“We need to relinquish authority and let the learners assume it.”
– Elfreda Benally, explaining her philosophy of teaching and learning
Many scholars define constructivism as a learning theory based on the premise that learning is the result of “mental construction.”
“Students learn by fitting new information together with what they already know,” says the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) in a brief published on their Web site at http://www.ncrel.org.
Constructivists believe that learning is affected by the context in which an idea is taught, as well as by students’ pre-existing beliefs and attitudes.
There are four essential features of constructivism, according to an article published in the International Journal of Science Education in March 2009. These include:
1. Eliciting prior knowledge from students;
2. Creating cognitive dissonance;
3. Application of new knowledge and getting feedback; and,
4. Reflection on learning.
If the information presented by a teacher is found to be inconsistent with what a student has experienced in the past, that student will be motivated to “reject the new information or incorporate it into his or her (own) ‘construct,’” says Sandhya N. Baviskar, Todd R. Hartle and Tiffany Whitney in their International Journal of Science Education article.
Constructivism says that you should tap into the experiences of your students and their view of the world. If you do not, your students might be skeptical of what you are trying to teach them; they could interpret the subject matter in a different way than you intended; and they will not learn as effectively as possible. Therefore, you will not be as effective as you can be in helping them learn.
The following video explains Constructivism as learning philosophy:
Written by Joe Koenig
