"Constructivism is a theory of learning, not a teaching method or approach."
from a comment on Borderland by Marco Polo.....

And yet I think it really is really deep down ..."an approach, method, life style, art, way to be"....and constructing my meaning again to reassure myself of what I've been doing and thinking...going through these readings today I'm not at all convinced that one need to distinguish theory , philosophy, methodology, pedagogy quite this way....hey i'm pretty sure my Principal and 3/4th the staff could not give you definition nor two theorists in the model it is so far from NCLB realities for me........But just for a world and personal FYI...Looking i found....(tried to put sources and I hope I can do this this way)

and I loved this quote...."The best way for you to really understand what constructivism is and what it means in your classroom is by seeing examples of it at work, speaking with others about it, and trying it yourself."

And that's what I did in my career thus far, trying to address the needs of childrenin poverty when the models I saw being used in public school missed making connections for every child.....

Constructivism

Definition
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.

Discussion
There are several guiding principles of constructivism:

1. Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning.

2. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts.

3. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.

4. The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the "right" answers and regurgitate someone else's meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.

How Constructivism Impacts Learning
Curriculum--Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Instead, it promotes using curricula customized to the students' prior knowledge. Also, it emphasizes hands-on problem solving.

Instruction--Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.

Assessment--Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.

Reading
Jacqueline and Martin Brooks, The Case for Constructivist Classrooms.

The content on this page was written by On Purpose Associates.

What is constructivism?

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and 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.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.



Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO LEARN.

You might look at it as a spiral. When they continuously reflect on their experiences, students find their ideas gaining in complexity and power, and they develop increasingly strong abilities to integrate new information. One of the teacher's main roles becomes to encourage this learning and reflection process.

For example: Groups of students in a science class are discussing a problem in physics. Though the teacher knows the "answer" to the problem, she focuses on helping students restate their questions in useful ways. She prompts each student to reflect on and examine his or her current knowledge. When one of the students comes up with the relevant concept, the teacher seizes upon it, and indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue for them to explore. They design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and teacher talk about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped (or did not help) them to better understand the concept.

Contrary to criticisms by some (conservative/traditional) educators, constructivism does not dismiss the active role of the teacher or the value of expert knowledge. Constructivism modifies that role, so that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to reproduce a series of facts. The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment. Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook.

Constructivism is also often misconstrued as a learning theory that compels students to "reinvent the wheel." In fact, constructivism taps into and triggers the student's innate curiosity about the world and how things work. Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to understand how it turns, how it functions. They become engaged by applying their existing knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesize, testing their theories, and ultimately drawing conclusions from their findings.

The best way for you to really understand what constructivism is and what it means in your classroom is by seeing examples of it at work, speaking with others about it, and trying it yourself. As you progress through each segment of this workshop, keep in mind questions or ideas to share with your colleagues.

How does this theory differ from traditional ideas about teaching and learning?

As with many of the methods addressed in this series of workshops, in the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher ("expert") pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions more as a facilitator who coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and thereby their learning. One of the teacher's biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.

And, in the constructivist classroom, both teacher and students think of knowledge not as inert factoids to be memorized, but as a dynamic, ever-changing view of the world we live in and the ability to successfully stretch and explore that view.

The chart below compares the traditional classroom to the constructivist one. You can see significant differences in basic assumptions about knowledge, students, and learning. (It's important, however, to bear in mind that constructivists acknowledge that students are constructing knowledge in traditional classrooms, too. It's really a matter of the emphasis being on the student, not on the instructor.)

Curriculum begins with the parts of the whole. Emphasizes basic skills.	Curriculum emphasizes big concepts, beginning with the whole and expanding to include the parts.
Strict adherence to fixed curriculum is highly valued.	Pursuit of student questions and interests is valued.
Materials are primarily textbooks and workbooks.	Materials include primary sources of material and manipulative materials.
Learning is based on repetition.	Learning is interactive, building on what the student already knows.
Teachers disseminate information to students; students are recipients of knowledge.	Teachers have a dialogue with students, helping students construct their own knowledge.
Teacher's role is directive, rooted in authority.	Teacher's role is interactive, rooted in negotiation.
Assessment is through testing, correct answers.	Assessment includes student works, observations, and points of view, as well as tests. Process is as important as product.
Knowledge is seen as inert.	Knowledge is seen as dynamic, ever changing with our experiences.
Students work primarily alone.	Students work primarily in groups.

Jacqueline Grennon Brooks: A lot of people try to look at constructivism as a program, or a methodology, or as a series of techniques. But it's really a life view. It's really a philosophy, it's an epistemology, it's a way of looking at teaching and learning, it's a way of looking at how people construct understandings of our world.

Jacqueline Grennon Brooks: I have had teachers with whom I worked tell me that once they have adopted, studied and adopted this new viewpoint , that they can't go back again. They can not go back to their original teaching, that once they have experienced the energy of their classroom and their students, forging together new understanding, and once they talk about how much they have learned about the concepts themselves, through collaborating with their students, that the traditional method simply doesn't hold the value it used to.

What are some critical perspectives?

Constructivism has been criticized on various grounds. Some of the charges that critics level against it are:

. It's elitist. Critics say that constructivism and other "progressive" educational theories have been most successful with children from privileged backgrounds who are fortunate in having outstanding teachers, committed parents, and rich home environments. They argue that disadvantaged children, lacking such resources, benefit more from more explicit instruction.

. Social constructivism leads to "group think." Critics say the collaborative aspects of constructivist classrooms tend to produce a "tyranny of the majority," in which a few students' voices or interpretations dominate the group's conclusions, and dissenting students are forced to conform to the emerging consensus.

. There is little hard evidence that constructivist methods work. Critics say that constructivists, by rejecting evaluation through testing and other external criteria, have made themselves unaccountable for their students' progress. Critics also say that studies of various kinds of instruction -- in particular Project Follow Through ¹, a long-term government initiative -- have found that students in constructivist classrooms lag behind those in more traditional classrooms in basic skills.

1.

Constructivists counter that in studies where children were compared on higher-order thinking skills, constructivist students seemed to outperform their peers.

What are the benefits of constructivism?

. Benefit

Children learn more, and enjoy learning more when they are actively involved, rather than passive listeners.

. Benefit

Education works best when it concentrates on thinking and understanding, rather than on rote memorization. Constructivism concentrates on learning how to think and understand.

. Benefit

Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist classrooms, students create organizing principles that they can take with them to other learning settings.

. Benefit

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. Constructivist assessment engages the students' initiatives and personal investments in their journals, research reports, physical models, and artistic representations. Engaging the creative instincts develops students' abilities to express knowledge through a variety of ways. The students are also more likely to retain and transfer the new knowledge to real life.

. Benefit

By grounding learning activities in an authentic, real-world context, constructivism stimulates and engages students. Students in constructivist classrooms learn to question things and to apply their natural curiousity to the world.

. Benefit

Constructivism promotes social and communication skills by creating a classroom environment that emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students must learn how to articulate their ideas clearly as well as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in group projects. Students must therefore exchange ideas and so must learn to "negotiate" with others and to evaluate their contributions in a socially acceptable manner. This is essential to success in the real world, since they will always be exposed to a variety of experiences in which they will have to cooperate and navigate among the ideas of others.

Workshop: Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning
Explanation | Demonstration | Exploration | Implementation | Get Credit

Concept to Classroom | About the Series | Resources | Sitemap | Credits

Thirteen | Thirteen Ed Online

© 2004 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Definitions:

• What is Constructivism? (Bill Huitt)
• What is Constructivism? (Michael Mahoney)
• What is Constructivism? (Jy Wana Daphne Lin Hsiao)
• Constructivism (Tarso Bonilha Mazzotti)
• Constructivism (Maureen Epstein)
• Constructivism (PsyBox.com)
• Constructivism (Irene Chen)
• Constructivism (Andy Carvin)
• Social Constructivism (Beaumie Kim)
• Social Constructivism (Berkeley GSI Teaching Resource Center)
• Constructivist Theories (Sólrún B. Kristinsdóttir)
• Constructivist Learning (Dimitrios Thanasoulas)
• Constructivist Learning Theory (J.L. Bencze)
• Classroom Compass Volume 1, Number 3: Constructivism (Southwest Education Development Lab)
• Constructivism in the Classroom (Math Forum)
• Cognitive Approach (Judith Conway)

Readings

• Albert Bandura
• Fredric Bartlett
• Carl Bereiter
  • Bereiter Home Page
  • Bereiter publications
  • Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age
• Boudourides (1998) Constructivism and Education: A Shopper's Guide
• Jerome Bruner
• Buckman and Resnick (1995) The MediaMOO Project: Constructionism and the professional community
• Burbules (1997) Aporia: Webs, Passages, Getting Lost, and Learning to Go On
• William Clancey
• John Dewey
• Dillenbourg, et.al. (1995) Intelligent Learning Environments
• Eisner (1999) The Uses and Limits of Performance Assessment
• Ernest Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics: Radical Constructivism Rehabilitated?
• Kenneth Gergen
• Nelson Goodman (1906-1998)
  • Goodman profile (Foldop)
  • Goodman profile (Scott Harrison)
  • Goodman profile (Project Zero, Harvard)
  • Goodman profile (High Beam Research)
  • Goodman obituary
  • Goodman and Quine: Steps Toward a Constructive Nominalism (courtesy, Jud Evans)
  • Ways of Worldmaking (1978)
  • notes (by Wilhelmiina Hämäläinen) mirror
• Heylighen (1995) Epistemological Constructivism
• Jaworski (1993) Constructivism and Teaching - The socio-cultural context
• Klemm (1994) Using a Formal Collaborative Learning Paradigm
• Johnson (2005) Using Hardware Devices to Enhance Learning in a University Classroom
• David Jonassen
  • Jonassen Home Page
  • Jonassen profile (Sebastian Foti)
• Immanuel Kant
• Matthews (1992) Old Wine in New Bottles: Problems with constructivist epistemology
• Matthews (1998) Constructivism in Science and Mathematics Education
• Humberto Maturana
• George Herbert Mead Mind Self and Society
• Maria Montessori
• Elizabeth Murphy (1997) Constructivism from Philosophy to Practice
  Constructivist Epistemology
  Characteristics of Constructivist Learning & Teaching
  Constructivist Learning Theory
  Summary
• Seymore Papert
• Gordon Pask
• Jean Piaget
• Raskin (2002) Constructivism in Psychology: Personal Construct Psychology, Radical Constructivism, and Social Constructionism
• Carl Rogers
  • Rogers profile (Eugene Gendlin)
  • Rogers profile (Martin Briner)
  • Rogers profile (George Boeree)
  • Rogers profile (Mark Smith)
  • Rogers profile (C. George Boeree)
  • Experiential Learning (Greg Kearsley)
  • Rogers (1946) Significant Aspects of Client-Centered Therapy (Courtesy, Christopher Green)
  • Rogers (1947) Some Observations on the Organization of Personality (Courtesy, Christopher Green)
  • Person-Centered Approach
    • On Becoming a Person (1961) exerpts
    • Schmid (2001) The ongoing challenge of becoming person-centered
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762) Emile, ou l'education
• Ryder (1994) Augmentation of the intellect: Network instruments, environments and strategies for learning
• Donald Schön (Mark Smith)
• Soefijanto (2000) The Implementation of The Ideas of Plato, Rousseau, and Dewey in American Elementary Education
• Thompson Constructivist Curriculum Design
• Brent Wilson
  • Reflections on Constructivism and Instructional Design (1997)
• Jaan Valsiner
• Vanderstraeten and Biesta (1998) Constructivism, Educational Research, and John Dewey
• Francisco Verela
• Heinz von Foerster
• Ernst von Glasersfeld
  • An Exposition of Constructivism: Why Some Like it Radical (1989)
  • Learning as Constructive Activity (1983)
  • An Introduction to Radical Constructivism (1981)
  • Cognition, Construction of Knowledge, and Teaching (1989)
  • Aspects of Radical Constructivism and its Educational Recommendations (1992)
  • How Do We Mean? A Constructivist Sketch of Semantics (1992)
  • Radical Constructivism and Teaching (2000)
• Lev Vygotsky:
  • Vygotsky and Social Development Theory (Greg Kearsley)
  • Vygotsky archive (Marxists.org)
  • Vygotsky resources (Siobhan Kolar and Lisa D'Ambrosio)
  • see Cognitive Science, Socio-Cultural Theory and Activity Theory (Martin Ryder)
• Wasson (1996) Instructional Planning and Contemporary Theories of Learning: Is this a Self-Contradiction?

Happily I can look at all these suggested readings and find I only missed three which I'll get.....