Social constructivism

All the ideas contained in this picture relate to social constructivism.

What do I mean?

In a truly constructivist perspective, what we have here is a student-based, student-led and student-controlled activity. The teacher (not shown) is probably acting as a facilitator. He has set up the outcome (“how about building a fantastic wall?”), shown the tools and the first steps (“Hey, what do we have here? bricks? what can we do with bricks? How?…). This is an empowering exercise: each student will learn and then teach another student. In order to teach, they have to understand. With Jonassen, we can say that “knowledge is constructed, emergent and grounded in action and experience”. This experience allows students to construct knowledge, to think and to learn.

As stated by Brewer and Daane (2002), many teachers call themselves constructivist teachers but “there are no set guidelines… for teachers to follow to become constructivist teachers”. All right, so what’s the point.. As I am very busy being a teacher these days and I have no time for articles that start so badly and no burning desire to dig deeper… But why is everyone talking about constructivism?  I might have missed something. “Constructivist learning includes an importance on process, the exchange of differing points of view, and an emphasis on problem solving.” Great… I might have been a constructivist teacher without noticing I was being one.

References

Brewer, J., Daane, C.J. (2002). Translating Constructivist Theory into Practice in Primary-Grade mathematics.

Jonassen (nd). Meaningful Learning with Technology