Constructivism – Principles/Learning Strategies
This course has been created using constructivist learning theories. Constructivism is the philosophical vision of how we come to understand or know. It is significant to establish a common understanding of what constructivist learning is or means to each of us.
Understanding occurs when individuals engage in interactions within our environment and knowledge is constructed on an individual basis; therefore, understandings cannot be shared or assumed the same for each of us but can be tested for compatibility in building a framework of propositions – knowledge (Savery & Duffy, 1995).
Constructivist learning has ascended from Piagetian and Vygotskian perspectives with an emphasis of constructed knowledge created through the individual’s active reflective thinking. Piaget focused more on the individual cognitive constructivism arising from individual’s activity in the world and Vygotsky stressed that sociocultural system have a major impact on an individual’s learning (Matthews, 1994). The social constructivist theory suggests knowledge is socially situated and is created through reflection of individual’s thoughts and experiences. Dewey (1938) suggests that individual learning is dependent upon the existing social environment and people learn through continuous interactions with others.
The following constructivist models will assist you in understanding the constructivist principles and how they are applied to this course.
CIM (Driver & Oldham, 1986)
POE (White & Gunstone, 1992)
CCM (Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982)