During the 1930s and 1940s, constructivism was the leading perspective among public school educators in the

United States. In this theory, the emphasis is placed on the student rather than the teacher. Teachers are seen as facilitators or coaches who assist students construct their own conceptualizations and solutions to problems. The main ideas underpinning constructivism learning theories are not new. They began with the insights of Socrates who claimed that there are basic conditions for learning that are in the cognition of the individual (Kanuka & Anderson, 1998). But it was Piaget's theory of intellectual growth that had the primary influence on the development of current positions. Specifically, Piaget first emphasized the processes of conceptual change as interactions between existing cognitive structures and new experience Within this theory falls two schools of thought, social constructivism and cognitive constructivism: 1. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist and philosopher in the 1930's, is most often associated with the social constructivist theory. He emphasizes the influences of cultural and social contexts in learning and supports a discovery model of learning. This type of model places the teacher in an active role while the students' mental abilities develop naturally through various paths of discovery. 2. Cognitive constructivism is based on the work of Jean Piaget. His theory has two major parts: an ages and stages component that predicts what children can and cannot understand at different ages, and a theory of development that describes how learners develop cognitive abilities. Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes that humans cannot be given information, in which they immediately understand and use. Instead, learners must construct their own knowledge. They build their knowledge through experience. Experiences enable them to create schemas mental models of the world. These schemas are changed, enlarged, and made more sophisticated through two complimentary processes: assimilation and accommodation. Cognitive constructivism is based on two different senses of construction. First, on the idea that people learn by actively constructing new knowledge, not by having information poured into their heads. Moreover, constructivism asserts that people learn with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in constructing personally meaningful artifacts (e.g. computer programs, animations). Jean Piaget is a Swiss psychologist who began to study human development in the 1920s. His proposed a development theory has been widely discussed in both psychology and education fields. To learn, Piajet stressed the holistic approach. A child contructs understanding through many channels: reading, listening, exploring and experiencing his or her environment Piaget work has identified four major stages of cognitive growth that emerge from birth to about the age of 1416. A child will develop through each of these stages until he or she can reason logically. Approximate Age Birth to 2 years 2 to 7 years stage Sensorimotor Preoperational Major Development Infants use sensory and motor capabilities to explore and gain understanding of their environments. Children begin to use symbols. They respond to objects and events according to how they appear to be.

7 to 11 years 11 years and beyond

Concrete operational Formal operational

Children begin to think logically. Children begin to think about thinking. Thoughts is systematic and abstract.

The learner is advanced through three mechanisms. 1. Assimilation - fitting a new experience into an exisiting mental structure(schema). 2. Accomodation revising an exisiting schema because of new experience. 3. Equilibrium - seeking cognitive stability through assimilation and accomodation. More Information

Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist and philosopher in the 1930s, is most often associated with the social constructivist theory. He emphasizes the influences of cultural and social contexts in learning and supports a discovery model of learning. this type of model places the teacher in an active role while the students' mental abilities develop naturally through various paths od discovery. Vygotsky's theory presents three principles: 1. Making meaning - the community places a central role, and the people around the student greatly affect the way he or she sees the world. 2. Tools for cognitive development - the type and quality of these tools (culture, language, important adults to the student) determine the pattern and rate of development. 3. The Zone of Proximal Development - problem solving skills of tasks can be placed into three categories: Those performed independetly by the learner. Those that cannot be performed even with help. Those that faal between the two extremes, the tasks that can be performed with help from others. Vygotsky and social cognition

Jerome Bruner (1915 -) is an American psychologist and culture-interested educator. His work on perception, learning, memory and other aspects of cognition in young ones has influenced the American educational system, he has been at the forefront of what is often called the Cognitive Revolution. Bruner who developed the discovery learning theory, states some major ideas about learning: Learning is an active, social process in which students construct new ideas or concepts based on current knowledge. The student selects information, originates hypotheses, and makes decisions in the process of integrating experiences into their existing mental constructs. As far as instruction is concerned, the instructor should try and encourage students to discover principles

by themselves. The instructor and student should engage in an active dialogue. Bruner holds that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: 1. Predisposition towards learning. 2. The ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner. 3. The most effective sequences in which to present material. 4. The nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. His view is: Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information. He believes that instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness), instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization), and instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given). More about Bruner

Here are 10 basic that educators must keep in mind:

guiding

principles

of

constructivist

thinking

It takes time to learn: learning is not Learning is an active process in which the learner uses instantaneous. For significant learning we need sensory input and construsts meaning out of it: Learners to revisit ideas, ponder them try themout, play need to do something, because learning involves the with them and use them. This cannot happen in learners engaging with the world. 5-10 minutes.

People learn to learn as they learn: learning consists both of The crucial action of constructing meaning is constructing meaning and constructing systems of meaning. mental: it happens in the mind. We need to each meaning we construct makes us better able to give provide activities which engage the mind as meaning to other sensations which can fit asimilar pattern. well as the the hands. Learning involves language: the language we Learning is a social activity: our learning is intemately use influences learning. People talk to associated with our connection with other human beings, our themselves as they learn, and language and teachers, our peers, our family. Conversations, interaction with learning are inextricably interwined. others and collaborations are an integral aspect of learning. Learning is contextual: we do not learn isolated facts One needs knowledge to learn: it is not possible to and theories in some abstract ethereal land of the mind assimilate new knowkedge without having some seperate from rest of our lives. We learn in relationship structure developed from previous knowledge to to what else we know, what we believe, our prejudices build on. The more we know the more we can learn. and our fears. Learning is not the passive acceptance of knowledge which Motivation is a key component in exists "out there". Learning involves the learner engaging with learning. Not only is the case that motivation the world and extracting meaning from his/her experiences helps learning, it is essential for learning.

The search for understanding motivates students to learn found that, when students want to know more about an idea, a topic, or an entire discipline, they put more cognitive energy into classroom investigations and discussions and study more on their own. Brooks $ Brooks identified five central tenets of constructivism that can be answered to the guiding questions for application in the classroom. 1. How might students entry points be identified?

Constructivist teachers seek and value students' points of view. Knowing what students think about concepts helps teachers formulate classroom lessons and differentiate instruction on the basis of students' needs and interests. 2. What is involved in structuring the experiences that will build bridges from present understanding to new understanding? Constructivist teachers structure lessons to challenge students' suppositions. All students, whether they are 5 or 50, come to the classroom with life experiences that shape their views about how their world works. When educators permit students to construct knowledge that challenges their current suppositions, learning occurs. Only through asking students what they think they know, and why they think they know it, the teachers and the students are able to confront their suppositions. 3. How might the selection of projects pose questions that relate to students' real-life experiences? Constructivist teachers recognize that students must attach relevance to the curriculum. As students see relevance in their daily activities, their interest in learning grows. 4. What are the major concepts that students should understand? Constructivist teachers structure lessons around big ideas, not small bits of information. Exposing students to wholes first helps them determine the relevant parts as they refine their understanding of the whole. (TopDown teaching strategy) 5. How might we move from right/wrong to monitoring students' understanding? Constructivist teachers assess student learning in the context of daily classroom investigations, not as separate events. Students demonstrate their knowledge every day in a variety of ways. Defining understanding as only that which is capable of being measured by paper-and-pencil assessments administrated under strict security perpetuates false and counterproductive myths about academia, intelligence, creativity, accountability, and knowledge. John Dewey (1859-1952) was a constructivist theorist. Constructivists believes people actively learn from their environment by reflecting on the experiences around them (Funderstanding, 1998-2004b, Definition section, para. 1). Active learning requires the learner to continually assimilate and accommodate new information to construct knowledge. John Dewey (1859-1952) (Dreyfuss, S., et al (ed), 2004, p. 177) was an American philosopher proponent for group investigation and social learning. He studied students who were organized into groups to solve problems using the democratic process or the scientific method of inquiry (Calhoun, Joyce, & Weil, 2004, p. 215). Dewey felt that the pupil was an active learner that could achieve his own learning using the teacher as a guide. He also considered the classroom environment a place that allowed social interaction of real life problems in which the subject content was not taught in a logical order of facts. Subjects were used to help solve real life problems (Archambault, R. (Ed), 1964, pp. xxii-xxviii) that included the interests of the students as well as developing manual skills of the students (Dreyfuss, S., et al (ed), 2004a, p. 177).