thesis argument about constructivist pedagogy

Globalisation and Education Reforms pp 35–50 Cite as

Constructivist Learning Theory and Creating Effective Learning Environments

Joseph Zajda 36
First Online: 30 October 2021

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Part of the book series: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research ((GCEP,volume 25))

This chapter analyses constructivism and the use of constructivist learning theory in schools, in order to create effective learning environments for all students. It discusses various conceptual approaches to constructivist pedagogy. The key idea of constructivism is that meaningful knowledge and critical thinking are actively constructed, in a cognitive, cultural, emotional, and social sense, and that individual learning is an active process, involving engagement and participation in the classroom. This idea is most relevant to the process of creating effective learning environments in schools globally. It is argued that the effectiveness of constructivist learning and teaching is dependent on students’ characteristics, cognitive, social and emotional development, individual differences, cultural diversity, motivational atmosphere and teachers’ classroom strategies, school’s location, and the quality of teachers. The chapter offers some insights as to why and how constructivist learning theory and constructivist pedagogy could be useful in supporting other popular and effective approaches to improve learning, performance, standards and teaching. Suggestions are made on how to apply constructivist learning theory and how to develop constructivist pedagogy, with a range of effective strategies for enhancing meaningful learning and critical thinking in the classroom, and improving academic standards.

Academic performance
Achievement
Cognitive constructivism
Constructivism
Constructivist pedagogy
Cultural diversity
Individual differences
Individual differenced learning
Metacognition
Peer-assisted learning
Self-esteem
Social constructivism
Teaching styles

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Zajda, J. (2021). Constructivist Learning Theory and Creating Effective Learning Environments. In: Globalisation and Education Reforms. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71575-5_3

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Int J Med Educ

Constructivism: reflections on twenty five years teaching the constructivist approach in medical education

Reg dennick.

1 Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK

Introduction

There is no single overarching theoretical framework that accounts for how we learn in all situations. There are many theories of how we learn from our experiences and there are many theories of what experiences are. We know that we do learn and that we have knowledge but there is no consensus on the relationship between the mechanism by which our brains learn and the optimal way in which we should be taught. In other words there is no necessary connection between epistemology and pedagogy. We seem capable of learning from a wide variety of pedagogical processes and although there is empirical evidence that some ways of learning are more effective than others in specific situations no one pedagogical method dominates. However, reflecting on twenty five years as a medical educationalist I have come to the conclusion that there is one framework that makes more connections between different epistemological and pedagogical theories than others and that could have support from neuroscience. I wish to explore the connections between a variety of educational, communication and psychotherapeutic processes and try to show that constructivism holds the promise of providing some unity to the practice of education and learning.

The constructivist model

The constructivist theory of learning, whose philosophical origins are frequently ascribed to Kant and whose educational origins to Piaget, is based on the premise that the act of learning is based on a process which connects new knowledge to pre-existing knowledge. I do not intend to go into all the arguments surrounding this theory and to describe the variety of constructivist models that have been created. The reader is referred to the extensive literature on the subject. 1 - 6 For the purposes of my argument it is simply necessary to acknowledge some basic assumptions underpinning the theory from which important connections to other educational theories can be made as well as to therapeutic practices, neuroscience and even the nature of scientific knowledge.

Possibly the most well-known articulation of the underlying assumption of constructivism is the famous quotation of Ausubel: “The most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows”. 7 In many years of teaching teachers how to teach I have found many people have an intuitive grasp of this fact and tailor their teaching to take account of the background knowledge of their students. Piaget expressed it differently by stressing that experience is constantly being ‘assimilated’ or filtered through pre-existing concepts. 8 New knowledge is therefore interpreted by existing knowledge and then connected to existing knowledge. The implications of this conception are manifold and spread beyond conventional education into interpersonal communication and psychotherapy. In addition this phenomenon begs the question of how the process is conducted and manifested in the brains of individuals.

The statement of Ausubel 7 automatically leads to a pedagogical intervention even if it is merely ascertaining the prior knowledge of a learner by asking questions. Piaget avoided suggesting detailed pedagogy but certain ways of teaching flow from his assumptions. He stressed that learning was fundamentally about interacting with the world in order to explore the ‘rules of the game’ and to discover the causal relationships between events. This leads to an active pedagogy involving exploration, experience and experimentation. Dewey aptly summarized this idea by saying that learners should be actors rather than spectators . 9 Others have extended this concept to suggest that individals interact with the world in order to extract meaning from it and to construct a coherent and consistent cognitive model. Another way of saying this is that our brains are programmed to support our survival. From an evolutionary perspective organisms have evolved brains which create and internalize an increasingly complex and accurate model of the world. Based on our experience of interacting with the world we have each created our own unique model of reality. Nevertheless we are social beings and we cannot ignore the power of social interactivity that has influenced this process, a concept emphasised by the Russian psychologist Vygotsky. 10 Other human beings influence the way in which we construct our models giving rise to the teacher and to the various social processes of pedagogy.

Model building in the individual, based on interactivity with the world, is the result of a cognitive process which involves the experience of the world being assimilated and filtered through prior knowledge as previously described. If sense or meaning can be attached to the experience then the experience fits with existing cognitive structures (Piaget’s ‘schemas’). However, if the experience does not make sense then a feeling of dissatisfaction or cognitive dissonance can ensue in which the individual will seek to reach some sort of mental equilibrium by exploration or questioning. At this point the individual may make use of the faculty of imagination to suggest or hypothesise why the experience is problematic. It is the existence of human imagination, the ability of each of us to interrogate our mental model, to speculate and to ask questions that is one of the hallmarks of our intelligence and our capacity to survive. Albert Einstein famously stated that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge’ since he realized that ultimately all knowledge is derived from an initial process of imagination that is subsequently tested against the world. As individuals we can simulate reality by asking ourselves ‘what if?’ questions. We can perform acts in our imagination before doing them in reality and risking having our genes deleted from the gene pool. 11 Our imagined conjectures can be tested by seeking other experiences and by so doing we can resolve the dissonance and elaborate our learning and our mental model.

Constructivism and scientific reasoning

You may notice that what I have just described, as the individual attempts to construct a more meaningful and coherent mental model, is what is often called hypothetico-deductive reasoning. When confronted with experience hypotheses are created via inductive reasoning and human imagination. These hypotheses are then tested by exploration, further experience or deliberate manipulation of the world coupled to and processed by deductive reasoning. Hypotheses are then either rejected or supported, leading to the elaboration of knowledge. Hopefully the reader should now see that what the constructivist model of learning describes in the individual is what is commonly known as the ‘scientific method’. 12 Driver and many other constructivists have frequently asserted that the individual learner behaves like a scientist in seeking to make sense of the world. 13 Indeed Glopnik has gone so far as to assert that even the baby in the cradle is a little scientist testing out hypotheses about reality. 14

In summary we assert that the constructivist model is built on the premise that the brain naturally attempts to extract meaning from the world by interpreting experience through existing knowledge and then building and elaborating new knowledge in a process identical to hypothetico-deductive reasoning or the scientific method.

Clinical diagnostic reasoning

Diagnostic reasoning is one of the key cognitive skills that doctors need to acquire and medical schools need to teach. It has many characteristics in common with scientific reasoning and hence is connected to the constructivist model. When a patient presents with a problem the doctor will begin a process of hypothesis formation aided by information derived from the patient’s history and examination findings. Pattern recognition and ‘gut feelings’ are important here but very much depend on the range and quality of the mental models of illness presentation that they have built up. This initial phase can be seen as an inductive process in which sensory information is assimilated through the pre-existing knowledge of the clinician. The hypotheses, or differential diagnoses, next require testing to see which ones can be supported, falsified and eliminated by the acquisition of further evidence. This might involve more history taking and examination or the ordering of investigations such as blood tests or radiographs. The results obtained can be used to eliminate some hypotheses and can potentially lead to a final diagnosis of the problem. This phase of the process is characterized by deductive reasoning and the whole diagnostic process as hypothetico- deductive reasoning, which can hopefully be seen as identical to the scientific method as previously described.

Of course many things can go wrong in this process. Lack of background knowledge and experience will inhibit the assimilative inductive phase and reduce hypothesis formation from the imagination. Bias can influence the hypothesis testing phase by only looking for evidence to support a diagnosis rather than attempting to falsify one. Interpreting the results of investigations can also be influenced by a lack of background knowledge and experience. There are a myriad factors that affect the outcome of the diagnostic process and there are many ways of teaching this skill. Nevertheless it is important from a medical education perspective that students are made aware of the constructivist nature of the hypothetico-deductive process as the underlying engine of diagnostic reasoning.

Now that the constructivist framework has been described and its relationship to scientific method has been outlined it is useful to look at other theoretical models to see if there are any connections that can be discerned.

Students’ theories

It is a remarkable and well evidenced observation that students learning science have their own mental constructs or ‘theories’ and will articulate them when asked to explain the phenomena they are exposed to. 15 This can be explained by the constructivist model in that experiences will be filtered through limited prior knowledge followed by imaginative attempts to provide a plausible explanation. The student comes to school with years of personal experience of heat, light, gravity, forces, motion, solids, liquids, gases, energy, electricity, plants, animals and people. It is not surprising that strongly held theories about the nature of the physical, biological and social world have been elaborated by the student even before any scientific teaching is encountered.

Since the student is at the heart of learning good pedagogy suggests that it is essential that teachers make the effort to try to understand the student’s point of view. Teachers should create learning situations that encourage students to bring out their ideas. It is here that the ‘social constructivist’ approaches described by Vygotsky become important. The individual develops conceptual understanding via the social sharing of meanings and intellectual debate. Thus as far as possible scientific and medical learning should be a group activity with opportunities to discuss ideas, make hypotheses and devise ways of testing them. The teacher should facilitate the developing conceptual understanding of students by providing examples of cognitive conflict as well as emphasising how well the ‘scientific’ concepts explain phenomena in comparison to the more contradictory theories of the students. Of course the aim of teaching is to replace the ‘erroneous’ beliefs of the student with the ‘correct’ evidence-based scientific ones. Problem based learning is an ideal way to create this teaching environment. 16

However, children become adults and although they may then be considered mature thinkers , (‘logical operators’ to use Piaget’s terminology), nevertheless it is clear from many studies that they still have scientific misconceptions. 17 Medical students can be considered to have broken through the immature phase of science education and clearly they have successfully learned the correct scientific theories and concepts required to get into medical school. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean they are immune from still having personal theories and erroneous beliefs that might get in the way of acquiring the received evidence-based wisdom provided by their teachers.

Lay theories

Adults, with little knowledge of science and medicine beyond an elementary education, will have ‘lay beliefs’ concerning the anatomy and physiology of the body and of the causation of illness, and medical students and practitioners will interact with patients holding such beliefs. 18 - 21

Lay beliefs are therefore a component of the mental models that individuals have made and hence are part of the constructivist framework. Health care professionals need to be aware of lay theories when engaging with patients as they can have an important impact on health outcomes.

However, when we move into the area of lay beliefs we are entering sociological territory and the metaphor of construction is used in a radically different way. In Berger and Luckman’s 22 work ‘The Social Construction of Reality’ it is implied that reality itself is very much a social construction and that there is no single, coherent, real world. This ‘Postmodern’ viewpoint asserts that individuals experience reality as multifaceted and contradictory and rejects scientific ‘objectivity’. This extreme view of constructivism can lead to a cognitive relativism that is a long way from the scientific approach.

Illness occurs within a culture that fundamentally shapes how that illness is experienced. Anthropologists have provided a rich source of examples of the way in which lay beliefs about illness are part of the social fabric of all societies. Many studies in contemporary society demonstrate the continuing existence of a wide range of health beliefs that are seen as causative factors in illness. 23 It is tempting to suggest that these constellations of causal factors constitute ‘theoretical frameworks’ but they do not exhibit a high degree of consistency, order, stability and rationality and respondents often maintain and use contradictory models without recognising a logical inconsistency between them.

It may appear paradoxical that one of the claims of constructivism is that the brain uses a process of ‘scientific’ enquiry to try to make sense of the world but that individuals can then come up with and sustain ‘non-scientific’ beliefs or theories. Although the process may follow a scientific logic the final outcomes can clearly be totally unscientific and result from a lack of background knowledge, personal bias and an uncritical interpretation of evidence. Thomas Kuhn famously proposed that even scientists can be resistant to evidence that could lead to theory change and it sometimes takes a revolution to enable ‘paradigm shifts’ to take place. 24 Individuals can be equally resistant to evidence that might change their belief systems and might need their own personal revolution.

Nevertheless the real and potential gulf between lay beliefs and medical knowledge is a major factor in the therapeutic effectiveness of the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors need to understand the constructions of their patients and need to speak to them using language they can understand. 25 Eliciting the patient’s ideas is an essential step in this process although this can be another source of confusion since what a lay person understands by a particular medical term maybe entirely different from the doctor’s understanding. 26

In the medical field interpersonal communication or ‘communication skills’ is very important. The ability to listen to an individual, to ask them questions, to interpret what they are saying and to give them information and advice in a way that they can understand is a major feature of good medical practice which in one sense is educational. At the heart of it is an engagement with an individual that is analogous to the learner centred approach and hence is described as patient centred. As in constructivist pedagogy it involves finding out the background knowledge of the patient and then communicating with them and educating them in a way that they can understand. If constructivist pedagogy is used to establish prior knowledge it is also used in helping the patient to construct their understanding of their condition and to help the doctor to establish potentially new behaviours in the patient which will be of medical benefit. In many ways this is fundamentally associated with a teaching process and the Cambridge-Calgary method is a well established formulation of this method. 27

Experiential learning

The experiential learning theory developed by David Kolb 28 cites Piaget as a precursor in addition to acknowledging the influence of the social factors on learning identified by Vygotsky. Therefore it comes with good constructivist credentials. However, Kolb’s framework has been interpreted and misinterpreted by so many individuals over the years that it is sometimes difficult to see where constructivist concepts can be found within it. Because experiential or ‘non-formal’ learning frequently happens in a haphazard and unstructured way, with individuals having raw experiences in working environments, it is not always obvious that there is any pedagogy involved. But those ‘concrete experiences’ still have to be assimilated through pre-existing cognitive constructs. It is here that the social constructivist role of others becomes important, either as mentors who deliberately foster ‘reflection’ or merely fellow learners who can discuss and refine understanding. Kolb’s ‘abstract conceptualisations’ become the mental models discussed earlier and ‘active experimentation’ becomes the deductive reasoning process associated with questioning and active learning.

Humanistic theories

In the field of education humanistic theories of learning have contributed ideas and practices that complement constructivist and behaviourist models of learning. In particular the humanistic theories of Rogers and Maslow emphasise the importance of acknowledging the individual and starting from their standpoint in either a therapeutic or educational process. 29 , 30 This leads to human-centred or learner-centred approaches to education where the needs of the learner become the heart of the educational process. In addition one of the principles of adult learning, sometimes termed ‘andragogy’, is that the life experiences and background knowledge of adult learners becomes an important educational resource. 31 With adult learners, therefore, we build on and respect their prior knowledge, which may have been acquired from their own personal needs. But as we have previously established starting from where the learner is and building on their knowledge is a fundamental tenet of the constructivist model. Thus we can establish a strong connection between constructivism and learner-centred approaches.

Personal construct theory and cognitive behavioural therapy

George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory 32 is built on the premise that ‘all men are scientists’ and have constructed specific mental constructs and beliefs based on their experiences that make them what they are. It also posits that mistaken constructs can be created which can cause mental problems and inappropriate behaviour. Constructivist psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are similarly based on the premise that individuals may have constructed inappropriate behaviours and beliefs. 33 Therapy involves challenging these ‘cognitive distortions’ to normalize behaviour.

Neuroscience

Social constructivists often stress that as social beings our knowledge is disseminated amongst other human beings and also stored within physical locations such as libraries and the internet. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that learning and memory are ultimately processes that take place in individual human brains. Therefore what does the constructivist metaphor mean in terms of neural structure and processing? Is the construction of knowledge paralleled by the construction of neural structures and do the pedagogical processes suggested by the epistemology of constructivism enhance these constructions?

There is considerable evidence that our perceptions of reality and our own mental states are, in fact, constructions. Images projected onto the retina are analysed and processed by a variety of mechanisms in the brain and what we ‘think’ we see is largely a creation of mental processing. The central image on the fovea, scanned by unconsciously experienced saccadic eye movements, constitutes the centre of a perception whose peripheral elements are entirely ‘filled in’ by the brain. We do not therefore perceive reality as it actually is but we perceive a construct based on a probabilistic model of reality created by the brain. Our brains are constantly predicting what is out there in the world and by a series of ‘top down’ processes they fill in the sensory data we are receiving to create what Clark has called a ‘controlled hallucination’. 34

Further illustrations of how the brain constructs our perceptions, thoughts and even feelings have been provided by the work of Ramachandran. 35 , 36 Oliver Sacks has also written eloquently about how individuals who have tragically suffered from damage to specific regions of the brain can reconstruct their cognitions, often in strange and unusual ways. 37 The key conception that derives from these studies and observations is that the brain actively ‘fills in’ gaps in perception, sensation and cognition with constructs that attempt to maintain some sort of mental cohesion, even if the results can sometimes be anomalous.

It has been argued that constructivism is underpinned by mainstream theories of cognitive neuroscience: it is how our brains work when we are learning. According to Quartz and Sejnowski 38 the cerebral cortex has evolved to maximize its structure and function through constructive learning. In addition the importance of active learning methods, as recommended by constructivist pedagogy, is supported by studies of neurogenesis in the adult brain. Neurogenesis continually occurs in the dentate gyrus area of the hippocampus of the human brain, a region well known for its part in learning and memory. 39 Furthermore it is now established from mouse models that activity in an enriched living environment stimulates neurogenesis and results in increased synaptic connectivity. 40 The implication of these and other studies suggests that learning is a physically constructive process in the brain which is enhanced by active learning.

Conclusions

The key principle of constructivism in education is that learning is always a building process whereby new knowledge can only be added on to and understood in terms of existing knowledge. The ramifications of this concept are significant. Constructivist epistemology suggests constructivist pedagogy such as always checking and activating prior learning. Constructivism implies that hypothetico-deductive reasoning is a process we all engage in when trying to understand the world. The scientific method and diagnostic reasoning are essentially constructivist. Constructivism underpins many human interactions where dealing with and recognising the prior knowledge and personal constructs of an individual are important such as teaching in general, communication skills in medicine and some types of psychotherapy. Finally it is increasingly being suggested that the physical structure of the brain and its processes provides a neuroscientific rationale for constructivist cognition implying that certain pedagogical methods such as active learning should be encouraged. All medical and health science educators should be aware of the fundamental principles of constructivism and the extent of its influence on educational theory and clinical practice.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Constructivist pedagogy: Learning and teaching

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https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/863w2/constructivist-pedagogy-learning-and-teaching

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Publisher's version, related outputs, discourses of globalisation, ideology and social justice, discourses of globalisation, ideology and human rights, discourses of globalisation and higher education reforms : emerging paradigms, discourses of globalisation and education reforms : overcoming discrimination, overview and introduction, research on globalisation and neo-liberalism in higher education, discourse analysis as a qualitative methodology, current research on human rights education globally, current research trends in globalisation and neo-liberalism in higher education, research on discrimination and self-fulfilling prophecy in schools globally, current research of theories and models of intelligence, the emotional intelligence sports inventory (esi): a cross-cultural analysis - australia, wales, and england. world studies in education, motivation in the classroom: creating effective learning environments, effective constructivist pedagogy for quality learning in schools, globalisation and education reforms : paradigms and ideologies, qualitative and quantitative methodologies: a minimalist view, globalisation and national identity in history textbooks : the russian federation, globalisation and research in human rights education, globalisation and historiography of national leaders, the russian revolution in school history textbooks, globalisation, human rights education and reforms: emerging issues, research trends in globalisation and historiography of national leaders: symbolic representations in school textbooks, current research trends in globalisation and neo-liberalism in higher education, reforms in higher education in the russian federation: implications for equity and social justice, research in globalisation and higher education reforms, what does the review of the australian curriculum mean for senior modern history, history school text books and key events : a survey of russian teachers, globalisation, ideology and education reforms, globalisation and internationalisation: the influence of race, ethnicty and gender on education policy reforms, nation-building and history education in a global culture, globalisation and neo-liberalism as educational policy in australia, the politicizing of russian history education in the russian media, russian history textbooks: an analysis of historical narratives depicting key events, globalisation, ideology and the politics of history school textbooks: russia, transforming images of nation-building, ideology and nationalism in history school textbooks in putin's russia: 2001-2010, adult education and lifelong learning: skills training and social rehabilitation in the russian federation, globalisation and values education in the history/social studies classroom, globalization and the impact of social change and economic transformation in lifelong learning in russia, current developments in education policy for students with disabilities in australia, globalisation and schooling: equity and access issues, globalization, education, and social justice, credentialism and skills in the 21st century, globalisation, ideology and education policy reforms, globalisation and the politics of education reform, the politics of education reforms and policy shifts in the russian federation, the politics of the new history school textbooks in the russian federation, introduction - global pedagogies: social, cultural and technological change, teachers and the politics of history school textbooks, globalisation, nation-building and cultural identity: the role of intercultural dialogue, teaching history, globalisation, and comparative research: implications for education, values education and multicultural: ism in the global culture, globalisation, decentralisation and school-based management, race, ethnicity and gender in education: introduction, comparative information technology: languages, societies and the internet, nation-building, identity and citizenship education: introduction, discrimination in the classroom, education and social stratification in the soviet union and post-soviet russia: 1970s-1990s, globalisation, comparative education and policy research: equity and access issues, credentialism and vet: the importance of qualifications and skills, globalisation and its impact on education and policy, education for work in the ussr: vocational education and training during the 1970s, living together: globalisation, education and intercultural dialogue, secrets of scholarly publishing in international journals, schooling the new russians: transforming soviet students to capitalist entrepreneurs, guest editor's introduction, credentialism in the 21st century: the importance of qualifications, policy shifts in higher education in the russian federation: autonomy, standards, and quality, the new history school textbooks in the russian federation: 1992-2004, introduction: education and social justice, decentralisation and privatisation in education: the role of the state, education and social justice: issues of liberty and equality in the global culture, schooling, education reforms, and policy shifts in the russian federation, the politics of rewriting history:$cnew school history textbooks in russia, the educational reform and transformation in russia, rethinking globalisation and the future of education in africa, globalisation, education and policy: changing paradigms, decentralisation and school-based management: a comparative study of self-governing schools models, decentralisation; delegation and devolution: towards self-governing schools, cultural transferability and cross-cultural textbook development, critiquing literature in the school curriculum, decentralisation and privatisation in education, learning multiple perspectives in studies of society and environment: a curriculum model, lifelong learning and adult education: russia meets the west, ethnicities, minorities and indigenous groups in central asia, the politics of rewriting history: new history textbooks and curriculum materials in russia, educational reforms and transformations in russia, globalization and discourses in comparative education.

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IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY ! 1 Effects of Constructivist Pedagogy and Technology Integration on Student Motivation and Metacognition

2019, Effects of Constructivist Pedagogy and Technology Integration on Student Motivation and Metacognition

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of constructivist inquiry and reflective pedagogy with the incorporation of technology on student motivation. Technology integration, according to the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition model has been successfully utilized by teachers. This research examined how students would utilize the SAMR model in a student-centered Inquiry-Based classroom. The participants was a convenience sample (subject to consent) of seventh grade middle school students, aged 12-13, from my ancient world history class. There were currently 32 female participants and 18 male, including an Individualized Educational Program subgroup of four and a Gifted Individualized Educational Program subgroup of eight. Subgroups of Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced levels, according to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment scores in English Language Arts was also analyzed. The study encompassed three units. All students were required to complete a project for the ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome units. However, students had a choice in topic for each unit. Reading assignments from the World History textbook was assigned as background knowledge for the three units, in addition to prior knowledge from previous units. Data collection began with the steps of inquiry: identifying key words and concepts; posing a question; synthesizing prior knowledge that pertains to the question on a graphic organizer; developing a thesis statement and hypothesis; researching, recording, and collecting information to prove their thesis; analyzing and discussing the outcome of the research; creating an interactive project; editing and publishing with peer or public comment; and reflecting. These were monitored throughout the project process using Inquiry-Based Learning checklists, rubrics, and reflection rubrics, as well as student use of technology, according to the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. At the end of the each project, quality and level of inquiry, reflection, and use of technology was assessed. Finally, comparisons between the results of unit projects was calculated to identify a possible correlation between the number of students able to reach metacognitive levels of inquiry, reflection, and use of technology.

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A study investigated the extent to which students' inquiry skills can be facilitated through the use of a computerized science database (Birds of the Antarctica) and specially designed curriculum materials. Much attention was given in the program to developing both students' inquiry skills and their subject-matter knowledge. Grade 11 and 12 students' knowledge and skills development were interpreted as they interacted with the computerized database and the curriculum materials. The constraints to the development of inquiry skills and construction of understanding were identified. The theoretical framework of the study was based on a constructivist epistemology. An interpretive research methodology was employed to interpret students' and teachers' engagement in sense making and negotiating meaning. The results of a test of inquiry skills provided supportive data that helped to answer the main research question of how students develop inquiry skills.

Brian Ferry

This paper discusses the impact of student use of electronic thinking tools on teaching and learning strategies, depth of student reflection, staffing requirements and technological fluency of staff and students in a fourth year subject for pre-service primary teachers focusing on technology education. The theoretical underpinning of this subject is firmly based in a constructivist approach to learning, and employs a mindtool (Jonassen, 1996) to support deep student reflection and sharing of the design, make and appraise process. The construction of a process journal is an important aid to student reflection and self-analysis of recent learning experiences. Use of multimedia construction tools to enhance the journal writing process has evolved in the Design, Make and Appraise elective over a period of six years. The physical nature and pedagogical impact of the journal have changed due to the development of simple yet sophisticated multimedia construction tools. The change from scri...

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Clifton Kussmaul

Education needs to be more scalable and more effective. Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is an evidence-based social constructivist approach in which teams of learners work on activities that are specifically designed to guide them to understand key concepts and practice important skills. This paper describes a series of investigations of how technology might make POGIL more effective and more scalable. The investigations include a survey and structured discussions among leaders in the POGIL community, a UI mockup and a working prototype, and experiences piloting the prototype in a large introductory course. These investigations show that instructors are interested in using such tools to provide richer learning experiences for students and better reporting to help instructors monitor progress and facilitate learning. The course pilot demonstrates that a prototype could support a large class and identifies areas for future work.

ASEE 2004 Annual Conference and Exposition, "Engineering Researchs New Heights"

Stephen Krause

Sharon Adams

this documentation could be done with a printer, not all classrooms have ready access to printing, nor the resources to allow each student to print out and keep track of multiple pages. The software allows comments to be integrated within the captured screen, and more effective access and organization than is possible with paper copies only

Educational Technology & Society

Dick Ngambi

New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences

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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the effectiveness of the project as a modern technique of teaching and learning. Through a research carried out by students of School of Pedagogical and Technological Education who participated in a project implementation, a variety of benefits have emerged, focusing on the promotion of authentic learning, the cultivation of cognitive, social/communicative and especially metacognitive skills, necessary for the needs of the 21st century. The data were collected through a questionnaire for self-assessment. Our purpose was to explore the skills developed by the students, to detect the obstacles/difficulties they encountered and to explore the strategies that followed by students in order to solve problems during the implementation of the project. Based on the response in the questionnaire, the implementation of a project can lead to the acquisition of metacognitive skills, self-assessment, problem-solving skills, self-regulation, cooperation an...

We provide a conceptual review of the research on assessment in technologyenhanced collaborative inquiry in K-14 education, published between 1994 and 2013. The 57 studies that satisfied our search criteria were coded using a framework that considered the nature of the assessment intervention, the purposes of the assessment intervention, and the role of technology in student learning. This allowed us to identify four types of assessment interventions. The findings indicated that only interventions in the immersion orientation seemed to help students learn how to learn. Such assessment practices enabled students to learn actively and to learn both disciplinary substance and metacognitive/regulative skills. However, relatively few studies clearly integrated assessment and learning. The main contributions of this study are the coding framework and the four patterns of assessment interventions. Together, they provide a new way of thinking about the design of practice. The review provide...

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Constructivist pedagogy

What is constructivist pedagogy.

A topic in teaching science

" Constructivist pedagogy …involves shifts between periods of teacher presentation and exposition, and periods when students engage with a range of individual and particularly group-work, some of which may seem quite open-ended. However, even during these periods, the teacher's role in monitoring and supporting is fundamental. Constructivism as a learning theory suggests that effective teaching needs to be both student-centred and teacher-directed…" Taber, 2011 , p.57

Constructivism has been widely adopted as a basis for thinking about teaching and learning. Constructivist pedagogy is not the name of a particular single teaching approach or strategy. Rather, this is an umbrella term for any pedagogy which is designed according to constructivism as theory of learning.

Read about ' Constructivism '

A constructivist teacher may (some of the time at least) stand at the front of the class and present an account of subject matter to students. This could be considered constructivist if the teacher was taking into account, and linking to, students' prior learning and experiences; structuring material in the light of research into common learning difficulties; and using on-going formative assessment to adjust the teaching in the light of how learners were interpreting it.

The important criterion is that the teaching engages the learners' thinking so that students are actively making sense of teaching.

Read/view a lecture on Seven slogans for constructivist teachers: key ideas for teaching in accordance with learning theory

'Active' learning

Constructivism suggests students need to be active during learning, but this means their minds – and physical activity is not always a sign that students are actively thinking about the focal ideas of a class.

However, constructivist teaching has commonly been associated with techniques / approaches which limit the amount of class time spent listening to the teacher present. Generally, and especially with younger learners, such activities give more scope for active construction of meaning by students than extended periods of listening or reading (or viewing videos). Examples of activities that can be constructivist include: