Comparing Behaviorist-Oriented and Constructivist-Oriented Instructional Strategy Components

Component (1)

Behaviorist-Oriented Instructional Strategies (2)

Constructivist-Oriented Instructional Strategies (3)

Pre-instructional Activities

Motivate the learners (gain & maintain attention) State goal(s) & objectives Stimulate recall of prerequisites (i.e. pretest, state necessary prerequisites, etc.)

Establish a meaningful, purposeful instructional context that encompasses all instructional strategies Initiate orienting activities in which the purpose for personally engaging in the instruction is clearly established Early interactions within the instructional context should facilitate the setting of personal goals relative to succeeding within the impending instructional experience Present a "Big Picture" that focuses attention on the bigger conceptual, intellectual, and/or social contexts in which the current instructional goals reside. Implement strategies to help learners identify in some way those skills, knowledge, and attitudes (SKA) already needed to succeed within the new learning environment Establish cooperative groups, and communicate clearly-perceived learner accountability, role(s) and task(s) Establish clearly-perceived instructor role(s) and learner support mechanisms

Information Presentation

Present information in a sequence that is most appropriate for the type(s) of skill(s) being facilitated Present clear examples and nonexamples

Clearly identify access to learning scaffolds, especially procedural scaffolds (guidance on how to utilize resources and tools such as how-to sheets, tutorials, and examples) Additional learning scaffolds ---conceptual, metacognitive, strategic --- should be available when needed (these may include “behaviorist-oriented” lessons designed to facilitate specific skills)

Learner Participation

Provide practice over exact skills indicated within objectives, with timely feedback

Provide opportunities to explore the overall learning environment with minimal instructor guidance and intervention……but make guidance available to learners as they apply information presented to the skills, knowledge and attitudes being facilitated Practice over individual skills embedded throughout the experience

Testing

Pretest & Posttest eliciting the exact skills indicated within the objectives are implemented

“Posttests” are generally represented by the successful completion of projects, with analytic rubrics provided throughout the experience to guide the learners toward success

Follow-Through Activities

Remediation activities Enrichment activities Memorization and “job aid” use rehearsal Transfer of learning by applying skills within new situations

Provide opportunities for learners to summarize the key ideas emerging from the learning experience. This might include the generation of concept or mind maps. Provide opportunities for the learners to reflect upon and articulate what they learned and how they personally learned it. This might involve assessing their final projects using analytic or holistic rubrics. Provide opportunities for the learners to identify how their newly-acquired skills, knowledge and attitudes fit into the "Big Picture" defined at the beginning of the experience.

(1) These components are derived from the instructional design model described by Dick & Carey (1996). This model is based on the behavioral and cognitive learning theories of Robert Gagne (1992). (2) For excellent information summarizing the main principles defining behaviorist learning theories, see the summaries of Edward Thorndike and B. F. Skinner at Greg Kearsley’s Theory into Practice Database [see http://tip.psychology.org]. (3) These strategies were culled from a variety of constructivist-oriented instructional models. These models are described in more detail below.

Constructivist-Oriented Instructional Strategies

Although there are many different ways to define constructivism, Jerome Bruner was the one of the first to explore and define the concept as a viable theory of learning. The following definition is taken from an entry in Greg Kearsley’s “Theory into Practice” database (http://tip.psychology.org):

“A major theme in the theoretical framework of Bruner is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to ‘go beyond the information given.”

This description highlights the two fundamental elements of constructivism:

1) Knowledge is actively constructed by the learner, not passively received from the environment 2) Understanding is an adaptive process driven by learners’ need/desire to organize their experiential world. Learners do no, and perhaps cannot discover an independent pre-existing world outside their own mind.

In addition, most constructivist models include references to the important of social interaction within the learning environment. Reiber (2000) summarized three primary characteristics of learning within the constructivist paradigm:

1) Learning is an active and controllable process in which meaning is constructed by each individual 2) Learning is also a social activity founded on collaboration and mutual respect of different viewpoints 3) Learning is embedded in the building of artifacts that are shared and critiqued by one's peers

Researchers and theorists investigating and defining constructivism have identified and described some common characteristics of meaningful learning environments. In Jonassen, Peck and Wilson’s text Learning With Technology: A Constructivist Perspective (1999, Merrill Publishing), the authors include the following five categories representing necessary components of meaningful learning environments. The descriptions of each category have been elaborated upon using other constructivist models of design (for example, Cunningham, Duffy and Knuth, 1993; Herrington & Oliver, 1997)

Opportunities for Authentic Learning: Instructional contexts are defined that reflect the manner in which the outcomes to be learned are practiced in the real world. This often includes ill-structured, real-world problems. In addition, the instruction (teachers, other students, and/or educational media) facilitates the learner’s evaluation of alternate strategies and methods for solving problems.

Opportunities for Active Learning: The instructional context enables the learners to explore and manipulate the components and parameters of their environment, and observe the results of their activities. Opportunities for Intentional Learning: The instruction provides the learners with an opportunity to determine and set their own goals and manage/regulate their own activities. Learners select the methods they feel will help them succeed within the learning environment. The instruction provides coaching, modeling, and other forms of support to facilitate the application of effective methods and strategies for succeeding within the learning environment. Opportunities for Constructive Learning: Instructional strategies are facilitated that encourage learners to articulate what they have been learning and reflect upon the importance and meaning of the outcomes in larger social and intellectual contexts. Efforts should be made to enable learners to communicate their ideas using any appropriate media: oral, written, graphic, video, etc. Opportunities for Cooperative Learning: Instructional strategies are implemented that enable learners to collaborate and socially negotiate their meanings of the events and information presented within the learning experience between themselves and other learners, outside experts, and the teacher. Access to expert performances may also play an important role within the cooperative learning environment.

So What? Why is constructivism an important concept for teachers? One of the most important reasons is that the principles of constructivism can be used to help define purposeful, meaningful (and, consequently, highly effective) learning environments. What follows is a sampling of different types of learning environments based on constructivist ideas:

A Sampler of Different Types of Constructivist-Oriented Instructional Models

Model Description Problem-Based (Inquiry) Learning

As the name implies, instruction based on this particular model presents learners with a problem (or they uncover a problem within an exploratory activity), and the quest for a solution drives the learning experience. Problem-based learning is an important characteristic within most “constructivist” instructional models.

Situated Learning

Instruction based on the Situated Learning model (Herrington & Oliver, 1997) generally include all or most of the following elements:

Provide an authentic context that reflects the way the knowledge will be used in real-life

Provide authentic activities Provide access to expert performances and the modeling of

processes Provide multiple roles and perspectives Support collaborative construction of knowledge Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times

Provide for integrated assessment of learning within the tasks. Anchored Instruction

The two fundamental aspects of instruction based on the “anchored instruction” model include:

1. Activities should be designed around a conceptual "anchor" which should be some sort of case-study or problem situation.

2. Curriculum materials should allow exploration by the learner (e.g., interactive computer programs).

Case-Based Learning

Case-based instruction focuses on “cases,” either real or contrived. Initial information presented to the learners define the case itself, and free access to potentially useful ancillary information surrounding the case is made available to the learners. Also referred to as “situation exploration,” student interaction with the case material doesn’t alter the case itself (like a simulation might)

Cognitive Apprenticeship

Cognitive apprenticeship instructional models (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989) involve establishing a relationship between the learner and a mediated support system. This support system, which might include a highly-interactive computer-based environment or structured collaborative group, generally includes the following strategies: - situated learning - modeling - explaining - coaching - reflection - articulation - exploration

Generative Learning

A more general type of instructional model than those previously described, generative learning represents any type of learning environment in which learner exploration leads to the generation of problems, information, patterns, and/or solutions. Proponents of generative learning (like proponents of the grounded approach to qualitative research) criticize prescriptive ISD solutions for essentially eliminating the importance of learner constructions in the instructional process.

Like many of the context types described above, Discovery Learning

Discovery Learning emphasizes complete immersion into situations where learners have no choice but to discover problems, patterns, and solutions en route to successfully negotiating the situation. Learner support within the situation can range from gentle, subtle peer or teacher coaching to more overtly direct information presentation when appropriate.

Open Learning Environments

Open Learning Environments (Hannafin, Land & Oliver, 1999) represent instructional situations where divergent thinking and multiple perspectives are valued over a single "correct" perspective. OLE’s are appropriate when the learners are presented with ill-defined, and ill-structured problems.