CONSTRUCTIVIST

THEORY IN
TEACHING
SOCIAL STUDIES
OBJECTIVES
Analyze Constructivism
as an educational
philosophy
Examine the implications
of Constructivism in the
Social Studies Curriculum
CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on
observation and scientific study -- about how people
learn. It says that learners actively construct their
own understanding and knowledge of the world,
through meaning from their experience or and
experiencing things reflecting on those
experiences.
• When we encounter something new, we have to
reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience,
maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding
the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are
active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we
must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.
Founder of Constructivism : Jean Piaget
HISTORY
• Early educational philosophies did not place much
value on what would become constructivist ideas;
children's play and exploration was seen as aimless
and of little importance.
• Jean Piaget did not agree with these traditional
views, however. He saw play as an important
and necessary part of the student's
cognitive development and provided scientific
evidence for his views.
• Today, constructivist theories are influential
throughout the formal and informal learning sectors
INFLUENTIAL
CONSTRUCTIVIST
• John Dewey (1859–1952)
• Maria Montessori(1870–1952)
• Jean Piaget (1896–1980)
• Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934)
• Jerome Bruner (1915–)
THEORY OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
Formalization of the theory of
constructivism is generally attributed to
Jean Piaget, who
mechanisms by articulated which
knowledge
internalized by learners. He issuggested
that through process of accommodation
and assimilation individuals construct
new knowledge from their experiences.
Assimilation and
Accommodation
• Assimilation occurs when a learner adds new
information, basically layering it on top of the
old.
• Accommodation occurs when a learner must
change previously learn information before
placement of new information is possible.
• Explanation: Assimilation is like placing files
in a file cabinet, while accommodation is like
needing to add new folders or rearranging
existing ones.
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS A LEARNING
THEORY
• Learning is an active process
• Knowledge is constructed from (and shaped
by) experience.
• Learning is a personal interpretation of the
world
• Emphasizes problem solving and
understanding
• Uses authentic tasks, experiences,
settings, assessments
• Content presented holistically –not in
separate smaller parts
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS A PROCESS –THE
INSTRUCTOR
• Adapt curriculum to address students’
suppositions
• Help negotiate goals and objectives
with learners
• Pose problems of emerging relevance to
students
• Emphasize hands‐on, real‐world
experiences
• Seek and value students’ points of view
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS A PROCESS –THE
INSTRUCTOR
• Provide multiple modes of
representations / perspectives on
content
• Create new understandings via
coaching, moderating , suggesting
• Testing should be integrated with the task and
not a separate activity
• Use errors to inform students of progress
to understanding and changes in ideas
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS A PROCESS –THE
STUDENT
• Help develop own goals and assessments
• Create new understandings (via coaching,
moderating, suggesting)
• Control learning (reflecting)
• Member of community of learners
• Collaborate among fellow students
• Learn in a social experience –appreciate different
perspectives
• Take ownership and voice in learning process
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS AN
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
• Involves collaboration between
instructors, students and others
(community members)
• Tailored to needs and purposes
of individual learners
• Features active, challenging,
authentic and multidisciplinary
learning.
CONSTRUCTIVISM IS AN
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
• Constructivism can help students
– Pursue personal interests and purposes
– Use and develop his or her abilities
– Build on his or her prior knowledge and experiences
– Develop life‐long learning
• Constructivism encourages instructors to provide
for each student’s
– Preferred learning style
– Rate of learning
– Personal interactions with other learners
Source
APPLYING CONSTRUCTIVISM IN THE CLASSROOM
• Pose problems that are or will be relevant
to students
• Structure learning around essential concepts
• Be aware that students’ points of view
are windows into their reasoning
• Adapt teaching to address students’
suppositions and development
• Assess student learning in context of teaching
PEDAGOGY
Various approaches in pedagogy derive
from constructivist theory. They usually
suggest that learning is accomplished
best using a hands-on approach.

Learners learn by experimentation, and

not by being told what will happen,
and are left to make their own
inferences, discoveries and conclusions.
 Traditional Classroom
Begins with parts of the whole
– emphasizes basic skills
Strict adherence to fixed curriculum
Textbooks and workbooks
Instructor gives / students receive
Instructor assumes directive,
authoritative role
Assessment via testing / correct
answers
Knowledge is inert
Students work individually
Constructivist Classroom
Begins with the whole – expanding
to parts
Pursuit of student questions /
interests
Primary sources / manipulative
materials
Learning is interaction‐building on
what students already know
Instructor interacts / negotiates
with students
Assessment via student works,
observations, points of view, tests.
Process is as important as product
Knowledge is dynamic / changes
with
STRENGTHS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Children learn more, and enjoy learning more
when they are actively involved, rather than
passive listeners.
• Education works best when it concentrates on thinking
and understanding, rather than on rote memorization.
Constructivism concentrates on learning how to think
and understand.
• Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist
classrooms, students create organizing principles that
they can take with them to other learning settings.
STRENGTHS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Constructivism gives students ownership of what they
learn, since learning is based on students' questions
and explorations, and often the students have a hand
in designing the assessments as well.
• Students in constructivist classrooms learn to question
things and to apply their natural curiosity to the world.
• Constructivism promotes social and
communication skills by creating a classroom
environment that emphasizes collaboration and
exchange of ideas.
• Constructivist assessment engages the students'
initiatives and personal investments in their
journals,
research reports, physical models, and artistic
WEAKNESS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• The biggest disadvantage is its lack of structure. Some
students require highly structured environments in order to be able
to excel.
• Constructivism calls for the teacher to discard standardized
curriculum in favor or a more personalized course of study based on
what the student already knows. This could lead some students to fall
behind of others.
• It also removes grading in the traditional way and instead
places more value on students evaluating their own progress, which
may lead to students falling behind but without standardized
grading and evaluations teachers may not know that the student
is struggling. Since there is no evaluation in the traditional sense,
the student may not be creating knowledge as the theory asserts,
WEAKNESS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Another disadvantage is that it can actually lead
students to be confused and frustrated because they
may not have the ability to form relationships and
abstracts between the knowledge they already have
and the knowledge they are learning for themselves.
• Constructivism can have its place in the learning
system, but as an absolute learning system it has some
flaws. Students may benefit with some constructivism
principles integrated into the classroom setting,
however, most students need more structure and
evaluation to
CONSTRUCTIVISM SUMMARY
• Shifts emphasis from teaching to learning
• Individualizes and contextualizes students’
learning experiences
• Helps students develop processes, skills and
attitudes
• Considers students’ learning styles
• Focuses on knowledge construction, not
reproduction
• Uses authentic tasks to engage learners
• Provides for meaningful, problem‐based thinking
• Requires negotiation of meaning
THE BASIC TENETS
OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
A.Knowledge is not passively accumulated, but rather, is the
result of active cognizing by the individual

B. Cognition is an adaptive process that functions to make an

individual’s behavior more viable given a particular environment

C. Cognition organizes and makes sense of one’s experience, and is

not a process to render an accurate representation of reality

D. Knowing has roots in both biological/neurological construction,

and social, cultural, and language-based interactions
THE BASIC TENETS
OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
The tenets acknowledge the learner’s active
role in the personal creation of knowledge, the
importance of experience (both individual and social)
in this knowledge creation process, and the
realization that the knowledge created will vary in its
degree of validity as an accurate representation of
reality.
These four fundamental tenets provide the
foundation for the basic principles of the teaching
TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
A. COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM
• This is typically associated with information processing and
relies heavily on the component processes of cognition.
• It emphasizes that in order to acquire knowledge, an
individual has an active role in cognizing any stimuli that
formed part of his/her experiences.
• Adaptive process is essential in this kind of knowledge
creation.
• It maintains the idea that an independent yet knowable
reality exists.
NOTE: Thus, knowledge is the result of accurate internalization,
construction, and reconstruction of external reality by any individual
capable of doing so.
TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
Internalization of •
Corresponds to the processes and
process and structures that exist in the real world.
structures
Internalization, • What we call LEARNING; LEARNING that
Construction, creates accurate internal models or
and representations that reflect external
Reconstruction structures that exist in the “real” world.

• the processes of learning

• how “experiences” are presented or
LEARNING
symbolized in the mind
focuses on • how representations are organized within
the mind
 TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
B. RADICAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Believes that the acquisition of knowledge (e.g., ideas,
concepts, processes, insights, etc.) is an adaptive process
that could be attributed from the active cognition of an
individual translating an experientially based mind.
• It maintains that there is an internal nature of
knowledge.
• It recognizes the existence of an external reality that is
unknowable to the individual since our experience with
external forms is mediated by our senses, and the latter is
not adept at interpreting an exact representation of these
external forms
NOTE: Thus, (e.g.
while objects,
knowledge social interactions)
is constructed from experience, the way it
is constructed is not accurate representation of the external world or
reality.
TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

STAVER (1995)
• precisely articulately this idea when he
said that “knowledge is knowledge of
the knower, not knowledge of the
external world; improving knowledge
means improving its viability or fit in,
but not match with, an external
world”
 TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
C. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• It lies between the transmission of the knowable reality of
the cognitive constructivists and the construction of a
personal reality of the radical constructivists.
• It upholds the social nature of knowledge and that knowledge
is the result of social interaction and language usage, and
thus is a shared, rather than an individual, experience.
• Bakhtin (1984) explained that “truth is not to be found
inside the head of an individual person; it is born between
people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their
dialogic interaction” .
NOTE: Thus, truth is considered not an objective reality as espoused by cognitive
constructivists nor the experiential reality as argued by radical constructivists, but rather
is a socially constructed truth which evolved from co-participation in cultural practices.
CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY (8 ESSENTIAL FACTORS)
1. Authentic and real- 2. Social negotiation
world environments 3. Content and skills
and mediation should are made significant
are necessary for taken into account in
learning to take to the learners.
any form of learning.
place.
4. Learner’s prior 6. Constructivism
5. Formative
knowledge is assessment should be encourages learners to
fundamental in the done to inform future become self-regulated,
acquisition of content learning experiences. self-mediated, and self-
and skills. aware.

7. Teachers should act 8. Teachers must employ

as guides and multiple perspectives
and representations of
facilitators of learning. content.
LINKING CONSTRUCTIVISM TO
THE SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRICULUM
The nature of social studies as a learning
program complements the ideas of
constructivism as a learning philosophy. The
ethic of freedom, identities, and civic
competence works well with what
constructivism is espousing. Combining both
ensures the development of a holistic 21st
century Filipino learner.
THANK YOU
FOR LISTENING!