Constructivist Theory

The constructivist theory is defined by the University of Sydney as a learning theory that "suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences."  One can also view the constructivist approach as the opposite of objectivism, where students are passive learners of materials.  How does this learning theory translate to technology integration in the classroom?  

When I think of constructivist being used in a technology integrated classroom, I cannot help but think of social media.  Shea (2007), as cited by Beth Perry and Margaret Edwards in their book Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning, mentions how the shift from objectivism to constructivism in the classroom, "help[s] to develop virtual communities" that foster "student-centered, learner-directed, interactive, participative pedagogical methods are congruent with the establishment of community in the online class, with social interaction and ultimately with learning" (p. 190).  Blogs are an example of a teaching tool that correlates well with the constructivist theory.  With blogging, students are in charge of their learning and are responding to others based on past knowledge, as well as learning new information from their peers through social interaction.  

Constructivism is also about self-exploration when it comes to a student's education.  According to Bruner, students should be encouraged to discover principles for themselves rather than given to them by their instructor (http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist.html).  Bruner also mentions the importance of spiraling content so that students continue to learn off of past knowledge. It is important for the teacher to teach content that contains information that students have been previously exposed to as to be able to build upon previously learned knowledge.  With our social studies curriculum, the students are given new material that is based off material learned in previous lessons.  Students receive a newspaper each week for social studies that takes old ideas and vocabulary and expands on them so that students' understanding can continue to grow with each lesson.

What I took away from our readings is that the constructivist theory is about turning our students into critical thinkers and reminds me of the Blooms Questioning Model.  "Foundational" questions, or questions with only one answer or one that can be recalled with a one-answer response from memory, are at the bottom and are more objective in nature.  Higher order thinking questions, located on the top of the Blooms questioning model, ask students to create, justify, or even teach material.  Just by comparing the level of questions on Blooms can one see glaring differences between the constructivist theory and other more teacher-centered theories in education. 

http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/theory/constructivism.shtml

Veletsianos, G. (2016)	Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations and ApplicationsIssues in Distance Education. Athabasca University Press