The Importance Of Constructivists In Education

Register to read the introduction… Students with disabilities have to learn how to become socially accepted members of their community, just like normally developing students. Constructivists fell that teachers must instruct their students within their zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development refers to, “ the instructional area between where the learner has independence or mastery and what can be achieved with competent assistance”(Mercer, Jordan, & Miller, 1994, p.292). Adding to the misunderstanding of constructivism a concern has developed questioning to what degree can teachers provide help to their students. The responsibility of a constructivist teacher is to guide the students to mastery and become independent, self-regulated learners. Student with disabilities need the continuous support provided to them by their teacher, making the constructivist learning theory difficult for these types of students to become successful. Constructivists feel that a student’s main focus in learning is to make a connection or bridge the gap between prior knowledge and new knowledge. Students with disabilities struggle with ability to generalize, therefore asking students to call upon prior knowledge in order to make connections seems like an unrealistic goal for students with disabilities to achieve. Constructivist focus on accomplishing whole task learning through simultaneous whole instruction, being able to make connections to prior knowledge but also to the community that which they live. Even though educators feel it is important for students with disabilities to become active members of their community it seems that in a constructivist style classroom these students many only benefit from the social aspect and get lost in the learning …show more content…
To begin to develop acceptance among students it is important to introduce typically developing children to those children who may have disabilities at an early age before students can develop harsh opinions. We have learned that dialectical constructivism may be the only successful approach to incorporating students with disabilities into a constructivist-learning environment. A dialectical constructivism classroom can be seen in what we are familiar with today as an “inclusion” style classroom. An inclusion classroom is made up of students with and without disabilities. Vygotsky feels “ that all children develop by play and to take students with disabilities out of the equation can be departmental to their cognitive but also social development”(Mallory & New, 1994, p.331). For teachers it may become extremely difficult to manage and provide equal opportunities for all students, but including students with disabilities you are giving them then chance to socially engage and learn with their peers. Constructivists say that you learn from collaborating with your peers and listening to their thoughts and ideas. However, an inclusion style classroom is not for all students with disabilities but it is a good place to