Constructivism learning theory: knowledge as assumption, learning as active construction, students as subjects, teachers as helpers¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article presents constructivism as a learning theory developed from behaviorism through cognitivism, with philosophical roots in Socrates and Kant and psychological roots in Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky. It holds that knowledge is "only an explanation and an assumption but not the final answer for all questions", that learning is the active construction of cognitive structures from the interaction of old and new knowledge, that students enter class with rich prior experience, and that teachers act as helpers and drivers of students' meaning construction rather than indoctrinators.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers must shift from teacher-centered transmission to student-centered guidance for the theory to be enacted as described

Constraints¶

• The article presents the theory as a guiding framework for China's basic education reform rather than as an empirically tested model

Target Learners¶

• students in China's basic education

Target Learning Objectives¶

• construction of knowledge and meanings through active, socially negotiated learning

Claims¶

• Learning is an initiative construction of meanings completed by the interaction of learners' old and new knowledge [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Constructivism
• Cognitivism
• Trial constructivism as the root of constructivism (Piaget's personal constructivism)
• Radical constructivism: knowing as dynamic adaptation of interpretations of experience
• Piaget's genetic epistemology studies how the human mind moves from less sufficient to higher knowledge
• Piaget's model of a conceptual scaffolding of objects, space, time, and causality frames the construction of experiential reality
• Vico's principle that we can rationally know only what we ourselves have made as an early formulation of constructivism
• Peircean architectonics as an interdisciplinary paradigm organized by triadic logic

Examples¶

• Take students' previous knowledge and experience as the growth point of new knowledge
• Change the teacher's role from indoctrinator to designer, guider, and academic consultant in student-centered teaching
• Emphasize cooperation and communication to train students' cooperative consciousness
• Create an interactive learning environment in real or semi-real contexts using modern teaching media
• Learning-theory-based evaluation checklist of instructional strategies and techniques for textbook analysis

Key Sources¶

• Qiong Jia. (2010). A Brief Study on the Implication of Constructivism Teaching Theory on Classroom Teaching Reform in Basic Education. International Education Studies, 3(2). https://www.ccsenet.org/ies