Constructivism and Learner- Centered Teaching

What is Constructivism? It is a learning theory that says learners construct knowledge instead of just
receiving information passively.

• This happens when people make meaning or make sense from experiences. As people experience the
world, they reflect upon those experiences, creating their own representations and incorporating the
new information with pre-existing schemas or knowledge, as well as pre-existing feelings, preferences,
prejudices, fears, intuitions, biases, misconceptions, and so on. Learners then adjust their mental models
to accommodate new experiences.

Four guiding principles:

1. Learning is a search for meaning. A learner must start with an issue in which learners actively trying to
construct meaning.

2. Meaning requires understanding of the wholes and parts, studying both the big picture and analyzing
the details, focusing on primary concepts and not isolated facts;

3. Teachers must understand the mental models learners use to perceive the environment and what
assumptions they make to support those mental models.

4. Learning is when a learner individually construct his/her own meaning from an experience. This
means not simply taking in information and retrieving it during the test.

• there is meaning attached to the objects or events going on in the environment. As people, we
recognize those meaning (perception) and we learn about those meanings (knowledge)

• When we teach, two things can happen: either the learner gains knowledge, or they do not.

• If the teacher communicated well, then the learner gains knowledge.

• If not, then the leaners does not gain knowledge.

• Sometimes, it is not the teacher's communication skills, but the learners might learn all information,
some part of it, or learn it differently than what was intended.

• They might have a different version of it.

Constructivist believe that there is this process of personal interpretation going on in each learner's
mind when they see things or events in the environment including attending lectures, reading books,
watching a model, or watching media.

The Nature of Learning

1. Learning is incremental because active and deliberate learning requires focus in our working
memories, and this has a very limited capacity.

2. Learning is interpretive. Therefore, meanings are not directly communicated in words, gestures,
symbols drawings, or other presentations.

3. Learning is iterative. This means that there is iteration or repetition. As we go through life, we
constantly build up our interpretive resources so we can make sense of the word.

How to Change Misconception According to constructivists, there are four dimensions to changing
misconceptions. These are:

1. Acceptance. We may know some things exist without believing them, like folk tales or superstitions.

2. Connectedness. You would believe something new if it is connected or if it fits into your existing
concepts.

3. Multiplicity. Earlier, it was mentioned that persons learn things by integrating them with
interpretative resources that would make him/her understand things in a certain way. Sometimes,
people have multiple ways of thinking about things.

4. Implicitness. This is all about having things that are implied but not necessarily expressed. So much of
what we know is implied without being stated, and that is important. Teachers may not be aware of it. It
is acting in the background, giving intuition.
Cognitive Constructivism

• States that knowledge is actively constructed by learners based on their cognitive capabilities, relative
to their stage of cognitive development.

• Learning is an active process of assimilation and accommodation.

JOHN DEWEY

• Is known as the philosophical founder of cognitive constructivism. He did not believe in repetitive, rote
memorization, of facts. He thinks learning should be "directed living" where learners engage in REAL-
WORLD PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE where they can demonstrate what they know through creativity and
collaboration.

• Learners should be given the opportunity to think for themselves and express their thoughts, and
LEARN BY DOING.

• He believed that learning should be student-directed, with teachers serving as guides for resources.

JEAN PIAGET

• Proposed that children progress through a sequence of four stages in cognitive abilities as they grow.

• He also proposed that learners cannot be forced to learn key cognitive tasks if they are not yet ready,
or if they have not reached particular stages in cognitive development.

• He also says that "if a child is prematurely taught something he could have discovered by himself, that
child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely"

• He says that if a child acts on his/her own, he/she forms permanent mental models, as opposed to
when a child is told the facts, he/she just memorize them in a superficial way.

JEROME BRUNER

• Is the theorist behind DISCOVERY LEARNING

• This where a students is given opportunities for problem-solving, and where they are required to draw
from past experiences and current knowledge to discover facts, relationship, and new knowledge.

• These are real world contextualized problem-solving methods.

• He was influenced by Lev Vygotsky, acknowledging the role of the teacher, language, and instruction.
He agrees that social interaction plays an important role in learning.

• He believed that the different problem-solving processes, that each student goes through, varies in
each person. And this is facilitated by reflection, Curriculum planning should be carefully designed so
that one area builds upon the other, where learning is the process of discovery, allowing learners to
construct knowledge while building their existing knowledge upon the others.

• This is done with active dialogue with teachers.

Instruction should therefore be:

1. Concerned with experiences that would make the students motivated and ready to learn;

2. Structured in a spiral organization, so new knowledge is understood;

3. Designed so students can easily extrapolate to go beyond the basic information given.

Social Constructivism

•Is a theory that says knowledge is constructed though interaction with others. They believe that
knowledge is constructed, not merely applied, just like cognitive constructivism, but they take into
account the influence of the social interactions and cultural context, learning in collaborative process.

LEV VYGOTSKY

• is responsible for the sociocultural theory.

• The key contribution of his theory is the emphasis on the role of social interactions in cognitive
development

• He says culture determines what student learns, how they learn it, and what materials are available to
learn it Cultural values and customs actually dictate what is important to learn

• Research shows that when young children describe or guide their actions, they engage in private
speech, often when working alone and the teacher was not available at the moment to help them This is
found among children of all cultural backgrounds.
• He said that when children is raised in mentally stimulating and language stimulating environments,
the earlier these children engage in private speech.

• Vygotsky says private speech in young children is often spoken out loud. This becomes more silent and
internal as they grow up. However, sometimes, even teens or adults speak out loud to themselves when
trying to solve problems.

• This is the difference between what a learner can achieve himself, and what he can achieve with the
help of a more capable personal, be it more competent peer, the teacher, or another adult, who are
challenging their ideas leading to the creation of knowledge (MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHERS or MKO).
Not in region too far advanced that the learner would be frustrated never to be able to achieve, but
something reachable with the help of others. This is done by SCAFFOLDING.

• Scaffolding is providing support and adjusting the support needed depending on child's current level of
performance. Eventually, the child will be able to do the task by himself later on.

ALBERT BANDURA

• is well-known for the "Social Cognitive Theory" His modeling behavior experiment on aggression
known as the BOBO DOLL

• Bandura prose learning form others, not with words, but by imitation and modeling.
• He stresses the importance of observational learning, imitation, and modeling. These integrate a
continuous, dynamic, reciprocal interaction between behavior (B), personal (P), and the environment

(E)

• This is modeling or learning by observing. The primary function of the woman in the video is to
transmit information to the observer The model behavior can serve as cues or prompts to:

1. initiate similar behaviors in others

2. Strengthen or weaken the learner's existing restraints against the performance of the modeled
behavior,

3. Be used to demonstrate new patterns of behavior.

CONNECTIVISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM

• Connectivism theory is about learning the digital age. It emphasizes how different internet apps,
programs, and websites contribute to additional ways of learning

• For constructivism, learning occurs when each person tries to make sense of make meaning of new
information, based on prior knowledge or experience that the person already has. Meaning-making can
also be through social interaction with other people through discussions, or with media, books and so
on.

• In connectivism, learning is enhances, being distributed within a network, done with technology, and
recognizing and interpreting patterns.

• In connectivism, learning is influenced by the diversity of one's network and the strength of ties within
the network.

• Transfer of knowledge occurs through social interactions, while in connectivism, transfer occurs in the
connections within network and the strength of ties within the network.

• The integration of technology in the classroom is not just limited to having an additional source of
information, but by using technology to do social interaction and constructivism among students from
different parts of the country or from different parts of the world. There are some activities that can be
done through the internet that originally cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom.

Advantages of the constructivist given as follows: learning are;

• It is active
• It promotes skill, like critical thinking, problem-solving, analysis, evaluation, creation, and cooperative
learning

• It encourages learners to respect diverse viewpoints, to reflect, to adapt to the real world, and to
evaluate their work;

• Learners would be able to learn to apply their knowledge under appropriate condition knowledge
under appropriate condition.