of behaviorism, that it really began to have
an impact. Dewey’s work was based on the
Unfoldment Theory, and became known as
Inquiry Learning. (Tracey & Morrow, 2017)
This philosophy emphasizes a
problem-based learning approach which
emphasizes reasoning and decision making
and is centered around the learner’s
interests.
1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first Casa Dei Bambini
or Children’s H ouse (Association Montessori Internationale, n.d.)
While her method is very eclectic in nature, including facts of multiple theories
and roots in multiple estimelogical views, there obviously are constructivist
principles in her method. Her method has 4 main premises. (Learning Theories,
2017)

● Respect for the child - Children get to make choices about what they learn.
● The Absorbent Mind - The child absorbs what experiences cross their path.
● Sensitive Periods - There are certain periods in a child’s development when
they are ripe to learn certain skills.
● The Prepared Environment - The classroom should only contain items that
you want the children to learn. It should be aesthetically pleasing and well
organized.
● Auto-Education - This is the goal of this method, for children to educate
themselves.
1912 - The Montessori Method is translated and
published in the United States. (Association Montessori
Internationale, n.d.)
1918 - William H eard Kilpatrick publishes “The Project
Method”
Kilpatrick published an essay called “The Project Method”
in 1918, in The Teachers College Record which is the
foundations of today’s Project Based Learning. Kilpatrick
was a student of John Dewey and is quoted as writing he
could “find so little to object to in John Dewey’s position.”
His opinions on teaching were very closely aligned with
Dewey’s Constructivism. He wanted school curriculum to
align with students’ interests and to put problem-solving at
the center of education. (Encyclopedia.com)
1924 - Jean Piaget publishes Judgement and Reasoning
in the Child

It is in this work that Piaget introduces the term schemata,

which refers to all the learner’s experiences, background
knowledge, culture, etc. that they bring to their learning
experience. (Comstock, n.d.)
1932 - Frederic Bartlett lays the foundation for Schema
Theory (Pappas, 2014)
Bartlett noticed in a recall exercise, that students would replace unfamiliar
details in the stories with something more familiar to them. He determined
from this that each person has a different way of processing, storing, and
remembering information. This processing and remembering is affected by
their prior knowledge. Through this he postulated Schema Theory.
Schemas are built over time though different experiences and they
affect how we process new information. When we encounter
something new we try to fit it into an existing schemata. (Pappas,
2014)
 1934 - Lev Vygotsky (McLeod, 2014)

We get many of our educational buzzwords from the work of

Lev Vygotsky. His work has been classified as Social
Constructuvism. The two main principles in his work are:

● The Zone of Proximal Development -The ZPD concerns

what the child can learn on their own, what they can
learn with help, and what is out of their reach. This idea
leads us to the concept of scaffolding.
● The More Knowledgable Other - Someone who has a
higher ability level than the learner. Can be a teacher, but
can also be a peer or a computer.
 1936 - Jean Piaget publishes The Origins of Intelligence
in Children.
In this work, Piaget posits that when children face a new phenomenon that
does not fit into their schema, they enter a state of disequilibrium. They then
must restructutre their schema to fit the new information. (Comstock, n.d.)

1938 - John Dewey publishes Experience and Education

In this work, Dewey further depends his stance that education should be
experiential. Experiences will cause the learner to reach for more and keep the
learning continuous. (Comstock, n.d.)

1949 - Maria Montessori publishes “The Absorbent Mind”

(Comstock, n.d.)
1966 - Bruner publishes Constructivist Learning Theory

In his theory, Bruner ties many of the previous concepts

together saying that learning is an active process where the
learner constructs knowledge and relies upon a cognitive
structure to organize and process this new knowledge.
(Instructional Design, 2018)

1967 - Piaget uses term constructivistic epistemeology

(Comstock, n.d.)
1967 - Kenneth Goodman publishes Reading: A Psycholinguistic
Guessing Game (Sawchuk, 2020)

Psycholinguistic Theory tells us that readers rely on language

cueing systems to aid in rapidly reading text. The cueing
systems most talked about with Psycholinguistic Theory are the
syntactic, semantic, and graphophonemic. In addition to this,
Psycholinguistic Theory says that readers use their schemata to
drive their thinking as they read. This causes the reader to make
predictions as they read as to what comes next. Goodman coins
the term “miscue” to mean a readers prediction that differs from
what actually comes next in the text. (Tracey & Morrow, 2017)
1971 - Frank Smith publishes Understanding Reading
(Tracey & Morrow, 2017)
Smith and Goodman shared ideas and theories relating to
psycholinguistics. Smith applied these theories to teaching
and published his work Understanding Reading. These two
men laid the foundation for Whole Language Theory, which
changed education in the 1980’s. “Whole Language Theory
suggests that reading, like oral language, is a natural process
that children will acquire if they are immersed in high-quality
literacy environments and exposed to meaninful, authentic
literacy experiences and high-quality literature.” (Tracey &
Morrow, 2017, p. 67) This theory also suggests that writing,
reading, listening, and speaking are all connected. If a student
sees growth in one area, it will affect the other areas.
 1978 - Louise Rosenblatt publishes her Transactional
Theory
Rosenblatt extended Schema Theory into her
Transactional Theory (or Reader Response Theory). She
posited that if every reader brings a different schema
into their reading experience, every reading experience
will be different, even if two readers are reading the
exact same text. She also talked of two different
responses to reading. The “efferent response” is fact
based, whereas the “aesthetic response” is emotionally
based and personal. Once again, this theory is focused
on the learner constructing their own meaning. (Tracey
& Morrow, 2017)
1979- Metacognition is coined by John H . Flavell
“Metacognition is the process of thinking about one’s own thinking.” (Tracey
& Morrow, 2017, p. 69) Flavell began studying children’s ability to control
and be aware of their thinking processes in 1976. He coined the phrase in
1979, and throught the 1980’s the Metacognitive Theory was developed by
several researchers working with young children. (Learning Theories, n.d.)
Flavell developed two elements of Metacognition: knowledge of cognition
and regulation of cognition. He believed there were three types of
knowledge:

● Declarative Knowledge - knowing your own abilities.

● Procedural Knowledge - What do I need to know?
● Strategy Knowledge - Knowing how to learn.

Regulation of cognition is knowing how to assess yourself during a

task, to ask yourself if this task could be completed differently or more
efficiently.
1980 - Seymour Papert publishes his first book on
Constructionism
“The central tenet of his Constructionist theory of
learning is that people build knowledge most
effectively when they are actively engaged in
constructing things in the world.” (MIT News, 2016, n.p.)
Papert though children learned best when they:

● Use tech-empowered learning tools.

● Are actively designing and building
● Are working in a social setting with peers and
mentors.

He built on the theories of Dewey, Montessori, and

Piaget. (Harel, 2018)
1983 - H oward Gardner publishes “Frames of mind.
The theory of multiple intelligences.” (Comstock, n.d.)
Howard Gardner proposes in his Theory of Multiple
Intelligences that there are 8 types of intelligence, not
just one. They are Logical/Mathematical, Linguistic,
Musical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalist,
Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. Logical and linguistic
are the two that are most likely to do well in a
traditional classroom. Gardner says that we are not
born with all the intelligence that we will ever have. Our
intelligences are based on our genetics and
experiences. (Simpy Psychology, n.d.)
1985 - Sensory Stimulation Theory by Dugan Laird
Dugan Laird’s theory is based on research that suggests that learning is
enhanced when mutliple senses are activated. His research suggests that when
more senses are activated a more robust schema is produced. (Comstock, n.d.)

1988 - John Sweller authors Cognitive Load Theory

This theory suggests that a student does not have enough cognitive power to
heavily problem solve and build schema at the same time. Sweller notes that
teachers should be aware of this when lesson planning to plan for sufficient
cognitive load for schema development. (Comstock, n.d.)
1990 - Philip Candy authors “ H ow People Learn to Learn”

In this chapter in Robert Smith’s Learning to learn across the life span, Candy
discusses the layers of Metacognition. He gives a definition of learning to
learn as having three characteristics. 1. Developmental - learning changes
over time. 2. Fluid - learning changes as the learner needs it to. 3.
Multi-dimensional - learning has generic aspects as well as specific elements
per context. (Comstock, n.d.)
1991 - Situated Learning
In 1989, a paper was published by John Seely Brown, Allan Collins, & Paul
Duguid that discussed the importance of the environment in which
learning takes place. In 1991, Lave and Wegner publish Situated learning:
Legitimate peripheral participation. This book extended the original work
stating that learning occurs when a learner is “situated” in a community
of practice. The learner experiences the knowledge through becoming a
part of the community. (Comstock, n.d.)

1991 - H oward Gardner publishes The Unschooled

Mind: H ow Children Think and H ow Schools
Should Teach
Gardner identifies three types of learners in this second hit book: The naive, the
traditional, and the expert, all of which should be taken into account when
planning instruction. (Comstock, n.d.)
Present Implications
In the late 1990’s - 2000’s we are seeing Constructivism threads in multiple
new theories such as Connectivism, Maker Theory, and Mayer’s 12 principles
of Multimedia. These theories all tie Constructivism to the use of technology. I
did not include individual slides for these theories as they seem to be on the
very fringes of Constructivism, but this theory that became an
epistemological view is still relevant today.
 Classroom
Practice
Ways we see Constructivism at work in the Classroom.
H ow it looks
● Start with the big idea. This is a top down approach.
● The student questions and investigates.
● The teacher is a facilitator. He/She guides.
● Student works with others in a partner or group format.
● The focus of lesson planning is on the learner rather than the
content.
● Reciprocal Learning - the students teach each other
● Problem Based Learning - the students research to solve a
problem.
● Inquiry Based Learning - the students pose their own
questions and find the answers with research, observation,
etc.
 A Constructivistic Lesson Plan Format
“Using a framework developed by Dunn and Larson (1998) to explain the process of implementing
elementary level technology curricula, Alesandrini and Larson (2002) specified ten events that provide
the foundation for a constructivistic approach to instruction. They categorized these events into five
components of an effective constructivistic lesson: investigation, invention, implementation, evaluation,
and celebration.” (Huitt, 2009, para. 9)

Investigation

1. Contextualizing: The teacher explains the process to the whole class, then works
with students in small groups to help them activate background knowledge and
make connections.
2. Clarifying: The students discuss the project among themselves in small groups
and the teacher facilitates students as they determine what they need to know in
order to complete the project.
3. Inquiring: Students begin the process of acquiring the necessary knowledge and
skills they might need to complete the project; teachers facilitate.
A Constructivistic Lesson Plan Format cont’d

Invention and Initial Implementation

4. Planning: Students in each group begin to organize what they already know and make
plans to find the information they need.
5. Realizing: Students develop a first draft or beginning product that will meet the stated
criteria for the project.

Further Implementation and Evaluation

6. Testing: The students check their project against the criteria to see if it meets the
specifications. It is expected that the first attempt will need some modifications.
7. Modifying: Students rework their project. They then retest and modify until they have a
finished project that meets the stated criteria.
8. Interpreting: Students describe the value of the project relative to their backgrounds and
experience.
9. Reflecting: Students broaden their evaluations of the project and put it in larger context.
A Constructivistic Lesson Plan Format cont’d

Celebration

10. Celebration: Students present their projects to the larger group while the
larger group acknowledges the value of the effort and results of the
group. This can be a formal presentation or an informal share time at
the end of the lesson. (Huitt, 2009)
 Word
Recognition
Ways we see Constructivism at work in the Classroom.
Sorts When students sort words,
or ojects into categsories,
especially if they are
required to find the
categories, they are
constructing their own
meaning. They are using
their schema to organize
information and help them
process.

They can do this for

spelling concepts which will
help with word recognition.
 Seek and Find
A great constructivist word recognition activity is what I call
Seek and Find. Students will scour the text with a partner for
words they are learning. This is a great activity because it
can be differentiated for the words that each individual
student is learning for that day/week.
All students need is some
highlighter tape or sticky arrows,
etc., a text, and a list of words to
look for. When they find a word,
they highlight it. You can also
have them record these words in
a notebook.
Another variation on this is to
highlight words they do not know,
and record them in their
notebook to work on decoding.
 Language
Comprehension
Ways we see Constructivism at work in the Classroom.
KWL Charts

A KWL chart, first activates a students

background knowledge, then activates
their curiosity. It puts them in charge of
what they want to learn. They then
process their learning which helps fit
their new learning into their schema.
 When students sort words,
Sorts or ojects into categsories,
especially if they are
required to find the
categories, they are
constructing their own
meaning. They are using
their schema to organize
information and help them
process.

We already talked about

word sorts for word
recognition skills, but they
can also be very helpful
with vocabulary word which
will aid in language
comprehension.
 Strategic
Knowledge
Ways we see Constructivism at work in the Classroom.
 A Group Research Project
A constructivist approach to teaching strategies for reading could be a group
research project. This project could take on multiple different forms. The lesson
should start with something to pique your student’s curiosity and connect the
project to them on a personal level. Then have them research ways to be a better
reader. You can provide sources in the form of stations, or a scavenger hunt to find
the “clues” you have hidden around the room, or if they are old enough guide their
research on the internet. As you help guide their research and give them access to
primary sources, they can create a formal or informal presentation on the
strategies they have found. Their formal presentation could be a slide show or a
poster board. Their informal presentation could be recording what they find on a
graphic organizer you provide or just in a notebook. This can be worded for
younger students like this “Today, you are going to discover different ways to be a
better reader. What do you think good readers do?”
 Reading-Writing
Connections
Ways we see Constructivism at work in the Classroom.
Group Investigations
Give students open-ended tasks
and let them do their own
investigation to find the
solution. This lends itself well to
STEM activities, but the reading
and writing that can be added
into the task make it literacy
inclusive. These can be great
non-fiction text lessons. Having
students respond to what they
have read and built is a
fantastic way to connect their
reading and writing.
 References

Association Montessort Internationale. (n.d.). Biography of Maria Montessori.

https://montessori-ami.org/resource-library/facts/biography-maria-montessori

Comstock, T. (n.d.). A Timeline of Constructivist Thought. Cognitive Construction.

https://www.cognitiveconstruction.com/cognitive-building-blocks/constructivist-timeline/

Encyclopedia.com. (n.d.). William heard Kilpatrick.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/philosophy-biographies/william-heard-kilpatrick

Harel, I. (2018, December 27). A glimpse into the playful world of Seymour Papert.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-08-03-a-glimpse-into-the-playful-world-of-seymour-papert
Instructional Design. (2018, November 30). Constructivist theory (Jerome Bruner).

https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist/

Learning Theories. (2017, February 4). Montessori method (Montessori).

https://www.learning-theories.com/montessori-method-montessori.html

Learning Theories. (n.d.). Metacognition (Flavell).

https://www.learning-theories.com/metacognition-flavell.html

McLeod, S. (2008, February 5). Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

McLeod, S. (2019, July 17). Constructivism as a theory for teaching and learning. Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html
MIT News. (2016). Professor emeritus Seymour Papert, pioneer of constructionist learning, dies at 88.

https://news.mit.edu/2016/seymour-papert-pioneer-of-constructionist-learning-dies-0801

Pappas, C. (2014, January 20). Instructional design models and theories: Schema theory. eLearning Industry.

https://elearningindustry.com/schema-theory

Parlindungan, P. (2008, June 27). (PDF) A review on reading theories and its implication to the teaching of reading.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321228081_A_Review_on_Reading_Theories_and_its_Implication_

to_the_Teaching_of_Reading

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1988). Writing and reading: The transactional theory (ED292062).

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED292062
Sawchuk, S. (2020, May 21). Kenneth S. Goodman, 'Founding father' of whole language, dead at 92.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/05/21/kenneth-s-goodman-founding-father-of-whole.html

Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html

University at Buffalo. (2020, June 8). Constructivism.

https://www.buffalo.edu/ubcei/enhance/learning/constructivism.html