Constructivism

 Constructivism // Beth and Stephanie //

** Focus on Jerome Bruner: **
Wiki Jerome Bruner MindMaps Bruner Wiki - All about Jerome Bruner, the founder of cognitive psychology and developed Spiral Learning theory. Jerome Bruner - short video on teaching and constructivism (:48 secs) -- (his reference to Squeak)

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What is the essence of Constructivism? ====**//“ ////Constructivist learning acknowledges that both teacher and students are important and contributing members in a teaching-learning relationship and that both bring prior knowledge and experiences with them into the learning environment.”// **====

 Morphew, V. N. (2012) //A Constructivist Approach to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers//. Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

Constructivism frames learning as an active and constructive process. The learner is an active meaning maker, and a builder of knowledge, and therefore knowledge is constructed, not acquired. Learners create their own personal framework. New information learned is linked to prior knowledge. The new knowledge and the process is therefore a subjective one. Learning is characterized by inquiry and discovery. In this day and age of technology and new insights into how education should be best delivered to students as a result of it, Constructivist theory has very relevant and meaningful points to consider.

A Constructivist learning environment is one which provides meaningful experiences, activates prior knowledge, provides opportunities for social interaction with peers, and allows for scaffolding.

Technology is a very successful tool for collaboration and social interaction in the learning environment. Students can work together on projects, share their information with classmates or around the world internationally. It is in some ways such a good tool for social interaction that students need to be reigned in and guided to make its use productive and meaningful. Much as Piaget states about math versus the teaching of mathematics, students need to have structure around how they apply computers towards any learning environment, whatever educational theories are being applied to the school curriculum development.

How is constructivism relevant? Constructivism is relevant because in our new and different world, where educational design is being changed with technology and very different demands, the need to work actively at constructing knowledge has become essential. Collaboration in a social educational setting which considers the needs of all the players takes into account the importance John Dewey felt was critical in his focus on Democracy being a strong component of education.

Learning by doing, and problem or project-based learning is framed by Constructivist theory. Education technology projects today should go beyond “using” tools to “creating” tools, (computational thinking). Learners should not ask the question “is my answer right or wrong” but “is it fixable.” Critics who challenge Constructivism point out that students with little prior knowledge or experience may need more structure and guided practice. What if a learner has no experience to build upon?

** Featured Resource: **
Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning

//from thirteen Ed online Public Broadcasting//
What is knowledge according to Social Constructivists? Knowledge is a Process, not a Product. According to Social C onstructivis ts, knowledge is a construction of our world based upon social interaction and shared cultural experience and beliefs. Knowledge is the process of building blocks from prior learning. Students are building a network of connections as they learn to construct meaning for themselves through social interactions with what was once termed **T **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**he More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).** The MKO is someone (or some thing such as a computer) with a better understanding of a concept or task than the learner, normally thought of as a teacher, but the MKO could be peers or even a computer.

Where does learning happen? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning happens in any <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">social environment where learners can share experiences. Computers and digital technologies provide opportunities for learners to collaborate in online environments such as a virtual world, a collaborative gaming environment, a blog where comments are shared, an online course environment such as Moodle, through sharing and collaboratively working on documents.

How do you know if it has happened? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If a learner shows that new knowledge was built on prior knowledge and applies their new knowledge to real life application, learning has happened. Self reflection is also a big part of assessment in evaluating the building blocks along the way, since the learning is individual according to Constructivist theory.

**Meet OUR KEY THEORISTS and hear thoughts and views about Constructivism...**
=**// John Dewey //**= <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In this vide <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">o clip Noam Chomsky discusses John Dewey's philosophy as the leading American social philosopher. He quotes Dewey as saying, until change in our educational system can occur, "Politics will remain a shadow cast by business over society and the educational system will be a system of indoctrination of control" (start at :28) media type="custom" key="23978764" align="center"

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dewey believed that learning is hands-on, experiential, requires active inquiry, and takes the interests and natural abilities of the learner into account. He believed the pragmatic theory of truth is a process of discovery.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Self-Action, these are in which humans and other living creatures initiate or cause something to happen, Interaction, in which there is a system in balancing which causes or responds. Transaction, systems are used to process multiple components in interaction.

//** Seymour Papert **// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In this video Papert discusses the difference in "teaching mathematics" and "teaching math." Students who are taught mathematics are learning to use their ideas for a larger purpose. Papert thought if we teach mathematics through programming computers then a learner can apply it to a real world situation. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He developed a famous programming language called Logo <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> media type="custom" key="23978648" align="center" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Papert is a Mathematician, MIT Professor, early pioneer of artificial intelligence and computational thinking, and was a student of Piaget. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Papert believes children have ability to learn on their own, the opposite of instructionism. He believes that applying learning to real world applications, blurring the lines between work and play, and accepting that failure is OK are important for learning.

//** Lev Vygotsky **// <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vygotsky coined the concept **“zone of proximal development,”** which is the gap between our pre-existing development and what we can accomplish with the help of others (it could be teachers or other peers...or even computers)! He also coined the term "scaffolding," which applies to education design teachers employ to help students in one zone attain the next level of learning. This clip is an example of zone of proximal development media type="custom" key="23978736" align="center"

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vygotsky also coined the term "**collaborative elaboration,"** which is when learners build an understanding together which wouldn’t be possible alone.

According to Vygotsky, "Humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.” (This quote is taken directly from: [|http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html )]

The tools which have developed in our current culture are digital tools and these tools have changed the way we communicate and socialize. If we apply Vygotsky to today's culture, internalizing the use of digital tools will lead to higher thinking skills.

//** Jean Piaget **// Here is a great video of Piaget giving of his views, an overview of Constructivist Theory (with English subtitles): media type="custom" key="23978746" According to Piaget, "We are continually organizing what we know, structuring and restructuring our knowledge. Knowledge is always an assimilation or interpretation"