Constructivism

Constructivism is a learning theory which is based on the process of constructing meaning in learning. Unlike the behaviorist view of a learner, a constructivist views the learner as one who is active in the process of learning and brings with them into the learning environment knowledge which they have previously acquired (Jonassen, 1999). According to Ertmer and Newby (2013), the basic stance of constructivism is that new information learned is linked to prior knowledge which brings with it learner opinions and biases. Vygotsky (1978) and Bruner (1996, p 19) also contributed to constructivism and revealed their belief that a learner has different interpretations and has constructed meaning whether accurate or not and brings this information…

social interactions instead. These students need the opportunities that social interactions provide them to learn acceptable behaviors and skills. Then, there are still more students who may need to experience both reinforcements and social interactions to learn. Therefore, I am a supporter of Behaviorism, Social Learning Theory, and Social Constructivism, respectively. I believe teaching students is only effective when teachers…

Historical Review—Constructivism in Education As one of most important theories in social science, constructivism plays an important role especially in education. The main belief of constructivism is that people making sense of the world by interacting with the environment around them. Knowledge can be gained through people’s actively constructing their new experience with what they have already known (Ültanir, 2012). Since constructivism deals with the theory of knowledge, many educators and…

Constructivism and Social Constructivism in the Classroom (From: http://marjorieumg.weebly.com/learning-theories.html) For this work, I would like to focus on “Constructivism and Social Constructivism in the classroom” in the scope of this course. In the following sections, I will explain the meaning and the basics of constructivism theory, the origin of it and the starting point of the theory. In addition, importance of constructivism theory will be discussed. Furthermore, the supporters…

Introduction Learning starts long before students come to a school or any formal institution of instruction, and remains continue even long after school finishes, in a variety of different ways and context (Churchill, 2013). Pritchard (2013) defines learning as “the individual process of constructing understanding based on experience from a wide range of sources” (p.1).Learning in a formal classroom environment occurs through conscious information processing and focused mental and social…

In the secondary chemistry classroom, there are more signs and actions that are linked to cognitivism rather than constructivism. Now constructivism can be witness in a chemistry classroom, but there are some tweaks to the standard mindframe related to the learning style. Ms. DiMaria runs her chemistry classroom in ways that are standard in education systems, thus there are more actions that are based on cognitivism. Cognitivism is all about thinking about the mind and how teachers should…

Sociocultural theory and constructivism are two learning theories that are often pinned against each other. Sociocultural theory focuses on the interactions between people and the culture that they live to learn (Steiner and Mahn, 1996). Constructivism suggests that because individuals are not blank slates new knowledge is constructed by building upon prior knowledge and experiences (Brandsford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000). Additionally, sociocultural theory can take on different approaches such…

Jean Piaget is one of the most commonly associated theorists for cognitive constructivism and believes that learning is experiential (Handsfield, 2016, p. 39). Moreover, cognitivist constructivists believe that people accommodate and assimilate knowledge into their mental structures through experience and internalization of new knowledge. Lev Vygotsky is one of the commonly associated theorists of social constructivism and believes that social contexts impact learning through a process of…

rely on a rational choice framework borrowed from microeconomics that assumes cost-benefit analysis and utility maximization as the impetus behind state’s political calculus. Although conditioned by the same assumptions, neorealists and NLI reach vastly different conclusions regarding the potential for conflict and cooperation in international politics. Constructivism challenges both the materialist determinism and the ontological assumptions or “givens” of the rationalist framework that…

Introduction If a real estate agent and a farmer are given the same piece of land, it is likely that the former will perceive it as a potential space for building, while the latter will see it as a land for growing food. Therefore, being the piece of land always the same, it derives that people might have different perceptions of nature according to their identities. To this extent, this paper will address the question of whether it exists a nature ‘out there’ as maintained by Positivism or if…