8/6/2019 Concepts and Characteristics of Constructivist Teaching

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Concepts and Characteristics of Constructivist Teaching

Firstly, constructivism is basically a theory, based on observation and scientific

study about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and

knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those

experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our 

previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding

the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own

knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number 

of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging

students to use active techniques such as experiments and real-world problem solving

to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and

how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the

students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then

build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity

is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies,

students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives

them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom

environment, the students learn how to learn.

Constructivism is a process of learning whereby people build their own

knowledge and their own representations of knowledge from their own experience.

People construct their own knowledge of the world through experiencing things and

reflecting on those experiences.

8/6/2019 Concepts and Characteristics of Constructivist Teaching

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When student receive something new, they have to reconcile it with their 

previous idea and experiences. By doing so they may have to change what they believe

or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. Constructivism proposes that

children learn as a result of their personal generation of meaning from experiences. The

fundamental role of a teacher is to help children generate connections between what is

to be learned and what the children already know or believe.

There are numbers of different teaching practices in constructivist view of 

learning. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use

experiments and real-world problem solving to create more knowledge and then to

reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing.

The teacher makes sure she understands the students¶ preexisting conceptions, and

guides the activity to address them and build on them.

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity

is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies,

students in the constructivist classroom ideally become ³expert learners´. This gives

them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom

environment, the students learn how to learn.

The conventional way of teaching science is learning by doing, not listening. This

method usually is not very compatible with experimental sessions, where students are

asked to prove something through an experiment, because they are not trained to

question their learning, but only to follow directions.

 A consequence of this one-way of transmitting knowledge induces a high level of 

dry memorization by the students. The reason behind it consists in the lack of 

development of quantitative and analytical skills that comes with the traditional learning.

 As side effects, science seems difficult and requires a student to be "very smart".