A. Rational of Emergence In education, constructivism emerged formally as a theory of knowledge and a theory of learning during the 1980s.

The term constructivism most probably is derived from Piagets reference to his views as constructivist (Gruber & Voneche, 1977), as well as from Bruners description of discovery learning as constuctionist (1966). While labeling oneself as a constructivist is now in vogue and the idea that knowledge is constructed is accepted widely, the emergence of constructivist learning theories and the constructivist pedagogies that followed created a major paradigm shift in education. Thus, greater emphasis has been placed on learners prior experience rather than the teachers and on the active construction of knowledge rather than the passive receipt of information. Even though constructivists cannot be adequately represented by a single voice or an entirely universal point of view, there is a conception of learner and learning that is unmistakable in its central tenets and in its divergence from an objectivist tradition of learning theory based on either behaviorism (associationistic models of learning) or cognitivism (the cognitive science of information processing representations of learning) and relativism. Constructivism arises from some background as follow: 1. Being against to strong Objectivism Compared to objectivism, which is usually quoted as being the counter point or direct opposite of constructivism. Much of objectivist theory is based on the work of behaviorists such as Skinner (1954.) Objectivists believe that information itself is knowable outside the bounds of any human mind, and that any individual interpretation of knowledge can be said to be either correct or incorrect. Objectivists view individual pieces of information as symbols or currency that can be acquired by humans, and can be transferred from human to human should the correct learning conditions exist. (Jonassen, 1991.) While much of the early work in formal instructional design derived from objectivist theory, modern academic minds have come to accept that learning environments which more closely match the needs of constructivist learning may be more effective. The perceived benefits of constructivist learning may be particularly valuable where the teaching of complex skills, such as problem solving or critical thinking skills are concerned (Tam, 2000.) If we accept that constructivist theory is the best way to define learning, then it follows that in order to promote student learning it is necessary to create learning environments that directly expose the learner to the material being studied. For only by experiencing the world directly can the learner derive meaning from them. This gives rise to
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the view that constructivist learning must take place within a suitable constructivist learning environment (CLE). One of the central tenants of all constructivists learning is that it has to be an active process (Tam, 2000); therefore, any CLE must provide the opportunity for active learning. 2. Being Contrast to Behaviorism In contrast to constructivism which emphasize on the role of language learning and believes that "knowledge is not passively received but built up by the cognizing subject" (Von Glasersfeld, 1995). Thus, constructivists shift the focus from knowledge as a product to knowing as a process, meanwhile behaviorism focus on language as a stimulus that has shifted educators teaching strategies toward the use of language as a tool in students meaning-making processes. After years of implementation, behaviorism fell short of producing positive effects within the complex context of the classroom and left teachers feeling shortchanged and cheated by a system that placed the guilt for students' failure to learn in their hands. Like Effective Teacher Training, the teacher evaluation program was based on discrete studies of effective teaching practices, but the sum of the behaviors did not necessarily make one a good teacher. It became commonly known that a teacher could exhibit the desired behaviors, get good ratings on the instrument and the corresponding positive evaluation by the principal, but not necessarily teach a lesson where students would develop meaningful understandings. Teachers knew that the programs failed to explain why students weren't learning and why instruction wasn't effective. Following the legacy of behaviorism, constructivism has been welcomed as a theory of knowing that more fully explains the complexity of the teachinglearning process. Constructivism in education emerged after the behaviorist movement as a welcome and refreshing view of learning that centers on the active learner within the teaching-learning process. This emphasis on the individual (within the greater social context) during instruction has drawn attention to the prior beliefs, knowledge, and skills that individuals bring with them. Prior knowledge has been shown to significantly influence the ways individuals make meaning out of instruction. The constructivist focus on the social context and larger community of learners has resulted in a major shift away from individually-based instruction to instruction that incorporates and embeds teaching within the larger community of peers, younger students, as well as those who are older. Finally, contructivism's greatest contribution to education may be through the shift in emphasis from knowledge as a product

to knowing as a process. This legacy of constructivism will likely prove to be a lasting and meaningful shift in the structure of schooling.

B. Underpinning Concept Constructivism is a theory of learning and knowing that holds that learning is an active process of knowledge construction. This theory believes that learners build on prior knowledge and experience to shape meaning and construct new knowledge. (Lambert & Walker, 1995 in Juniu, 2006 ). There are some underpinning concepts which support this theory, they are: 1. Learners construct their own meaning. Learning is a search for meaning. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. 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. In the learning process, students are not passive receptacles. They do not easily process or transfer what they passively receive. In order to make knowledge useful in a new situation, students must make a deliberate effort to make sense of the information that comes to them. They must own it. They must manipulate, discover, and create knowledge to fit their belief systems. The concept of meaning making is the essence of the constructivism philosophy of learning. Constructivists believe that students construct their own meaning through active engagement and by constructing their own representation of what they know. Students learn from thinking and doing, and thinking results from an activity (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999 in Juniu, 2006). In the constructivist classroom, students interact with the environment and create their own interpretation of the world instead of being mere recipients of information transmitted by the instructor (Jonassen, 2000). The instructor motivates students by proposing a topic or presenting a case with emphasis on the big concept. The purpose is to trigger students curiosity to investigate and learn more on the topic. Within the constructivist paradigm, the accent is on the learner rather than the teacher. It is the learner who interacts with his or her environment and thus gains an understanding of its features and characteristics. The learner constructs his own

conceptualisations and finds his own solutions to problems, mastering autonomy and independence. 2. New learning builds on prior knowledge Constructivist learning theory says that all knowledge is constructed from a base of prior knowledge. Children are not a blank slate and knowledge cannot be imparted without the child making sense of it according to his or her current conceptions. Therefore children learn best when they are allowed to construct a personal understanding based on experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Prior knowledge is the organizing factor of individualsthought processes. New experiences are integrated into these organized thought patterns and establish the basis upon which learners make inferences about new and future events in an attempt to maintain a stable worldview (Ackerson, Flick, & Lederman, 2000). In this framework for understanding prior knowledge, learnersideas about the world are defined as experience-based explanations(emphasis mine) that each learner constructs so that a wide range of events and objects can be made intelligible (Wandersee, Mintzes, & Novak, 1994 in Meyer, 2004). Within this approach, learning is viewed as a process of activating our prior knowledge related to a topic we want to learn about; questioning, interpreting, analyzing, and processing new information and concepts in light of our past experiences; using this information and our thinking processes to monitor, develop, and alter our understanding; and integrating our current experiences with our past experiences (see Fosnot, 1992; Lambert & Walker, 1995; Mayer, 1998; Larochelle, Bednarz, & Garrison, 1998; Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Brooks & Brooks, 1993; Cromley, 2000 in Gillespie, 2006). In making an effort to make sense of information, students must make connections between old knowledge and new information. They must compare and question, challenge and investigate, accept or discard old information and beliefs in order to progress. By creating a personal interpretation of external ideas and experiences, constructivism allows students the ability to understand how ideas can relate to each other and preexisting knowledge. One of the effective way in activating studentss prior knowledge is by using Brainstorming technique. In this activity teachers can ask students to examine together the title or clue of the selection they are about to learn. The teacher lists on
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the board all the information that comes to mind as students read the title. These pieces of information are then used to further recall, and in the process considerable knowledge will be activated.

3. Learning is enhanced by social interaction. An important aspect of constructivism is the need for social interaction. Not only is social interaction essential for knowledge construction, but it also allows students to verify their understanding (Vygotsky, 1978 in Cooperstein, & Weidinger, 2004), group activity increases discussion, experimentation, enthusiasm, and participation. Although our lessons may be used by individuals at separate work stations, the class is much livelier and more productive when students work in groups or at least in pairs. Sessions seem less formal and therefore, students are more relaxed, more likely to venture a guess, to share an opinion, to correct one another, to demonstrate confidence, and to feel less self-conscious about mistakes. We frequently call the attention of the entire class to a discussion of an important principle and to clarify concepts. The constructivist process works best in social settings as students have the opportunity to compare and share their ideas with others. Learning occurs as students attempt to resolve conflicting ideas. Although social interaction is frequently accomplished in small group activities, discussions within the entire class provide students the opportunity to vocalize their knowledge and to learn from others. Vygotsky maintained that, while taking place in individual minds, all learning results from social interaction, and that meaning is socially constructed through communication, activity, and interactions with others. He believed that cognitive skills and patterns of thinking are not primarily determined by innate factors (as in genetic epistemology), but rather are the products of the activities practiced in the social institutions of the culture in which the individual lives. Consequently, the history of the society in which one is reared and one's personal history are crucial determinants of the ways in which an individual will think. It is believed that such learning environments invite learners through interaction with others to engage in problem finding, problem solving and inquiry
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learning. Through the combination of complex, real-world problems and meaningful social interaction among learners and teacher, constructivists assert that learners are encouraged to discover or invent new rules or revise old rules and in the process come to a deeper understanding of underlying concepts and principles. The discovery process embedded in a constructivist learning environment also allows learners to reevaluate what they know, and to change their understanding based on what they have directly learned from their environment. In a constructivists perspective, classrooms are places where individuals are actively engaged with others in attempting to understand and interpret phenomena for themselves, and where social interaction in groups is seen to provide the stimulus of differing perspectives on which individuals can reflect. The social nature of formal learning situations regards the classroom as the place that provides the mechanism to drive changes in students mental structures. Thus, collaboration in classroom suggests that small and large group activities should be fostered in science classroom. And during these activities discussion using scientific language should be encouraged to promote scientific literacy. 4. Meaningful learning develops through authentic tasks This aspect of constructivism is frequently misinterpreted. Using authentic tasks does not mean that we wait until a frog hops by to seize the opportunity to teach metamorphosis. It simply means that activities are chosen to simulate those that will be encountered in real life or in an assignment. Learning is contextual: we do not learn isolated facts and theories in some abstract ethereal land of the mind separate from the rest of our lives: we learn in relationship to what else we know, what we believe, our prejudices and our fears. On reflection, it becomes clear that this point is actually a corollary of the idea that learning is active and social. Authentic learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities of practice. The learning environments are inherently multidisciplinary. They are not constructed in order to teach geometry or to teach philosophy. A learning environment is similar to some real world application or discipline: managing a city, building a house, flying an airplane, setting a budget, solving a crime, for example.Going beyond content, authentic learning

intentionally brings into play multiple disciplines, multiple perspectives, ways of working, habits of mind, and community. Constructivists believe that meaningful learning or purposeful knowledge may be promoted by a learning environment that has three main features. First, one should use authentic problems, that is, tasks having the contextual feel of the real world. Secondly, the learning environment should represent the natural complexity of the real world and avoid oversimplification of the task and instruction. And thirdly, a constructivist learning environment should support collaborative knowledge construction through social negotiation (Jonassen, 1991 in Applefield, Huber & Moallem, 2000). It is believed that such learning environments invite learners through interaction with others to engage in problem finding, problem solving and inquiry learning. Through the combination of complex, real-world problems and meaningful social interaction among learners and teacher, constructivists assert that learners are encouraged to discover or invent new rules or revise old rules and in the process come to a deeper understanding of underlying concepts and principles. The discovery process embedded in a constructivist learning environment also allows learners to reevaluate what they know, and to change their understanding based on what they have directly learned from their environment. Constructivists argue that the openended, problem-based, inquiry learning characteristics of constructivist learning environments require learners to struggle with the ill-structured, real-world problems in order to solve them.

C. SWOT Analysis Underpinning Strength Concepts Learners Encourages construct their higher level own meaning. thinking of students Weakness Unpredictable outcomes Opportunity Encourages diversity of thought Threat Learner must have a higher level of selfmanagement/ maturity for success Not all students can actively involve in the learning
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New learning builds on prior knowledge

Students gain their confidence to relate their prior

Divergent prior knowledge encourages unconformity

Active teaching and learning process

Learning is enhanced by social interaction.

knowledge to the new knowledge Students can take and share knowledge together

process

It takes a great deal of the teacher and students time, energy, and effort Need time to prepare and set the authentic task

Students gather many different types of information from others Students give more attention to their environment

information from outside is not always accurate

Meaningful learning develops through authentic tasks

Create a meaningful learning process

Not all authentic materials fit with the curriculum needs

D. Implications 1. Both understanding and memory are driven by meaning, where through meaning learners construct understading. They do not simply mirror and reflect what they are told or what they read. Learners look for meaning and will try to find regularity and order in the events of the world even the absence of full or complete information ( Von Glaserfeld, 1984). 2. Student learn best when they link new information with related existing ideas. Educator help students learn how to link information or familiar situations with new knowledge through verbal and nonverbal communication and modeling behaviors. 3. Knowledge is constructed from social interaction. Piaget Learning is more focused on experimental learning, is an adaption of humanity based on concrete experience in the laboratory, discussion with classmates, who then contemplated and made the development of new concepts and ideas. 4. Learning should occur in the context in which it will be used. Set up the real life and contextual learning process attract students attention and interest because they feel that the learning process is meaningful for their real life.

E. Applications 1. Scaffolding

Vygotsky as cited in Rachel (2002) defined scaffolding instruction as the role of teachers and others in supporting the learners development and providing support structures to get that next stage or level. Therefore the goal of the educator when using the scaffolding teaching strategy is for the student to become an independent and self-regulating learner and problem solver (Hartman,2002). The scaffolds facilitate a students ability to build on prior knowledge and internalize new information. Finally, the learner is able to complete the task or master the concepts independently. 2. Problem Based Learning According to Hoffinan and Ritchie (1997), PBL is student-centered strategies that give rise to significant pedagogical contextual, real world, and have a regular structure situations while providing resources, guidance, instruction and opportunities to provide reflection to the students as they develop content of knowledge and skill in problem solving. The goals of PBL are to help students develop flexible knowledge, effective problem skills, self-directed learning, effective collaboration skills and intrinsic motivation. 3. Collaborative Learning Collaborative learning refers to a variety learning strategies that encourage students to work together, co-teaching , discussion groups , and community learning (Gooddsell, Maher, Tino, Smith, & NicGregor, 1992). Some claims that contructivist learning is more effective when students work together to discuss with their peers (Jonasen & Kwon, 2001 ; Kanuka & Anderson, 1998). Collaborative laerning is a type of active learning that takes place in student teams. Creating collaorative learning opportunities that are open ended in which students create/construct their learning. 4. Using Authentic Learning Authentic Learning by Steve Revington means real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful product to be shared with their world. Once an educator provides a motivational challenge, they nurture and provide the necessary criteria, planning, timelines, resources and support to accomodate student success. The teacher becomes a guide on the side or a project manager, a facilitator not a dictator. Authentic learning engages all the senses allowing students to create a meaningful,

useful, shared outcome. They are real life tasks, or simulated tasks that provide the learner with opportunities to connect with the real world. Authentic learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities of practice. They must be active participants in the learning process, writing, discussing, analyzing and evaluating information. In short, students should take more responsibility for their own learning.

References

Applefield, Huber & Moallem.(2000). Constructivism In Theory And Practice: Toward Retrieved 28
th

A Better Understanding. Watson School of Education: Wilmington. from http://people.uncw.edu/huberr/constructivism.pdf at November,

2013.

Cooperstein, & Weidinger. (2004). Beyond active learning: a constructivist approach to learning. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from at

http://www.unc.edu/~bwilder/inls111/111beyondactivelearningWED.pdf November, 28th 2013.

Gillespie, Marilyn. (2006). EFF Research Principle: An Approach to Teaching and Learning That Builds Expertise. National Institute for Literacy: Washington DC. Retrieved from http://www.edpubs.gov/document/ed001933w.pdf at November, 28th 2013. Juniu, Susana. (2006). Use of Technology for Constructivist Learning in a Performance Assessment Class. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.principals.in/uploads/pdf/Instructional_Strategie/learningtheory.pd f at 28th 2013. Meyer, Helen. (2004). Novice and Expert Teachers Conceptions of Learners Prior Knowledge. Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). Retrieved from http://duke.edu/arc/documents/Meyer_NoviceExpertTeachers.pdf at November, 28th 2013.

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