Constructivism:Knowledge Construction/Concept

LearningPrepared by:

Al Francis

Galabo

Constructivism

It focuses on knowledge construction.

Two Views of Constructivism

Individual Constructivism – It emphasizes individual,

internal construction of knowledge.

Social Constructivism – It emphasizes that “knowledge exist in a social

context and is initially shared with others instead of being represented solely in the mind of an individual”.

Characteristics of Constructivism

1.Learners construct understanding.

2. New learning depends on current understanding.

3. Learning is facilitated by social interaction

4. Meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks.

Organizing KnowledgeConcepts – It is a way of grouping or

categorizing objects or events in our mind.

Concept as Feature Lists

Defining Feature – It is a characteristic present in ALL instances.

Correlational Feature - One that is present in many positive instances but not essential for concept membership.

Concept as Prototypes – It is an idea or a visual

image of a “typical Example”.

Concept as Exemplars – It represent a variety

of examples.

Making Concept-learning Effective Provide a clear definition of the concept

Make the defining features very concrete and prominent

Give a variety of positive instances

Give a negative instances Cite a “best example” or a prototype

Provide opportunity for learners to identify positive and negative instances

Ask learners to think of their own example of the concept

Point out how concepts can be related to each other

Schema – It is an organized body

of knowledge about something.

Script – It is a schema that includes a

series of predictable events about a specific activity.

Constructivism in Facilitating learning

Applying

Aim to make learners understand a few key ideas in-depth manner, rather than taking up so many topics superficially.

Give varied examples.

Provide opportunities for experimentation. Provide lots of opportunities for quality interaction. Have lots of hands-on activities.

Relate your topic to real life situations..

Do not depend on the explanation method all the time.