essay on constructivism in the classroom

The Learning Process

Constructivism in the Classroom

Behaviorist models of learning may be helpful in understanding and influencing what students do, but teachers usually also want to know what students are  thinking , and how to enrich what students are thinking. For this goal of teaching, some of the best help comes from  constructivism , which is a perspective on learning focused on how students actively create (or “construct”) knowledge out of experiences. As discussed in the previous chapter, constructivist models of learning differ in how much a learner constructs knowledge independently, psychological constructivism, compared to how much he or she takes cues from people who may be more of an expert and who help the learner’s efforts, social constructivism.

For many educators, the social context of learning is critical. Ideas are tested not just on the teacher, but by fellow students, friends, and colleagues. Furthermore, knowledge is mainly acquired through social processes or institutions that are socially constructed: schools, universities, and increasingly these days, online communities. Thus what is taken to be ‘valued’ knowledge is also socially constructed.

Constructivists believe that learning is a constantly dynamic process. Understanding of concepts or principles develops and becomes deeper over time. For instance, as very young children, we understand the concept of heat through touch. As we get older we realize that it can be quantified, such as minus 20 centigrade being very cold (unless you live in Manitoba, where -20C would be considered normal). As we study science, we begin to understand heat differently, for instance, as a form of energy transfer, then as a form of energy associated with the motion of atoms or molecules. Each ‘new’ component needs to be integrated with prior understandings and also integrated with other related concepts, including other components of molecular physics and chemistry.

Thus ‘constructivist’ teachers place a strong emphasis on learners developing personal meaning through reflection, analysis, and the gradual building of layers or depths of knowledge through conscious and ongoing mental processing. Reflection, seminars, discussion forums, small group work, and projects are key methods used to support constructivist learning.

Although problem-solving can be approached in an objectivist way, by pre-determining a set of steps or processes to go through pre-determined by ‘experts’, it can also be approached in a constructivist manner. The level of teacher guidance can vary in a constructivist approach to problem-solving, from none at all, to providing some guidelines on how to solve the problem, to directing students to possible sources of information that may be relevant to solving that problem, to getting students to brainstorm particular solutions. Students will probably work in groups, help each other and compare solutions to the problem. There may not be considered one ‘correct’ solution to the problem, but the group may consider some solutions better than others, depending on the agreed criteria of success for solving the problem.

It can be seen that there can be ‘degrees’ of constructivism, since in practice the teacher may well act as first among equals, and help direct the process so that ‘suitable’ outcomes are achieved. The fundamental difference is that students have to work towards constructing their own meaning, testing it against ‘reality’, and further constructing meaning as a result.

Video 4.6.1.  Constructivist Teaching Strategies  discusses the practice of constructivism in the classroom.

Both types of constructivism focus on individuals’ thinking rather than their behavior, but they have distinctly different implications for teaching related to three ideas in particular: the relationship between learning and long-term development, the role or meaning of generalizations and abstractions during development, and the mechanism by which development occurs.

The Relationship Between Learning and Long-Term Development of the Learner

In general psychological constructivism such as Piaget emphasize the ways that long-term development determines a child’s ability to learn, rather than the other way around. The earliest stages of a child’s life are thought to be rather self-centered and to be dependent on the child’s sensory and motor interactions with the environment. When acting or reacting to his or her surroundings, the child has relatively few language skills initially. This circumstance limits the child’s ability to learn in the usual, school-like sense of the term. As development proceeds, of course, language skills improve, and hence the child becomes progressively more “teachable” and in this sense more able to learn. But whatever the child’s age, the ability to learn waits or depends upon the child’s stage of development. From this point of view, therefore, a primary responsibility of teachers is to provide a very rich classroom environment, so that children can interact with it independently and gradually make themselves ready for verbal learning that is increasingly sophisticated.

Social constructivists such as Vygotsky, on the other hand, emphasize the importance of social interaction in stimulating the development of the child. Language and dialogue, therefore, are primary, and development is seen as happening as a result—the converse of the sequence pictured by Piaget. Obviously, a child does not begin life with a lot of initial language skills, but this fact is why interactions need to be scaffolded with more experienced experts— people capable of creating a zone of proximal development in their conversations and other interactions. In the preschool years, the experts are usually parents; after the school years begin, the experts broaden to include teachers. A teacher’s primary responsibility is therefore to provide very rich opportunities for dialogue, both among children and between individual children and the teacher.

The Role of Generalizations and Abstractions During Development

Consistent with the ideas above, psychological constructivism tends to see a relatively limited role for abstract or hypothetical reasoning in the life of children—and even in the reasoning of youth and many adults. Such reasoning is regarded as an outgrowth of years of interacting with the environment very concretely. As explained more fully in the next chapter (“Student development”), elementary-age students can reason, but they are thought to reason only about immediate, concrete objects and events. Even older youth are thought to reason in this way much, or even all of the time. From this perspective, a teacher should limit the amount of thinking about abstract ideas that she expects from students. The idea of “democracy,” for example, may be experienced simply as an empty concept. At most it might be misconstrued as an oversimplified, overly concrete idea—as “just” about taking votes in class, for instance. Abstract thinking  is  possible, according to psychological constructivism, but it emerges relatively slowly and relatively late in development after a person accumulates considerable concrete experience.

Social constructivism sees abstract thinking emerging from a dialogue between a relative novice (a child or youth) and a more experienced expert (a parent or teacher). From this point of view, the more such dialogue occurs, then the more the child can acquire facility with it. The dialogue must, of course, honor a child’s need for intellectual scaffolding or a zone of proximal development. A teacher’s responsibility can, therefore, include engaging the child in dialogue that uses potentially abstract reasoning but without expecting the child to understand the abstractions fully at first. Young children, for example, can not only engage in science experiments like creating a “volcano” out of baking soda and water but also discuss and speculate about their observations of the experiment. They may not understand the experiment as an adult would, but the discussion can begin moving them toward adult-like understandings.

How Development Occurs

In psychological constructivism, as explained earlier, development is thought to happen because of the interplay between  assimilation  and  accommodation —between when a child or youth can already understand or conceive of, and the change required of that understanding by new experiences. Acting together, assimilation and accommodation continually create new states of cognitive  equilibrium . A teacher can, therefore, stimulate development by provoking cognitive dissonance deliberately: by confronting a student with sights, actions, or ideas that do not fit with the student’s existing experiences and ideas. In practice, the dissonance is often communicated verbally, by posing questions or ideas that are new or that students may have misunderstood in the past. But it can also be provoked through pictures or activities that are unfamiliar to students—by engaging students in a community service project, for example, that brings them in contact with people who they had previously considered “strange” or different from themselves.

In social constructivism, as also explained earlier, development is thought to happen largely because of scaffolded dialogue in a zone of proximal development. Such dialogue is by implication less like “disturbing” students’ thinking than “stretching” it beyond its former limits. The image of the teacher, therefore, is more one of collaborating with students’ ideas rather than challenging their ideas or experiences. In practice, however, the actual behavior of teachers and students may be quite similar in both forms of constructivism. Any significant new learning requires setting aside, giving up, or revising former learning, and this step inevitably, therefore “disturbs” thinking, if only in the short term and only in a relatively minor way.

Implications of Constructivism for Teaching

Whether you think of yourself as a psychological constructivist or a social constructivist, there are strategies for helping students help in develop their thinking—in fact, the strategies constitute a major portion of this book, and are a major theme throughout the entire preservice teacher education programs. For now, look briefly at just two. One strategy that teachers often find helpful is to organize the content to be learned as systematically as possible because doing this allows the teacher to select and devise learning activities that are better tailored to students’ cognitive abilities, that promote better dialogue, or both. The second strategy is self-assessment and self-direction of learning.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

One of the most widely used frameworks for organizing content is a classification scheme proposed by the educator Benjamin Bloom, published under the somewhat imposing title of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook #1: Cognitive Domain  (Bloom, et al., 1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).  Bloom’s taxonomy , as it is usually called, describes six kinds of learning goals that teachers can in principle expect from students, ranging from simple recall of knowledge to complex evaluation of knowledge. (The levels are defined briefly in Error: Reference source not found with examples from Goldilocks and the Three Bears.)

Bloom’s taxonomy makes useful distinctions among possible kinds of knowledge needed by students, and therefore potentially helps in selecting activities that truly target students’  zones of proximal development  in the sense meant by Vygotsky. A student who knows few terms for the species studied in a biology unit (a problem at Bloom’s  knowledge  and  comprehension levels), for example, may initially need support in remembering and defining the terms before he or she can make useful comparisons among species (Bloom’s  analysis  level). Pinpointing the most appropriate learning activities to accomplish this objective remains the job of the teacher-expert (that’s you), but the learning itself has to be accomplished by the student. Put in more social constructivist terms, the teacher arranges a zone of proximal development that allows the student to compare species successfully, but the student still has to construct or appropriate the comparisons for him or herself.

Video 4.6.2. Bloom’s Taxonomy: Structuring the Learning Journey explains the various levels and applications of this model.

Metacognition

A second strategy may be coupled with the first. As students gain experience as students, they become able to think about how they  themselves  learn best, and you (as the teacher) can encourage such self-reflection as one of your goals for their learning. These changes allow you to transfer some of your responsibilities for  arranging  learning to the students themselves. For the biology student mentioned above, for example, you may be able not only to plan activities that support comparing species but also to devise ways for the student to think about how he or she might learn the same information independently. The resulting self-assessment and self-direction of learning often go by the name of  metacognition —an ability to think about and regulate one’s own thinking (Israel, 2005). Metacognition can sometimes be difficult for students to achieve, but it is an important goal for social constructivist learning because it gradually frees learners from dependence on expert teachers to guide their learning. Reflective learners, you might say, become their own expert guides. Like with using Bloom’s taxonomy, though, promoting metacognition and self-directed learning is important enough that I will come back to it later in more detail (in the chapter on “Facilitating complex thinking”).

Video 4.6.3. What is Metacognition? explains the process of metacognition.

By assigning a more active role to expert helpers—which by implication includes teachers—than does the psychological constructivism, social constructivism may be more complete as a description of what teachers usually do when actually busy in classrooms, and of what they usually hope students will experience there. As we will see in the next chapter, however, there are more uses for a theory than its description of moment-to-moment interactions between teachers and students. As explained there, some theories can be helpful for planning instruction rather than for doing it. It turns out that this is the case for psychological constructivism, which offers important ideas about the appropriate sequencing of learning and development. This fact makes psychological constructivism valuable in its own way, even though it (and a few other learning theories as well) may seem to omit to mention teachers, parents, or experts in detail. So do not make up your mind about the relative merits of different learning theories yet!

Five “E” Model

A popular model for implementing constructivism in the classroom has been defined by the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS). This model suggests that constructivist lessons should engage students, allow them to explore, aid them in explaining their experience, learning is elaborated, and the lesson includes evaluation.

In the Engage stage, students have their first encounter with the lesson topic. Through questions, thinking, and discussion, students begin to make connections between previous knowledge and the present learning experiences. This process of engagement helps assess current understanding, establishes the organizational groundwork for the lesson ahead, and stimulates student involvement in the anticipation of learning. This is the opportunity to grab the students’ attention and get them excited about what they will be learning. Teachers might ask questions, present a problem, or facilitate some discussion to engage and motivate students.

In the Exploration stage, the students directly explore the topic of the lesson and related materials. These activities are experiences that ground students in the lesson. Students can work independently, but working in groups allows students to learn from others and build a common understanding of the topic of the lesson. Group work also encourages communication about the topic, which may assist them with sharing what they are learning in subsequent stages. During this stage, the teacher is a facilitator. They provide materials and guidance but allow the students to guide their inquiry. The teacher may ask questions to stimulate students’ thinking or give support, but exploration is about students’ discovery. Direct instruction should be minimal, if at all.

The third stage, Explain, is the point at which the learner begins to put the experience of the activity into a communicable form. Students may need to articulate the process they used, the sequence of events, their thought processes, and results. Communication may occur within the learner, with peers, or with the teacher. Sometimes even all three. Again, working in groups, learners support each other’s understanding as they articulate their observations, ideas, questions, and hypotheses. Explanations from the teacher, an expert, can aid novices with acquiring and using language to articulate their learning. For example, a student, through exploration, may report that magnets “stick” to metallic objects. The teacher, in their discussion with the student, can introduce terminology to replace the novice term “stick” by referring to “an attracting force”. Introducing terminology after the student has had the experience is more meaningful because the learner now has context to which to attach that term. Establishing a common language for concepts enhances the communication between teachers and students and aids the teacher in determining the students’ understanding and possible misconceptions.

In the fourth stage, Elaborate, students expand on the concepts learned, make connections to other related concepts, and apply their understandings to their world. For example, while exploring light phenomena, a learner constructs an understanding of the path light travels through space. Examining a lamppost, she may notice that the shadow of the post changes its location as the day grows later. This observation can lead to further inquiry as to possible connections between the shadow’s changing location and the changes in direction of the light source, the Sun. Applications to real-world events, such as where to plant flowers so that they receive sunlight most of the day, or how to prop up a beach umbrella for shade from the Sun, are both extensions and applications of the concept that light travels in a straight path. These connections often lead to further inquiry and new understandings.

Evaluate, the final stage, is actually an ongoing process of assessing students’ understanding and knowledge of concepts. Assessment can occur at all stages instructional process, but a more formal assessment is typically done to determine whether learning objectives have been met. Evaluation and assessment might be informal, like posing questions for students to answer in class or listening in on conversations that groups are having during the activity. Evaluation can also be formal, such as a test, report, or prepared presentation. Tools such as rubrics and checklists can be helpful in evaluating outcomes. Concrete evidence of the learning process is most valuable in communications between students, teachers, parents, and administrators.

Evaluation does not need to be the end. The results of the evaluation might guide the development of future lessons and activities. The evaluation might reveal gaps in learning that need further enrichment. They also provide useful feedback so the teacher can make modifications and improvements to the lesson for next time. The evaluation process is a continuous one that gives the constructivist philosophy a cyclical structure where questions lead to answers that lead to more questions and instruction is driven by both the planned lesson and the inquiry process.

The Five “E” Model Demonstrated

Video 4.6.4.  Constructivism  demonstrates the Five “E” model.

Candela Citations

• Constructivism in the Classroom. Authored by : Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose. Provided by : Hudson Valley Community College. Retrieved from : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/edpsy/chapter/constructivism-in-the-clasroom/. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Teaching in a Digital Age. Authored by : A.W. Bates. Provided by : BC Campus. Retrieved from : https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/section-3-4-constructivism/. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• Bloom's Taxonomy: Structuring The Learning Journey. Provided by : Sprout. Retrieved from : https://youtu.be/ayefSTAnCR8. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Constructivist Teaching Strategies. Provided by : Education Global Action Program. Retrieved from : https://youtu.be/7Zhv9ELy3hU. License : All Rights Reserved
• Constructivism. Authored by : John Wilkinson. Retrieved from : https://youtu.be/yoTdojKImb4. License : All Rights Reserved
• What is Metacognition?. Authored by : John Spencer. Retrieved from : https://youtu.be/HZrUWvfU6VU. License : All Rights Reserved

Educational Psychology Copyright © 2020 by Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Constructivism in the Classroom: Definition & Examples

Constructivism is a theoretical perspective in education that postulates that students actively create their own understanding through personal experience.

By building upon previous experiences and knowledge, students gradually form more complex and advanced comprehension of academic concepts.

In a constructivist classroom, teachers play the role of facilitator more so than instructor. Instead of teachers telling students what and how to think, the teacher creates a learning environment where students are encouraged to explore and become active participants in their educational experiences.

For this reason, it is crucial for teachers to understand where each student is at in terms of their skills and current level of understanding , and then adjust their instructional approaches accordingly.

A teacher that adheres to a constructivist perspective will incorporate several key principles into their daily interactions with students:

• Knowledge is shared between students and teachers
• Teachers are facilitators and not directors
• Teachers and students share in decision-making and responsibility for learning
• Students engage in small group activities and are encouraged to be inquisitive and self-directed
• Learning is student-centered

Constructivism in the Classroom: Key Theorists

Over the last 100+ years, there have been may key figures that endorsed the principles of constructivism in the classroom. Below are a few of the most recognized.

1. John Dewey (1859 – 1952)

Dewey was an American philosophy and educator who wrote prolifically about education reform, founding the progressive education movement . He believed that schools should foster student independence and the development of problem-solving skills.

Rather than being the recipient of instruction from the teacher, he argued that students should learn through experience. Dewey (1961) insisted that the “contents of the child’s experience” are more important than the “subject matter of the curriculum” (p. 342).

Because every child is unique and develops according to their own naturally occurring developmental processes, educational experiences and growth should emerge from the child rather than through an external agent (Stone, 1996).

Progressive schools operate on the principle of “Building the idea of individualist development instead of the idea of top-down forcing…. practicing active education instead of passive learning from teachers and texts” (Dewey, 1998, pp. 22-23).

2. Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

An Italian physician by training, her work with physically disable children had a strong influence on her philosophy of education. She rejected the traditional classroom configuration of desks in rows where students sat immobilized and passive.

Her educational vision placed an emphasis on student movement and academic activities that developed daily living skills, including social skills, hygiene and self-discipline (Hedeen, 2005).

The classroom environment should support a child’s natural sense of curiosity and propensity to explore. Crucial elements of her philosophy emphasize children working independently, choosing what they want to do and who they want to work with.

Allowing this freedom encourages creativity and problem-solving, helps children develop self-control, and fosters a sense of independence. As she once stated to illustrate the role of the teacher as facilitator, “The children are now working as if I didn’t exist” (Montessori, 1995, p. 283).

Instead of the teacher being the authority on course material, it is shared. Students can make decisions regarding their educational goals and participate in the critiquing of their work. 

Montessori was a ‘cognitive constructivist’, with a stronger focus on the role of cognitive development as the driver of intellectual progress than the importance of social interaction. She believed that children went through a range of relatively set stages called the planes of development , as depicted above, and explained below:

• Infancy: The first stage, from birth to six years, is characterized by the child’s “Absorbent Mind” where they absorb information from their environment like a sponge. It’s divided into two sub-phases: the unconscious creation (from 0-3 years) where the child absorbs the world unconsciously, and the conscious creation (from 3-6 years) where the child starts to purposefully interact with their environment.
• Childhood: The second stage, from six to twelve years, is the “Reasoning Mind” stage where children begin to think logically and explore their imagination and social relationships. During this stage, children seek knowledge and have a thirst for understanding the “why” and “how” of things.
• Adolescence: The third stage, from twelve to eighteen years, often referred to as the “Humanistic” or “Social Justice” stage, is when adolescents are discovering their social selves and developing their individual identities. They begin to look beyond their immediate family and become more focused on how they fit into the larger society.
• Maturity: The final stage, from eighteen to twenty-four years, is the “Specialist” stage, where young adults start to focus on their place in the world, using all they’ve learned about themselves and society to determine their path in life and their contribution to the world. In all these stages, the role of education, according to Montessori, is to support the natural developmental process of children.

3. Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Often identified as a Swiss psychologist (due to most of his work being in the area of child development), Piaget’s early training was actually in zoology! This is where his skills of observation were first honed.

Piaget’s work has had a tremendous impact on educational philosophy and classroom practices. He viewed the child as in a constant state of creating and modifying their understanding of the world. A process that was a result of experience and naturally occurring biological growth processes.

Astute observations and extensive note-taking on his own children’s behavior from the moment they were born led to his theory of cognitive development and many of its fundamental concepts.

According to Piaget, the child’s understanding of the world is constantly evolving. They form schemas regarding stimuli encountered in the environment, which are then continuously modified through the processes of assimilation and accommodation .

Assimilation is when new knowledge is processed in terms of the existing schema. If that information is inconsistent with the existing schema, then the schema is modified, referred to as accommodation (Piaget (1953, 1969). In some instances, the formation of an entirely new schema will occur.

Like Montessori, Piaget proposed a range of stages of cognitive development.

These stages are outlined briefly below:

Sensorimotor Stage (0 – 2 years)

• Object permanence: Babies learn that objects out of sight still exist.
• Goal Directed Action: Babies learn to act intentionally to achieve a goal.
• Deferred Imitation: Babies continue to imitate others after the event.

Preoperational Stage (2 – 7 years)

• Symbolic Thought: Young children learn to use language to represent their thoughts. They develop imaginative play.
• Egocentrism: Young children struggle to see things from other perspectives

Concrete Operational Stage (7 – 12 years)

• Logical thought: children begin to see relationships between mass, time, space, etc.
• Conservation : Children discover that changes in appearance do not necessarily correspond with changes in weight, volume, etc.

Formal Operational Stage (12 – 18 years)

• Children form inductive and deductive reasoning . They can use abstract thought and general principles to develop increasingly complex hypotheses.

4. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist at the Moscow Institute of Psychology that was interested in linguistics, education, and child development. He was a firm believer in ‘social’ constructivism and the notion that new learning was always built upon previous learning experiences.

He emphasized the social nature of learning and education, arguing that social interaction is essential for learning to progress. This interaction not only involved the parents and teacher, but also society as a whole.

Vygotsky is most famous for creating the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) . He defines it below:

“…the distance between the actual development as determined by independent problem solving and level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).

There are three zones that represent the learner’s abilities.

The first zone consists of what the learner can accomplish independently, with no assistance. The second zone is what the learner can accomplish with some guidance. The third zone consists of what the learner cannot do.

A key factor in a child’s progress involves the role of the more knowledgeable other (MKO) . An MKO is any person (parent, teacher, or peer) that possesses a more advanced understanding or skill level than the student. The interaction between the student and the MKO is key to student progress.

It is the responsibility of the MKO to apply a level of instructional difficulty that matches the student’s zone of development. Tasks that are too easy do not benefit the student, whereas tasks that are too difficult lead to failure and frustration.

Constructivism in the Classroom Examples

• Conflict Resolution Simulation: University students in a leadership course are given a simulation involving two employees having an intense interpersonal conflict. The leader will participate in the simulation with the two employees and try to implement a resolution.
• Classroom Debate: At the beginning of the academic term, students are asked to generate a list of controversial topics in society. They then select sides of the issues they wish to represent and then work together to prepare for a debate to be held three weeks later.
• Building a Marble Run: Students in third grade form small groups and are provided with an assortment of materials such as cardboard, tape, scissors, and paper-towel tubes. Their goal is to construct a marble run with the materials so that the marble is in motion for a minimum period of time, as designated by the instructor.
• Constructing Vertical Gardens: Students in an Environmental Studies course work with community stakeholders to construct vertical gardens in underserved areas of a nearby city.  
• The Paper Bridge Contest: At the end of a structural engineering course, students work in small groups and participate in a competition on who can build the strongest bridge from paper and tape.
• In Medical School: A team of 8 medical students is given several binders of diagnostic information regarding an actual patient case history. They must work together to identify the illness and devise a treatment regimen. An experienced doctor sits in on their meetings and offers as little assistance as possible.
• Reflection Worksheets: After completing a project, each member of the team is given a reflection worksheet. They respond to questions about their experience, identify what they think went well and didn’t go well, and describe how they would approach various aspects of their participation if given the opportunity to do it all over again.  
• Designing a Research Study: A psychology instructor asks students to work in small groups and design a study to test the effectiveness of meditation on treating patients with social anxiety disorder.
• Oral Presentations: Each student selects a topic covered in the course and then is given two weeks to construct a 15-minute presentation delivered to the rest of the class. 
• Formulating an Action Plan: Students in an Educational Leadership course form small groups of three and are tasked with developing an action plan for a kindergarten in which one of the students has just been diagnosed with a highly contagious disease.   

Strengths of Constructivism in the Classroom 

1. it is engaging.

Constructivist classroom activities are very engaging. Students get much more out of classroom instruction when they are actively involved in the learning process.

Compared to traditional instructional approaches, which are passive, constructivist-driven approaches are also motivating. When students are engaged and motivated, their learning advances substantially.

2. It Fosters Deep Learning

When students must become active participants in a project or problem-based activity, their learning is much deeper. They must think more critically about concepts involved in the project, conduct comparisons with other concepts, and may need to explain and defend their point of view.

Critical-thinking and problem-solving require much deeper levels of cognitive processing than traditional instructional approaches in which students receive information from a teacher.

3. It Is Differentiated

When teachers follow Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, it means they tailor their instructional approach to each individual student. They recognize their role as the MKO and the importance of matching the demands of the learning activity with the skill level of the student.

This means that advanced students will not get bored and students at lower levels or progress will not feel frustrated and incapable.

Weaknesses of Constructivism in the Classroom    

1. it often lacks structure.

One of the most often heard criticisms of constructivist-driven classroom activities is that they lack structure. In fact, from a Montessori perspective, the less structure the better.

However, critics argue that some students need clear parameters to guide their learning process. Without structure, their learning lacks coherence , their understanding will not be well-organized, and may actually contain misconceptions and errors.

2. Preparation Is Time-Consuming

Constructivist activities can be very time-consuming for teachers. Most teachers are already incredibly hard-working. They often work after school hours and on weekends to fulfill their numerous job demands.

The additional tasks needed to design activities and gather and prepare materials needed can add a lot of hours to the work week. Many teachers simply find it challenging to endure these additional demands.

3. Differentiation Is Time-Consuming

Similar to the increased demands of preparing activities, the matter is compounded by the need for differentiation. Not only must a teacher design, gather, and prepare materials for one activity, but often they must develop different versions of that activity that are suitable to the different skill levels of their students.

4. It Doesn’t Match Well With Standardized Testing

Standardized tests contain a large number of fact-based test items. Of course, it is important that students know basic definitions and key dates associated with a given subject, but that takes classroom time.

However, constructivist-driven classroom activities are more focused on developing higher-order cognitive skills . Those take time as well.

When a teacher sees their students working well together on a group project, they surely will be pleased. But at the same time, they surely recognize that they are not engaging in an activity that translates well to the high-stakes standardized tests they will be required to take at the end of the academic year.

Constructivism proposes that students are active builders of their knowledge. As they encounter new information, it is processed and understood within the context of their existing knowledge base.

That base is then adjusted accordingly.

This is a continuous process that every student experiences from their earliest days in kindergarten until their final days as university graduates.

The constructivist approach to learning incorporates several key features. Instruction is student-centered. Activities are engaging and collaborative, and designed to build higher-order cognitive skills. The teacher’s role is as facilitator, not director.

While these features are beneficial to student learning and development, they don’t come without challenges.

The additional demands on teachers can be extensive. Designing and preparing constructivist activities takes time, and developing differentiated versions for a classroom of 30 students is even more demanding.

At the same time, while students are collaborating in small groups and honing their teamwork and problem-solving skills , they are not devoting time to mastering material they will see on important standardized tests later. 

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education . New York: Collier.

Dewey, J. (1961). John Dewey on education (selected writings). London: Macmillan Publishers.

Dewey, J. (1966). Democracy and Education . New York: Free Press.

Hedeen, T. (2005). Dialogue and Democracy, Community and Capacity:

Lessons for Conflict Resolution Education from Montessori, Dewey and Freire. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 23 (2), 185-202.

Inhelder, B., & Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence: An essay on the construction of formal operational structures (Vol. 22). Psychology Press.

Matthews, W. J. (2003). Constructivism in the classroom: Epistemology, history, and empirical evidence. Teacher Education Quarterly , 30 (3), 51-64.

Montessori, M. (1912). The Montessori Method . (A. E. George, trans). New York: Stokes.

Montessori, M. (1995). The absorbent mind . New York: Henry Holt and Company. (Original work published, 1949).

Piaget, J. (1973). To understand is to invent: The future of education . New York: Grossman.

Piaget, J. (1959). The language and thought of the child (Vol. 5). Psychology Press.

Stone, J. E. (1996). Developmentalism: An obscure but pervasive restriction. Education Policy Analysis Archives , 4 , 8-8.

Stone, J. E. & Clements, A. (1998). Research and innovation: Let the buyer beware. In Robert R. Spillane & Paul Regnier (Eds.). The superintendent of the future (pp. 59-97). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen.

Ültanir, E. (2012). An epistemological glance at the constructivist approach: Constructivist learning in Dewey, Piaget, and Montessori. International Journal of Instruction , 5 (2).

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language . Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes . Michael Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman (Eds.). Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

Dave Cornell (PhD)

Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.

• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 25 Positive Punishment Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 25 Dissociation Examples (Psychology)
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ 15 Zone of Proximal Development Examples
• Dave Cornell (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/dave-cornell-phd/ Perception Checking: 15 Examples and Definition

Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

• Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Positive Punishment Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 25 Dissociation Examples (Psychology)
• Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link 15 Zone of Proximal Development Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) #molongui-disabled-link Perception Checking: 15 Examples and Definition

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Constructivism in Learning and Teaching Essay (Article)

Constructivism is a system of learning where the students do not just passively absorb information. Educational experts were concerned with what was going on in the mind of the student. There is active participation from the students. They are taught to relate the knowledge they are being given by the teachers and relating it to their experiences in life.

This approach in education is important as it teaches the students to be critical thinkers. They become active and motivated in the classroom. Students learn to construct their own understanding of the learning material or literature. The students become autonomous and independent thinkers. With this approach in learning the students learn to engage more in problem solving and stop being passive.

The skill of problem-solving is important and even assists the student in his adult life. It is a skill for life and that is what education should be. The student develops in his mental processes. It is a process of discovery for the student as he experiments with ideas at problem solving and getting solutions for the issues in his environment.

The theory of constructivism learning is based on several concepts. Learning for the student will depend on what he or she already knows or has experienced. In the area of literature, students are motivated to relate the story or characters to what they already know or what they have experienced. Secondly, learning should be about the students inventing ideas concerning the learning materials.

It may involve students analysing their old ideas in light of the learning materials and changing their old news to conform to what they are learning. When a student encounters information that is contrary to their way of thinking, then he finds himself at a state of disequilibrium.

The student therefore has to change or alter his way of thinking in order to attain equilibrium. The whole process therefore is about inventing ideas instead of the student just accumulating facts and information. It is therefore a student centred class where the teachers facilitate the process of students hypothesize, predict, pose questions, research and invent (Collins, 2008).

Students look at the world under the influence of their experiences and social interactions. Whenever a new experience is encountered the student tends to analyse the old experiences and the new experience. The student therefore tends to really consider prior experiences. If this is the way that people behave, then the educational approach in the classroom should take advantage and use an approach that helps the student enjoy learning.

The teacher therefore is a facilitator who has to know the interactions between the students and their external environments. The student is shown which interactions with his environment will provide an opportunity for growth and is actually healthy (Huang, 2002)

The teacher in the constructivist classroom has to possess certain qualities. He should be highly flexible and creative as he interacts with the students. The teacher is trained on how different students use their own experiences, prior knowledge and experience to construct meaning.

When it comes to literature, there can be no single interpretation of a piece of reading. There are several and different interpretations and all of them may be correct. The teacher’s interpretation is not always the only correct way of perception. At the end of the day, it is a highly democratic environment where the students and teachers are able to interact and participate in the learning process.

Collins, R. (2008). Enhanced Student Learning Through Applied Constructivist Theory. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 2(2). Web.

Huang, H. (2002) Toward constructivism for adult learners in Online learning environments. British Journal of Educational Technology .,33 (1)27-37. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, November 2). Constructivism in Learning and Teaching. https://ivypanda.com/essays/constructivism-in-learning-and-teaching-article/

"Constructivism in Learning and Teaching." IvyPanda , 2 Nov. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/constructivism-in-learning-and-teaching-article/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Constructivism in Learning and Teaching'. 2 November.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Constructivism in Learning and Teaching." November 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/constructivism-in-learning-and-teaching-article/.

1. IvyPanda . "Constructivism in Learning and Teaching." November 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/constructivism-in-learning-and-teaching-article/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Constructivism in Learning and Teaching." November 2, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/constructivism-in-learning-and-teaching-article/.

• Inventing Australia for Americans
• Education Theories of Behaviorism and Constructivism
• Social Constructivism in Cooperative and Distance Learning
• The Theories of Learning: Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism
• Learning Theories: Constructivism, Humanism, Behaviorism
• Frank Lambert’s Inventing the “Great Awakening”
• Inventing Australia for Americans: The rise Outback Steakhouse restaurant chain in the USA
• Constructivism as International Relations Theory
• Social Constructivism: Course Reflection
• Constructivism
• Improve 3rd Grade Constructive Response in Reading
• Self instructional learning module
• Designing a Sufficient Storyboard
• Students' Attitudes Towards E-Learning
• Apprenticeship as a Mode of Learning

Knowledge is a process of discovery: how constructivism changed education

Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland's IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland

Disclosure statement

Luke Zaphir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Queensland provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

This is the second of two essays exploring key theories – cognitive load theory and constructivism – underlying teaching methods used today.

Constructivism is an educational philosophy that deems experience as the best way to acquire knowledge.

We truly understand something – according to a constructivist – when we filter it through our senses and interactions. We can only understand the idea of “blue” if we have vision (and if we aren’t colour blind).

Constructivism is an education philosophy , not a learning method. So while it encourages students to take more ownership of their own learning, it doesn’t specify how that should be done. It is still being adapted to teaching practice.

The philosophy underpins the inquiry-based method of teaching where the teacher facilitates a learning environment in which students discover answers for themselves.

Read more: Explainer: what is inquiry-based learning and how does it help prepare children for the real world?

How developmental psychology shapes learning

One of the earliest proponents of constructivism was Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget , whose work centred around children’s cognitive development.

Piaget’s theories (popularised in the 1960s) on the developmental stages of childhood are still used in contemporary psychology. He observed that children’s interactions with the world and their sense of self corresponded to certain ages.

For instance, through sensations from birth, a child has basic interactions with the world; from two years old, they use language and play; they use logical reasoning from age seven, and abstract reasoning from age eleven.

Before Piaget, there had been little specific analyses on the developmental psychology of humans. We understood that humans became more cognitively sophisticated as they aged, but not exactly how this occurred.

Piaget’s theory was further developed by his contemporary, Lev Vygotsky (1925-1934), who saw all tasks as fitting into :

tasks we can do on our own

tasks we can do with guidance

tasks we can’t do at all.

There’s not a lot of meaningful learning to be made in the first category. If we know how to do something, we don’t gain too much from doing it again.

Similarly, there’s not much to be gained from the third category. You could throw a five year old into a calculus class run by the most brilliant teacher in the world but there just isn’t enough prior understanding and cognitive development for the child to learn anything.

Most of our learning occurs in category two. We’ve got enough prior knowledge to make sense of the topic or task, but not quite enough to fully comprehend it. In developmental psychology, this idea is known as the zone of proximal development – the place between our understanding and our ignorance.

Using the zone for learning

Imagine asking ten-year-old students to go about adding every number from 1 to 100 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 and onwards). They could theoretically do this by brute force addition which will likely bore and frustrate them.

A constructivist inspired teacher might instead ask: “is there a faster way of doing it?” and “is there a pattern of numbers?”

With a bit of help, some students might see that every number pairs with a corresponding number to add to 101 (1 + 100, 2 + 99, 3 + 98). They end up with 50 pairs of 101, for a much easier, faster sum of 50 x 101.

The pattern and easy multiplication might not have come intuitively (or even at all) to most students. But facilitation by the teacher pushes their existing knowledge into a meaningful learning experience – using a completely mundane problem. It then becomes a process of discovery rather than monotonous addition.

Medical students began using constructivist pedagogies in US and Australian universities in the 1960s. Instead of teachers showing students exactly how to do something and having them copy it (known as explicit instruction), tutors prompted students to form hypotheses and directed them to critique one another.

Constructivist pedagogy is now a common basis for teaching across the world . It is used across subjects, from maths and science to humanities , but with a variety of approaches.

Read more: Don’t just solve for x: letting kids explore real-world scenarios will keep them in maths class

The importance of group works

Learning methods based on constructivism primarily use group work. The emphasis is on students building their understanding of a topic or issue collaboratively.

Imagine a science class exploring gravity. The question of the day is: do objects drop at different speeds? The teacher could facilitate this activity by asking:

“what could we drop?”

“what do you think will happen if we drop these two objects at the same time?”

“how could we measure this?”

Then, the teacher would give students the chance to conduct this experiment themselves. By doing this, teachers allow students to build on their individual strengths as they discover a concept and work at their own pace.

Experiments in science class, excursions to cultural landmarks in history class, acting out Shakespeare in English – these are all examples of constructivist learning activities.

What’s the evidence?

Constructivist principles naturally align with what we expect of teachers. For instance, teacher professional standards require them to build rapport with students to manage behaviour, and expert teachers tailor lessons to students’ specific cultural, social and even individual needs.

Explicit instruction is still appropriate in many instances – but the basic teaching standard includes a recognition of students’ unique circumstances and capabilities.

Taking the constructivist approach means students can become more engaged and responsible for their own learning. Research since the 1980s shows it encourages creativity .

Constructivism can be seen as merely a descriptive theory , providing no directly useful teaching strategies. There are simply too many learning contexts (cultures, ages, subjects, technologies) for constructivism to be directly applicable, some might say.

And it’s true constructivism is a challenge. It requires creative educational design and lesson planning. The teacher needs to have an exceptional knowledge of the subject area, making constructivist approaches much harder for primary school teachers who have broader general knowledge.

Teacher-directed learning (the explicit teaching of content) has been used for a lot longer, and it’s shown to be very effective for students with learning disabilities .

Read more: Explainer: what is explicit instruction and how does it help children learn?

A major challenge for constructivism is the current outcomes-focused approach to learning. Adhering to a curricular requirement for assessment at certain times (such as end-of-term tests) takes the focus away from student-centred learning and towards test preparation.

Explicit instruction is more directly useful for teaching to the test , which can be an unfortunate reality in many educational contexts.

An an education philosophy, constructivism has a lot of potential. But getting teachers to contextualise and personalise lessons when there are standardised tests, playground duty, health and safety drills, and their personal lives, is a big ask.

Read more: I had an idea in the 1980s and to my surprise, it changed education around the world

• Developmental psychology
• Inquiry learning
• Inquiry-based learning
• learning theories

Senior Lecturer - Earth System Science

Associate Director, Operational Planning

Sydney Horizon Educators (Identified)

Deputy Social Media Producer

Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy

Unlocking Classroom Potential: Mastering Constructivism Learning Theory in Modern Education

Mikel Resaba

Constructivism learning theory transforms traditional education, emphasizing active student participation and knowledge construction. It’s an approach that’s reshaping how educators teach and students learn.

• Discover what constructivism learning theory is and its pivotal role in education.
• Explore key principles and examples of constructivism in action.
• Understand the impact of social constructivism on collaborative learning environments.

Curious about revolutionizing your teaching methods? Keep reading to grasp the full potential of constructivism learning theory and how it can revitalize your classroom dynamics.

What We Will Explore

Constructivism learning theory: a detailed explanation.

Constructivism learning theory represents a significant shift in educational philosophy, fundamentally changing our approach to teaching and learning. This theory, central to modern pedagogical methods, challenges traditional views of knowledge transmission and places the learner at the forefront of their educational journey.

What is Constructivism Learning Theory?

At its essence, constructivism posits that learners actively construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, not through passive absorption but through engaging with and reflecting on their experiences. This approach marks a departure from rote memorization, instead fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Key Principles of Constructivism

These principles are not stand-alone pillars; they interweave to create a robust framework for constructivism learning theory in practice.

Constructing Meaning from Experience

• What it is: Learning is seen as a process of personal discovery.
• In the Classroom: Students might work on a science project, forming hypotheses based on their observations and testing them through experiments.

Collaborative Learning

• What it is: Learning is a social activity, and understanding is reached through dialogue and cooperation.
• In the Classroom: Group projects where students must negotiate, explain, and compromise are common, illustrating social constructivism learning theory.

Reflective Engagement

• What it is: Learners are encouraged to reflect on their experiences and learning processes.
• In the Classroom: Journals or blogs where students articulate and reflect upon their learning experiences and the outcomes.

Integration of New and Old Knowledge

• What it is: Learners are encouraged to integrate new information with existing cognitive constructs.
• In the Classroom: Students compare and contrast historical events with current ones, finding patterns and making connections.

Authentic Tasks

• What it is: Learning involves real-world tasks that are relevant to the learner.
• In the Classroom: Students might engage in a simulation that mirrors a complex societal issue, requiring them to apply learned concepts in a practical manner.

Assessment as a Teaching Tool

• What it is: Assessment is used to support and guide the next steps in learning rather than just to measure knowledge.
• In the Classroom: Run assessments or quizzes using tools like ClassPoint’s interactive quizzes , which allow real-time feedback and for teachers to assess student understanding and immediately adjust instruction accordingly.

Constructivism Learning Theory in the Classroom

When constructivism learning theory is applied in the classroom, it transforms the traditional teaching landscape into a dynamic canvas where students paint their own understanding through a palette of experiences. The classroom becomes a living laboratory where learning is not just taught but caught, experimented with, and understood on a profound level.

A Day in a Constructivist Classroom

Imagine stepping into a classroom where the constructivism learning theory is in full swing. Here’s what you might witness:

• Interactive Learning Stations: Each corner of the room is a gateway to a different concept, inviting students to interact with the material in a hands-on manner. Here, the principle of “learning by doing” is not just a catchphrase but a reality.
• Dialogue and Debate: The hum of lively discussions fills the air, punctuated by the excitement of discovery. This social constructivism learning theory in action fosters a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives, deepening understanding and respect among students.
• Student-Led Demonstrations: Instead of a teacher at the front, students take turns leading activities or explaining concepts, embodying the adage “to teach is to learn twice.” These peer-to-peer exchanges cement knowledge and build communication skills.
• Project-Based Assignments: Groups are huddled together, brainstorming for their latest project that tackles a real-world issue. This approach not only makes learning relevant but also develops critical thinking and collaborative skills.
• Project-Based Learning (PBL): A hallmark of constructivism learning theory examples in education, PBL immerses students in real-world challenges. Here, students take on projects that require them to apply what they’ve learned in class to solve practical problems. Whether it’s designing a community garden to understand environmental science or creating a business plan in an economics class, PBL makes learning tangible and relevant.
• Case Studies and Simulations: In subjects like social studies or science, case studies of historical events or scientific phenomena allow students to explore scenarios in depth. Simulations, on the other hand, provide an interactive way to understand complex systems, such as a mock United Nations summit to learn about global diplomacy.
• Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE): Emphasizing the ‘how’ and ‘why’ over the ‘what’, IBSE encourages students to conduct experiments, make observations, and draw conclusions, mirroring the real processes of scientific discovery and reinforcing the constructivist approach of learning through experience.
• Flipped Classrooms : This approach, aligning with constructivism, reverses the traditional learning model. Students first explore new concepts at home, often through interactive, technology-based media, and then apply this knowledge in class through discussions, problem-solving tasks, and collaborative activities.

Constructivism Learning Theory Strategies Teachers Should be Aware of

Let’s break down some of the strategies that exemplify constructivism learning theory in the classroom:

• Scaffolding: Teachers provide temporary support structures for students to climb to higher levels of thinking. As students progress, these supports are gradually removed, promoting independence.
• Inquiry-Based Learning: Questions are the currency of the realm, with students encouraged to ask and explore their own questions about the subject matter, leading to a deeper understanding.
• Integration of Technology: Tools like ClassPoint are woven into the fabric of classroom activities, making learning interactive and tech-savvy. Quizzes and polls become not just tools of assessment but of engagement.
• Reflective Assessment: Students regularly stop to reflect on what they have learned, how they have learned it, and what it means for them. This reflective practice solidifies learning and encourages self-assessment.
• Teacher as a Guide : The teacher is no longer the sole source of knowledge but a guide who sets up the environment and provides the resources for discovery.
• Responsive Teaching: Teachers listen to students’ ideas and questions, responding with prompts, hints, and new challenges to push their thinking further.

Constructivism Learning Theory Beyond the Classroom

Constructivism learning theory also extends its influence beyond traditional educational environments:

• Workplace Training: Modern corporate training often employs constructivist approaches, such as hands-on training, simulations, and collaborative projects, recognizing that adults learn best through experience and application.
• Community Education and Workshops: Community programs often use constructivist methods, like group discussions and active problem-solving, to engage participants and address local issues effectively.

Social Constructivism Learning Theory: A Variant

What is social constructivism learning theory.

Social constructivism learning theory, a vibrant strand within the broader constructivism learning theory, places significant emphasis on the power of social interactions and cultural contexts in shaping the learning process. This perspective not only enriches our understanding of how knowledge is constructed but also highlights the importance of collaboration in the classroom.

The Essence of Social Constructivism

At its core, social constructivism learning theory revolves around the idea that social encounters are fundamental to the development of cognition. This theory underscores the following aspects:

• Collaborative Learning: Learning is not an isolated activity. It flourishes through shared experiences and interactions with peers and teachers. Social constructivism suggests that understanding is deepened and diversified when learners engage in discussions, group projects, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Cultural and Social Contexts: Every student brings a unique set of cultural and social experiences to the classroom. Social constructivism recognizes that these backgrounds significantly influence how individuals perceive and understand the world, advocating for a learning environment that values and integrates these diverse perspectives.
• Language as a Learning Tool: Communication plays a pivotal role in social constructivism. Through dialogue, debate, and discussion, students articulate their understanding, challenge each other’s viewpoints, and build a shared comprehension of subjects.

Implementing Social Constructivism in the Classroom

To embrace social constructivism learning theory, educators can adopt various strategies:

• Group Work and Peer Learning: Encourage students to work together on projects or study groups, facilitating the exchange of ideas and peer teaching.
• Class Discussions: Regularly engage the class in discussions where diverse viewpoints are welcomed and explored. This not only aids in understanding complex concepts but also develops critical thinking and communication skills.
• Cultural Sensitivity: Integrate materials and examples that reflect the diverse backgrounds of students, making learning more inclusive and relatable.
• Language-Rich Environment: Create a classroom atmosphere where students are encouraged to express themselves, ask questions, and engage in meaningful conversations.

The Role of Technology in Constructivism Learning Theory

In the digital age, technology plays a crucial role in applying constructivism learning theory. EdTech softwares and apps like ClassPoint can help facilitate constructivism learning theory through:

• Making Learning More Interactive: Interactive quizzes and gamification provide students with engaging experiences that reinforce constructivist principles, through encouraging inquiry and actively building on their existing knowledge.
• Introduce Collaboration Into Teaching : Interactive teaching tools like Name Picker and interactive quizzes and platforms like Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams facilitate collaborative learning, allowing students to work together on projects, share resources, and engage in discussions, regardless of physical location.
• Creative Canvases to Construct New Ideas: Technologies like interactive whiteboards and ClassPoint bring a new dimension to the classroom, allowing educators to incorporate creative presentation elements like annotations, whiteboards, word clouds seamlessly into lessons, making the learning experience more engaging and reflective of constructivist principles.

The synergy between constructivism learning theory and technology creates a rich soil for educational innovation, and ClassPoint is at the forefront, providing tools that make learning an active, engaging process. By incorporating ClassPoint into the classroom, educators can seamlessly blend tech with teaching, offering experiences that are perfectly aligned with the tenets of constructivism.

Sparking Curiosity with a Pop Quiz

Utilize ClassPoint to create a pop quiz that serves as a conversation starter for the day’s lesson. As students submit their answers, they’re not only engaging with the content but are also actively constructing their knowledge based on their responses and the subsequent class discussion.

How to facilitate this with ClassPoint:

• Add a quiz button in your PowerPoint slide using ClassPoint’s interactive quizzes and project it onto the screen as students walk in.
• Launch the quiz by clicking on the quiz button during slideshow mode.
• Students use their devices to answer, promoting a tech-friendly, interactive start to the lesson.
• Discuss the answers as a class, encouraging students to explain their reasoning, fostering a deeper understanding through peer learning.

Harnessing Immediate Insights with Formative Assessments

In a constructivist classroom, feedback is immediate and formative. Use ClassPoint’s real-time response system during a lesson to gauge comprehension and adjust your teaching on the fly.

• Add a multiple choice quiz button in your PowerPoint slide.
• Enable Quiz Mode at the settings panel.
• Launch the quiz by clicking on the quiz button in slideshow mode.
• Students answer via their own devices. The quiz is automatically graded and responses are displayed instantly.
• Address any widespread misconceptions immediately, ensuring that learning is constantly tailored to student needs.

Collaborative Problem Solving

Encourage students to solve a problem together by using ClassPoint’s whiteboard backgrounds feature. This shared digital space allows for collective note-taking, drawing, and brainstorming, which are central to constructivist practices.

• Present a problem or case study via your PowerPoint slides.
• Invite students to contribute to the whiteboard, adding their ideas and solutions through Smartboard or slide drawing .
• Facilitate a group discussion that lets students reflect on the collaborative process and the solutions generated.

Enhancing Critical Thinking with ClassPoint AI and Bloom’s Taxonomy

ClassPoint AI can be leveraged to frame questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy , encouraging critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. This approach facilitates a deeper understanding of subjects by pushing students to analyze, evaluate, and create, rather than just remember and understand.

How to Facilitate This with ClassPoint:

• Craft questions using ClassPoint AI that are tailored to various Bloom’s Taxonomy levels, ensuring a range of cognitive challenges.
• Integrate these questions into your PowerPoint presentation to stimulate higher-order thinking.
• Engage students in discussions about their answers, fostering critical thinking and deeper comprehension.

Flipping the Classroom with Quizzes and SharePDF

ClassPoint’s quiz and SharePDF features are perfect for implementing a flipped classroom model. Teachers can create quizzes for students to complete as homework, and SharePDF allows for the easy distribution of lecture materials for pre-class review.

• Prepare a quiz using ClassPoint for students to complete before class, covering key concepts of the upcoming lesson.
• Convert your PowerPoint presentation to a PDF with SharePDF and share it with students, providing them with material to study in advance.
• Use class time for interactive discussions and activities based on the pre-taught material and quiz results.

Using Name Picker and Timer for Group Activities and Projects

The Name Picker and Timer in ClassPoint is excellent for managing group activities or projects. They help keep students engaged and adds a sense of urgency and excitement to the tasks.

• Use the name picker to divide the class into smaller groups.
• Set a timer for group activities or project phases using ClassPoint.
• Display the countdown during the activity to keep students aware of the remaining time.
• Use the timer to facilitate quick transitions between different phases of the project or activity.

Progressive Difficulty Quizzes for Scaffolding

ClassPoint’s quiz feature can be used to create quizzes with progressively difficult questions, aligning with the scaffolding teaching method. This approach gradually increases the complexity of material, supporting student learning and confidence.

• Design a series of quizzes in ClassPoint with increasing levels of difficulty.
• Start with basic recall questions and gradually include more complex, analytical ones.
• Use these quizzes to gauge student understanding and adapt the teaching pace accordingly.

Student-Led Demonstrations or Projects

ClassPoint interactive presentation and quiz tools are not only limited to teachers. Students can use them to present their findings or ideas in an interactive and engaging manner.

• Invite students to download ClassPoint on their laptop devices.
• Encourage the use of interactive presentation tools like annotations, shapes, text boxes and draggable objects during their presentations.
• Students can also conduct interactive quiz or quick poll to further engage with the audience.
• They can use ClassPoint’s Embedded Browser to embed additional relevant information or media content from live website into their PowerPoint slides during presentation to allow a more seamless and fun presentation experience.

Try ClassPoint for a Constructivist Classroom Makeover!

Ready to bring constructivism learning theory to life in your classroom? Experience the difference with ClassPoint—try it for free and watch your students thrive in an active, collaborative, and engaging learning environment. Start your journey with ClassPoint today!

By integrating the principles of constructivism into your teaching practice with tools like ClassPoint, you can create an educational experience that is not only more engaging for students but also more rewarding for educators.

About Mikel Resaba

Try classpoint for free.

All-in-one teaching and student engagement in PowerPoint.

Supercharge your PowerPoint. Start today.

500,000+ people like you use ClassPoint to boost student engagement in PowerPoint presentations.

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

3187 Accesses

8 Citations

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.

The unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates, 399 BCE).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Abdullah Alwaqassi, S. (2017). The use of multisensory in schools . Indiana University. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21663/Master%20Thesis%20in%

Acton, G., & Schroeder, D. (2001). Sensory discrimination as related to general intelligence. Intelligence, 29 , 263–271.

Google Scholar  

Adak, S. (2017). Effectiveness of constructivist approach on academic achievement in science at secondary level. Educational Research Review, 12 (22), 1074–1079.

Adler, E. (1997). Seizing the middle ground: Constructivism in world politics. European Journal of International Relations, 3 , 319–363.

Akpan, J., & Beard, B. (2016). Using constructivist teaching strategies to enhance academic outcomes of students with special needs. Journal of Educational Research , 4 (2), 392–398. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1089692.pdf

Al Sayyed Obaid, M. (2013). The impact of using multi-sensory approach for teaching students with learning disabilities. Journal of International Education Research , 9 (1), 75–82. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1010855

Alt, D. (2017).Constructivist learning and openness to diversity and challenge in higher education environments. Learning Environments Research, 20 , 99–119. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-016-9223-8

Arends, R. (1998). Learning to teach . Boston: McGraw Hill.

Ayaz, M. F., & Şekerci, H. (2015). The effects of the constructivist learning approach on student’s academic achievement: A meta-analysis study . Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1072.4600&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Barlett, F. (1932), Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: CUP.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory . New York: General Learning Press.

Beck, C., & Kosnik, C. (2006). Innovations in teacher education: A social constructivist approach . New York, NY: SUNY Press.

Black, A., & Ammon, P. (1992). A developmental-constructivist approach to teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 43 (5), 323–335.

Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Brooks, J., & Brooks, M. (1993). In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms . Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Bruner, J. (1963). The process of education . New York: Vintage Books.

Bynum, W. F., & Porter, R. (Eds.). (2005). Oxford dictionary of scientific quotations . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carnoy, M. (1999). Globalization and education reforms: What planners need to know . Paris: UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning.

Crogman, H., & Trebeau Crogman, M. (2016). Generated questions learning model (GQLM): Beyond learning styles . Retrieved from https://www.cogentoa.com/article/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1202460

Dangel, J. R. (2011). An analysis of research on constructivist teacher education . Retreived from https://ineducation.ca/ineducation/article/view/85/361

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education . New York: Collier Books.

Doll, W. (1993). A post-modem perspective on curriculum . New York: Teachers College Press.

Doolittle, P. E., & Hicks, D. E. (2003). Constructivism as a theoretical foundation for the use of technology in social studies. Theory and Research in Social Education, 31 (1), 71–103.

Dunn, R., & Smith, J. B. (1990). Chapter four: Learning styles and library media programs. In J. B. Smith (Ed.), School library media annual (pp. 32–49). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Dunn, R., et al. (2009). Impact of learning-style instructional strategies on students’ achievement and attitudes: Perceptions of educators in diverse institutions. The Clearing House, 82 (3), 135–140. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30181095

Fontana, D. (1995). Psychology for teachers . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Fosnot, C. T. (Ed.). (1989). Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice . New York: Teacher's College Press.

Fosnot, C. T., & Perry, R. S. (2005). Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning. In C. T. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice . New York: Teacher’s College Press.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences . New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century . New York: Basic Books.

Gredler, M. E. (1997). Learning and instruction: Theory into practice (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gupta, N., & Tyagi, H. K. (2017). Constructivist based pedagogy for academic improvement at elementary level . Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321018062_constructivist_based_pedagogy_for_academic_improvement_at_elementary_level

Guzzini, S. (2000). A reconstruction of constructivism in international relations. European Journal of International Relations, 6 , 147–182.

Hirtle, J. (1996). Social constructivism . English Journal, 85 (1), 91. Retrieved from. https://search.proquest.com/docview/237276544?accountid=8194

Howe, K., & Berv, J. (2000). Constructing constructivism, epistemological and pedagogical. In D. C. Phillips (Ed.), Constructivism in education (pp. 19–40). Illinois: The National Society for the Study of Education.

Hunter, W. (2015). Teaching for engagement: part 1: Constructivist principles, case-based teaching, and active learning . Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301950392_Teaching_for_Engagement_Part_1_Co

Jonassen, D. H. (1994). Thinking technology. Educational Technology, 34 (4), 34–37.

Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Revisiting activity theory as a framework for designing student-centered learning environments. In D. H. Jonassen & S. M. Land (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 89–121). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Kelly, G. A. (1955/1991). The psychology of personal constructs . Norton (Reprinted by Routledge, London, 1991).

Kharb, P. et al. (2013). The learning styles and the preferred teaching—Learning strategies of first year medical students . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3708205/

Kim, B. (2001). Social constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology . http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/SocialConstructivism.htm

Kim, J. S. (2005). The effects of a constructivist teaching approach on student academic achievement, self-concept, and learning strategies. Asia Pacific Education Review, 6 (1), 7–19.

Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of group process . London: John Wiley.

Kukla, A. (2000). Social constructivism and the philosophy of science . London: Routledge.

Mahn, H., & John-Steiner, V. (2012). Vygotsky and sociocultural approaches to teaching and learning . https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118133880.hop207006

Martin, J., & Sugarman, J. (1999). The psychology of human possibility and constraint . Albany: SUNY.

Matthews, M. (2000). Constructivism in science and mathematics education. In C. Phillips (Ed.), Constructivism in education, ninety-ninth yearbook of the national society for the study of education, Part 1 (pp. 159–192). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Maypole, J., & Davies, T. (2001). Students’ perceptions of constructivist learning in a Community College American History 11 Survey Course . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/009155210102900205

McInerney, D. M., & McInerney, V. (2018). Educational psychology: Constructing learning (5th ed.). Sydney: Pearson.

McLeod, S. (2019). Constructivism as a theory for teaching and learning . Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html

OECD. (2007). Equity and quality in education . Paris: OECD.

OECD. (2009a). Key factors in developing effective learning environments: Classroom disciplinary climate and teachers’ self-efficacy. In Creating effective teaching and learning environments . Paris: OECD.

OECD. (2009b). Education at a glance . Paris: OECD.

OECD. (2009c). The schooling for tomorrow . Paris: OECD, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.

OECD. (2013). Synergies for better learning: An international perspective on evaluation & assessment . Retrieved from // www.oecd.org/edu/school/Evaluation_and_Assessment_Synthesis_Report.pdf

OECD. (2019a). PISA 2018 results (volume III): What school life means for students’ lives . Paris: OECD.

Oldfather, P., West, J., White, J., & Wilmarth, J. (1999). Learning through children’s eyes: Social constructivism and the desire to learn . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

O’Loughin, M. (1992). Rethinking science education: Beyond Piagetian constructivism toward a sociocultural model of teaching and learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2 (8), 791–820.

Onuf, N. (2003). Parsing personal identity: Self, other, agent. In F. Debrix (Ed.), Language, agency and politics in a constructed world (pp. 26–49). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Onuf, N. G. (2013). World of our making . Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Packer, M., & Goicoechea, J. (2000). Sociocultural and constructivist theories of learning: Ontology, not just epistemology. Educational Psychologist, 35 (4), 227–241.

Phillips, D. (2000). An opinionated account of the constructivist landscape. In D. C. Phillips (Ed.), Constructivism in education, Ninety-ninth yearbook of the national society for the study of education, Part 1 (pp. 1–16). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Piaget, J. (1967). Biologie et connaissance (Biology and knowledge). Gallimard.

Piaget, J. (1972). The principles of genetic epistemology (W. Mays, Trans.). Basic Books.

Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures . (A. Rosin, Trans.). The Viking Press.

Postman, N., & Weingartner, C. S. (1971). Teaching as a subversive activity . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Puacharearn, P. (2004). The effectiveness of constructivist teaching on improving learning environments in thai secondary school science classrooms . Doctor of Science Education thesis. Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved from https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/2329/14877_

Richardson, V. (2003). Constructivist pedagogy. Teachers College Record, 105 (9), 1623–1640.

Sadler-Smith, E. (2001). The relationship between learning style and cognitive style. Personality and Individual Differences, 30 (4), 609–616.

Searle, J. R. (1995). The construction of social reality . New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Shah, R. K. (2019). Effective constructivist teaching learning in the classroom . Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED598340.pdf

Sharma, H. L., & Sharma, L. (2012). Effect of constructivist approach on academic achievement of seventh grade learners in Mathematics. International Journal of Scientific Research, 2 (10), 1–2.

Shively, J. (2015). Constructivism in music education. Arts Education Policy Review: Constructivism, Policy, and Arts Education, 116 (3), 128–136.

Shor, I. (1992). Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Slavin, R. (1984). Effective classrooms, effective schools: A research base for reform in Latin American education . Retrieved from http://www.educoas.org/Portal/bdigital/contenido/interamer/BkIACD/Interamer/

Slavin, R. E. (2020). Education psychology: theory and practice (12th ed.). Pearson.

Steffe, L., & Gale, J. (Eds.). (1995). Constructivism in education . Hillsdale, NJ.: Erlbaum.

Stoffers, M. (2011). Using a multi-sensory teaching approach to impact learning and community in a second-grade classroom . Retrieved from https://rdw.rowan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=etd

Thomas, A., Menon, A., Boruff, J., et al. (2014). Applications of social constructivist learning theories in knowledge translation for healthcare professionals: A scoping review. Implementation Science, 9 , 54. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-9-54 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Thompson, P. (2000). Radical constructivism: Reflections and directions. In L. P. Steffe & P. W. Thompson (Eds.), Radical constructivism in action: Building on the pioneering work of Ernst von Glasersfeld (pp. 412–448). London: Falmer Press.

von Glaserfeld, E. (1995). Radical constructivism: A way of knowing and learning . London: The Falmer Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1934a). Myshlenie i rech (Thought and language). State Socio-Economic Publishing House (translated in 1986 by Alex Kozulin, MIT).

Vygotsky. (1934b). Thought and language . Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1968). The psychology of art . Moscow: Art.

Vygotsky, L. (1973). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Trans. and Ed.). The MIT Press. (Originally published in Russian in 1934.)

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman (Eds.), Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Watson, J. (2003). Social constructivism in the classroom . Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9604.00206

Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2008a). Learning and teaching (2nd ed.). Melbourne: James Nicholas Publishers.

Zajda, J. (2008b). Aptitude. In G. McCulloch & D. Crook (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of education . London: Routledge.

Zajda, J. (2008c). Globalisation, education and social stratification. In J. Zajda, B. Biraimah, & W. Gaudelli (Eds.), Education and social inequality in the global culture (pp. 1–15). Dordrecht: Springer.

Zajda, J. (2018a). Motivation in the classroom: Creating effective learning environments. Educational Practice & Theory, 40 (2), 85–103.

Zajda, J. (2018b). Effective constructivist pedagogy for quality learning in schools. Educational Practice & Theory, 40 (1), 67–80.

Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020a). Globalisation, ideology and education reforms: Emerging paradigms . Dordrecht: Springer.

Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2021). 3rd international handbook of globalisation, education and policy research . Dordrecht: Springer.

Zajda, J., & Majhanovich, S. (Eds.). (2021). Globalisation, cultural identity and nation-building: The changing paradigms . Dordrecht: Springer.

Zaphir, L. (2019). Can schools implement constructivism as an education philosophy? Retrieved from https://www.studyinternational.com/news/constructivism-education/

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Faculty of Education & Arts, School of Education, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Joseph Zajda

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

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

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71575-5_3

Published : 30 October 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-71574-8

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-71575-5

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Constructivism Learning Theory & Philosophy of Education

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their own understanding. Rather than passively receiving information, learners reflect on their experiences, create mental representations , and incorporate new knowledge into their schemas . This promotes deeper learning and understanding.

Constructivism is ‘an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner’ (Elliott et al., 2000, p. 256).

In elaborating on constructivists’ ideas, Arends (1998) states that constructivism believes in the personal construction of meaning by the learner through experience and that meaning is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new events.

Constructivism Philosophy

Knowledge is constructed rather than innate, or passively absorbed.

Constructivism’s central idea is that human learning is constructed, that learners build new knowledge upon the foundation of previous learning.

This prior knowledge influences what new or modified knowledge an individual will construct from new learning experiences (Phillips, 1995).

Learning is an active process.

The second notion is that learning is an active rather than a passive process.

The passive view of teaching views the learner as ‘an empty vessel’ to be filled with knowledge, whereas constructivism states that learners construct meaning only through active engagement with the world (such as experiments or real-world problem-solving).

Information may be passively received, but understanding cannot be, for it must come from making meaningful connections between prior knowledge, new knowledge, and the processes involved in learning.

John Dewey valued real-life contexts and problems as an educational experience. He believed that if students only passively perceive a problem and do not experience its consequences in a meaningful, emotional, and reflective way, they are unlikely to adapt and revise their habits or construct new habits, or will only do so superficially.

All knowledge is socially constructed.

Learning is a social activity – it is something we do together, in interaction with each other, rather than an abstract concept (Dewey, 1938).

For example, Vygotsky (1978) believed that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning.” For Vygotsky, the environment in which children grow up will influence how they think and what they think about.

Thus, all teaching and learning is a matter of sharing and negotiating socially constituted knowledge.

For example, Vygotsky (1978) states cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partners co-construct knowledge.

All knowledge is personal.

Each individual learner has a distinctive point of view, based on existing knowledge and values.

This means that same lesson, teaching or activity may result in different learning by each pupil, as their subjective interpretations differ.

This principle appears to contradict the view the knowledge is socially constructed.

Fox (2001, p. 30) argues:

• Although individuals have their own personal history of learning, nevertheless they can share in common knowledge, and
• Although education is a social process powerfully influenced by cultural factors, cultures are made up of sub-cultures, even to the point of being composed of sub-cultures of one.
• Cultures and their knowledge base are constantly in a process of change and the knowledge stored by individuals is not a rigid copy of some socially constructed template. In learning a culture, each child changes that culture.

Learning exists in the mind.

The constructivist theory posits that knowledge can only exist within the human mind, and that it does not have to match any real-world reality (Driscoll, 2000).

Learners will be constantly trying to develop their own individual mental model of the real world from their perceptions of that world.

As they perceive each new experience, learners will continually update their own mental models to reflect the new information, and will, therefore, construct their own interpretation of reality.

Types of Constructivism

Typically, this continuum is divided into three broad categories: Cognitive constructivism, based on the work of Jean Piaget ; social constructivism, based on the work of Lev Vygotsky; and radical constructivism.

According to the GSI Teaching and Resource Center (2015, p.5):

Cognitive constructivism states knowledge is something that is actively constructed by learners based on their existing cognitive structures. Therefore, learning is relative to their stage of cognitive development.

Cognitivist teaching methods aim to assist students in assimilating new information to existing knowledge, and enabling them to make the appropriate modifications to their existing intellectual framework to accommodate that information.

According to social constructivism, learning is a collaborative process, and knowledge develops from individuals” interactions with their culture and society.

Social constructivism was developed by Lev Vygotsky (1978, p. 57), who suggested that:

Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).

The notion of radical constructivism was developed by Ernst von Glasersfeld (1974) and states that all knowledge is constructed rather than perceived through senses.

Learners construct new knowledge on the foundations of their existing knowledge. However, radical constructivism states that the knowledge individuals create tells us nothing about reality, and only helps us to function in your environment. Thus, knowledge is invented not discovered.

Radical constructivism also argues that there is no way to directly access an objective reality, and that knowledge can only be understood through the individual’s subjective interpretation of their experiences.

This theory asserts that individuals create their own understanding of reality, and that their knowledge is always incomplete and subjective.

The humanly constructed reality is all the time being modified and interacting to fit ontological reality, although it can never give a ‘true picture’ of it. (Ernest, 1994, p. 8)

Constructivism Teaching Philosophy

Constructivist learning theory underpins a variety of student-centered teaching methods and techniques which contrast with traditional education, whereby knowledge is simply passively transmitted by teachers to students.

What is the role of the teacher in a constructivist classroom?

Constructivism is a way of teaching where instead of just telling students what to believe, teachers encourage them to think for themselves. This means that teachers need to believe that students are capable of thinking and coming up with their own ideas. Unfortunately, not all teachers believe this yet in America.

The primary responsibility of the teacher is to create a collaborative problem-solving environment where students become active participants in their own learning.

From this perspective, a teacher acts as a facilitator of learning rather than an instructor.

The teacher makes sure he/she understands the students” preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them (Oliver, 2000).

Scaffolding is a key feature of effective teaching, where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the learner’s level of performance.

In the classroom, scaffolding can include modeling a skill, providing hints or cues, and adapting material or activity (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).

What are the features of a constructivist classroom?

A constructivist classroom emphasizes active learning, collaboration, viewing a concept or problem from multiple perspectives, reflection, student-centeredness, and authentic assessment to promote meaningful learning and help students construct their own understanding of the world.

Tam (2000) lists the following four basic characteristics of constructivist learning environments, which must be considered when implementing constructivist teaching strategies:

1) Knowledge will be shared between teachers and students. 2) Teachers and students will share authority. 3) The teacher’s role is one of a facilitator or guide. 4) Learning groups will consist of small numbers of heterogeneous students.

What are the pedagogical (i.e., teaching) goals of constructivist classrooms?

Honebein (1996) summarizes the seven pedagogical goals of constructivist learning environments:

• To provide experience with the knowledge construction process (students determine how they will learn).
• To provide experience in and appreciation for multiple perspectives (evaluation of alternative solutions).
• To embed learning in realistic contexts (authentic tasks).
• To encourage ownership and a voice in the learning process (student-centered learning).
• To embed learning in social experience (collaboration).
• To encourage the use of multiple modes of representation, (video, audio text, etc.)
• To encourage awareness of the knowledge construction process (reflection, metacognition).

Brooks and Brooks (1993) list twelve descriptors of constructivist teaching behaviors:

• Encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. (p. 103)
• Use raw data and primary sources, along with manipulative, interactive, and physical materials. (p. 104)
• When framing tasks, use cognitive terminology such as “classify,” analyze,” “predict,” and “create.” (p. 104)
• Allow student responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies, and alter content. (p. 105)
• Inquire about students’ understandings of the concepts before sharing [your] own understandings of those concepts. (p. 107)
• Encourage students to engage in dialogue, both with the teacher and with one another. (p. 108)
• Encourage student inquiry by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask questions of each other. (p. 110)
• Seek elaboration of students’ initial responses. (p. 111)
• Engage students in experiences that might engender contradictions to their initial hypotheses and then encourage discussion. (p. 112)
• Allow wait time after posing questions. (p. 114)
• Provide time for students to construct relationships and create metaphors. (p. 115)
• Nurture students’ natural curiosity through frequent use of the learning cycle model. (p. 116)

Critical Evaluation

Constructivism promotes a sense of personal agency as students have ownership of their learning and assessment.

The biggest disadvantage is its lack of structure. Some students require highly structured learning environments to be able to reach their potential.

It also removes grading in the traditional way and instead places more value on students evaluating their own progress, which may lead to students falling behind, as without standardized grading teachers may not know which students are struggling.

Summary Tables

What is constructivism in the philosophy of education.

Constructivism in the philosophy of education is the belief that learners actively construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world through their experiences, interactions, and reflections.

It emphasizes the importance of learner-centered approaches, hands-on activities, and collaborative learning to facilitate meaningful and authentic learning experiences.

How would a constructivist teacher explain 1/3÷1/3?

They might engage students in hands-on activities, such as using manipulatives or visual representations, to explore the concept visually and tangibly.

The teacher would encourage discussions among students, allowing them to share their ideas and perspectives, and guide them toward discovering the relationship between dividing by a fraction and multiplying by its reciprocal.

Through guided questioning, the teacher would facilitate critical thinking and help students arrive at the understanding that dividing 1/3 by 1/3 is equivalent to multiplying by the reciprocal, resulting in a value of 1.

Arends, R. I. (1998). Resource handbook. Learning to teach (4th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Brooks, J., & Brooks, M. (1993). In search of understanding: the case for constructivist classrooms, ASCD. NDT Resource Center database .

Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs . Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education . New York: Collier Books.

Driscoll, M. (2000). Psychology of Learning for Instruction . Boston: Allyn& Bacon

Elliott, S.N., Kratochwill, T.R., Littlefield Cook, J. & Travers, J. (2000). Educational psychology: Effective teaching, effective learning (3rd ed.) . Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill College.

Ernest, P. (1994). Varieties of constructivism: Their metaphors, epistemologies and pedagogical implications. Hiroshima Journal of Mathematics Education, 2 (1994), 2.

Fox, R. (2001). Constructivism examined . Oxford review of education, 27(1) , 23-35.

Honebein, P. C. (1996). Seven goals for the design of constructivist learning environments. Constructivist learning environments : Case studies in instructional design, 11-24.

Oliver, K. M. (2000). Methods for developing constructivism learning on the web. Educational Technology, 40 (6)

Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism . Educational researcher, 24 (7), 5-12.

Tam, M. (2000). Constructivism, Instructional Design, and Technology: Implications for Transforming Distance Learning. Educational Technology and Society, 3 (2).

Teaching Guide for GSIs. Learning: Theory and Research (2016). Retrieved from http://gsi.berkeley.edu/media/Learning.pdf

von Glasersfeld, E. V. (1974). Piaget and the radical constructivist epistemology . Epistemology and education , 1-24.

von Glasersfeld, E. (1994). A radical constructivist view of basic mathematical concepts. Constructing mathematical knowledge: Epistemology and mathematics education, 5-7.

Von Glasersfeld, E. (2013).  Radical constructivism  (Vol. 6). Routledge.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Further Reading

Constructivist Teaching Methods

Constructivism Learning Theory: A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning Strategies Which Can be Implemented by Teachers When Planning Constructivist Opportunities in the Classroom

How to Construct Your Classroom With Constructivism

October 9, 2019 leew8 Constructivism 4

In the article Constructivism in Classroom: Theory into Practice (1999), Naylor and Keogh explained that the “central principles of this approach [constructivist view] are that learners can only make sense of new situations in terms of their existing understanding.”

Does the current classroom structure align with this idea? The answer is no .

Our current education system sets the classroom structure, as to where students are forced to take in knowledge from the teacher, like an empty vessel.

Here’s a video that better illustrates how constructivist teaching would look like:

So How Can You Implement This?

The article describes an innovation that shows us how constructivist principles can be implemented for teaching. It introduces the idea of “concept cartoons.”

Let me show you how it works. In the example, we can see how the scientific concept “heat and cold” was incorporated into a familiar situation for the students. The conversation between the children can be seen as a form of a multiple-choice question, and they help to represent the misconception the student might actually hold. Now, this would definitely stir up a debate in the classroom as they bring up their own opinions on the idea.

See how that cartoon just gave us access to our student’s existing ideas? How it engaged the students?

That engage is where we start off to our learning cycle!

The 5 E’s

• Engage: Establish Relevancy – help to determine need of learning new concepts
• Explore: Present the Content – discover more about the topic
• Explain: Improve Understanding – establishing definitions and explanations
• Elaborate : Construct New Learning – apply prior learning and exercise skills
• Evaluate: Assess Learning – measure how learning corresponds against goals

What Does It Look Like In A Classroom?

Now let’s see how that concept cartoon can lead into the learning cycle.

• Engage the students using the concept cartoon – ask them who they think is correct in this case.
• Let the students debate and raise their own thoughts and ideas – form their own hypothesis
• By showing them the alternatives (misconceptions) you will allow them to recognize conceptual conflicts
• Discussion based on students’ thoughts and ideas and come to a consensus by giving supporting evidence that explains the correct concept.
• Students can do group investigations on different concepts raised by the cartoon – eg. properties of heat
• The investigations can be used as a way to evaluate students’ learning.

"The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for inventions rather than provide ready-made knowledge." – Seymour Papert #EDT431 #scienceteaching — Ms. Lee (@WoooojinLee) October 10, 2019

Naylor, S., & Keogh, B. (1999). Constructivism in Classroom: Theory into Practice.  Journal of Science Teacher Education,10 (2), 93-106. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43156211

Great post Woojin, when looking at the learning cycle I wonder what aspects you might find most difficult about it? I personally feel that explore is rather challenging.

I really enjoyed your post. I like how you used the cartoon as an example, and then showed how to use that cartoon in the learning cycle for a lesson on heat. What do you think the bets way to engage students is?

Hi Woojin! This post is amazing! The video is very easy to understand and I absolutely love the idea of concept cartoons! Those are definitely great to use in ENGAGE and even the rest of the learning cycle! You mentioned that the current class structure does not align with constructivism, how can we change this?

Excellent blog Woojin! I liked how you explained the 5 e’s because sometimes it can be difficult for one to differentiate between them all. All of the E’s are very important, but which one do you think is the most important and why? I personally think the “engage” stage is the most important because if a student isn’t engaged from the start, they are going to become uninterested throughout the entire learning cycle.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Copyright © 2024 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

7.4: Constructivism and Social Constructivism in the Classroom

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 73238

In the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher (“expert”) pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning.

In the constructivist classroom, both teacher and students think of knowledge as a dynamic, ever-changing view of the world we live in and the ability to successfully stretch and explore that view – not as inert factoids to be memorized.

Key assumptions of this perspective include:

• What the student currently believes, whether correct or incorrect, is important.
• Despite having the same learning experience, each individual will base their learning on the understanding and meaning personal to them.
• Understanding or constructing a meaning is an active and continuous process..
• Learning may involve some conceptual changes.
• When students construct a new meaning, they may not believe it but may give it provisional acceptance or even rejection.
• Learning is an active, not a passive, process and depends on the students taking responsibility to learn.

The main activity in a constructivist classroom is solving problems. Students use inquiry methods to ask questions, investigate a topic, and use a variety of resources to find solutions and answers. As students explore the topic, they draw conclusions, and, as exploration continues, they revisit those conclusions. Exploration of questions leads to more questions.

There is a great deal of overlap between a constructivist and social constructivist classroom, with the exception of the greater emphasis placed on learning through social interaction, and the value placed on cultural background. For Vygotsky, culture gives the child the cognitive tools needed for development. Adults in the learner’s environment are conduits for the tools of the culture, which include language, cultural history, social context, and more recently, electronic forms of information access.

In social constructivist classrooms collaborative learning is a process of peer interaction that is mediated and structured by the teacher. Discussion can be promoted by the presentation of specific concepts, problems or scenarios, and is guided by means of effectively directed questions, the introduction and clarification of concepts and information, and references to previously learned material.

Role of the teacher

Constructivist teachers do not take the role of the “sage on the stage.” Instead, teachers act as a “guide on the side” providing students with opportunities to test the adequacy of their current understandings

Role of the student

The expectation within a constructivist learning environment is that the students plays a more active role in, and accepts more responsibility for their own learning.

Social Constructivism in the classroom

Reciprocal teaching.

Where a teacher and 2 to 4 students form a collaborative group and take turns leading dialogues on a topic. Within the dialogues, group members apply four cognitive strategies:

• Questioning
• Summarizing

This creates a ZPD in which students gradually assume more responsibility for the material, and through collaboratation, forge group expectations for high-level thinking, and acquire skills vital for learning and success in everyday life.

Cooperative Learning

More expert peers can also spur children’s development along as long as they adjust the help they provide to fit the less mature child’s ZPD.

Situated Learning

As early as 1929 concern was raised (Whitehead) that the way students learned in school resulted in a limited, ‘inert’ form of knowledge, useful only for passing examinations. More recently several theorists have argued that for knowledge to be active it should be learned:

• In a meaningful context
• Through active learning

The general term for this type of learning activity is situated learning. Situated learning proponents argue that knowledge cannot be taught in an abstract manner, and that to be useful, it must be situated in a relevant or “authentic” context ( Maddux, Johnson, & Willis, 1997 ).

Anchored Instruction

The anchored instruction approach is an attempt to help students become more actively engaged in learning by situating or anchoring instruction around an interesting topic. The learning environments are designed to provoke the kinds of thoughtful engagement that helps students develop effective thinking skills and attitudes that contribute to effective problem solving and critical thinking.

Anchored instruction emphasizes the need to provide students with opportunities to think about and work on problems and emphasizes group or collaborative problem solving.

Other things you can do:

• Encourage team working and collaboration
• Promote discussion or debates
• Set up study groups for peer learning
• Allocate a small proportion of grades for peer assessment and train students in the process and criteria
• Show students models of good practice in essay writing and project work
• Be aware of your own role as a model of ‘the way things are done…’be explicit about your professional values and the ethical dimensions of your subject

Constructivists believe that assessment should be used as a tool to enhance both the student’s learning and the teacher’s understanding of student’s progress. It should not be used as an accountability tool that serves to stress or demoralise students. Types of assessment aligned to this epistemological position include reflective journals/portfolios, case studies, group-based projects, presentations (verbal or poster), debates, role playing etc.

Within social constructivism particularly there is greater scope for involving students in the entire process:

Brooks and Brooks (1993) state that rather than saying “No” when a student does not give the exact answer being sought, the constructivist teacher attempts to understand the student’s current thinking about the topic. Through nonjudgmental questioning, the teacher leads the student to construct new understanding and acquire new skills.

Selected Bibliography

Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. Allyn & Bacon, Boston: MA

Hill, W.F. (2002) Learning: A survey of psychological interpretation (7th ed) , Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

Jordan, A., Carlile, O., & Stack, A. (2008). Approaches to learning: A guide for teachers. McGraw-Hill, Open University Press: Berkshire.

Ormrod, J.E. (1995). Human Learning (2nd ed.) . New Jersey, Prentice Hall.

Ryder, M (2009) Instructional Design Models. Downloaded from http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html on 30 March 2009)

Selected Resources

List of learning theories and how they apply to practice: http://icebreakerideas.com/learning-theories/

List of models and good info on each: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html

Outline of learning theories: http://www.learning-theories.com/

• Constructivism and Social Constructivism in the Classroom. Provided by : UCD Teaching and Learning. Located at : http://www.ucdoer.ie/index.php?title=Education_Theory/Constructivism_and_Social_Constructivism_in_the_Classroom . Project : Becoming a Better University Teacher. License : CC BY: Attribution

Constructivism in the classroom

Affiliate Disclaimer

As an affiliate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. We get commissions for purchases made through links on this website from Amazon and other third parties.

Since its introduction in the early 1900s, the theory of constructivism has been widely used as a framework for understanding how people learn. The basic tenet of constructivism is that people actively construct their own understanding of the world around them through their experiences and interactions with others.

In recent years, constructivism has been increasingly applied to educational settings, as educators strive to create learning environments that are more active and engaging for students.

What is constructivism?

Constructivism is a learning approach that emphasizes active learning and cooperative learning, based on the learner’s previous knowledge.

In a constructivist learning environment, learners are actively involved in constructing new information, rather than passively receiving information from the instructor.

The constructivist learning theory holds that learners are more likely to understand and remember new information if they can connect it to their existing knowledge.

What are the principles of constructivism?

There are several principles of constructivism, but the main one is that learners construct their own knowledge.

This means that new knowledge is not simply absorbed by learners, but is constructed through their learning experiences.

This is an active process, where learners view themselves as capable of constructing meaning from information they receive.

Constructivism is often associated with the work of Lev Vygotsky, who argued that social interaction is essential for learning.

For Vygotsky, new learning always builds on previous learning, and so knowledge is always constructed in relation to what a learner already knows.

This view of teaching emphasizes the importance of providing learners with opportunities to build on their existing knowledge and to make connections between new and old ideas.

Principles of Constructivist Learning Theory

There are 7 principles of constructivist learning theory:

1. The learner is active,

2. Constructivism is a social theory,

3. Knowledge is constructed,

4. New learning builds on previous learning,

5. Learning experiences are meaningful,

6. Learning is an active process, and

7. The zone of proximal development.

Vygotsky’s idea of the zone of proximal development is particularly important in constructivism; it posits that new knowledge is constructed through interactions with more knowledgeable others and that learning is a social process.

What are the three main types of constructivism?

Constructivism is a theory of learning that emphasizes the role of the learner in actively constructing meaning from existing knowledge. There are three main types of constructivism: social constructivism, radical constructivism, and cognitive constructivism.

Social constructivism, first proposed by Lev Vygotsky, emphasizes the importance of the learner’s social environment in shaping their cognition.

Radical constructivism, proposed by Ernst von Glasersfeld, suggests that learners actively construct their own understanding of the world, independent of any external reality.

Cognitive constructivism, proposed by Jean Piaget, suggests that cognition develops in stages and that learners actively construct their own understanding as they move through these stages.

Contributors to the theory of constructivism

Constructivism is a theory of learning that focuses on the active construction of knowledge by the learner. It has its roots in the work of Jean Piaget, who proposed that children construct their own understanding of the world through their interactions with it. Lev Vygotsky later expanded on this idea, proposing that all learning is a social process and that we learn from others through our interactions with them.

There are many different contributors to the theory of constructivism, but these are some of the most important ones.

Examples of constructivist classroom activities

There are 12 examples of constructivist classroom activities that can be used in the classroom to promote cooperative learning and student work in groups. These activities include:

1. Classroom discussions – Students discuss a topic in small groups and then share their ideas with the class as a whole.

2. Brainstorming – Students brainstorm ideas for a project or assignment in small groups.

3. Jigsaw activities – Students work in small groups to complete a task or puzzle, with each group responsible for one piece of the puzzle.

4. Concept mapping – Students create a visual representation of ideas or concepts using words, phrases, and/or images.

5. Problem-based learning – Students work together to solve a problem or complete a task, with the teacher acting as a facilitator.

6. Inquiry-based learning – Students conduct research on a topic and then share their findings with the class.

7. Cooperative learning – Students work together in small groups to complete an assignment or project.

8. Hands-on learning – students engage in active, hands-on learning experiences such as experiments, projects, and field trips.

9. Authentic assessment – students demonstrate their knowledge and skills through authentic tasks and projects.

10. Group work – students work together on a project or task.

11. Mind mapping – students create a visual representation of their thoughts and ideas.

12. Peer feedback – students give feedback to each other on their work in order to help improve collaboration and communication.

Role of a Teacher in a Constructivist Classroom

The role of a teacher in a constructivist classroom is to act as a facilitator, rather than a traditional lecturer.

This means that the teacher works with the learners to help them construct their own understanding of the material, rather than simply telling them what to learn.

The constructivist approach is based on the idea that knowledge is not something that preexists in the world, but is instead something that is created through our interactions with others.

As such, the teacher’s role is to facilitate collaborative learning experiences that help students construct their own knowledge.

Strategies to implement constructivism in the classroom

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how to best implement constructivism in the classroom. However, there are a number of strategies that can be employed to create a constructivist learning environment. Here are 14 such strategies:

1. Encourage students to ask questions and explore their curiosities. 

Constructivism is a learning approach in which learners are encouraged to explore their curiosities and ask questions in order to learn.

This strategy allows students to identify and understand the relationships between different pieces of information, as well as develop their own ideas.

By engaging in this process, students are able to develop a deeper understanding of the material they are studying.

In my classroom, I encourage my students to ask questions and explore their curiosities. This helps them to gain a better understanding of the material they are learning and makes it easier for them to retain information.

2. Help your students make connections between new concepts and prior knowledge.

One of the key tenets of constructivism is that all students are experts on their own topics and should be allowed to share their knowledge and ideas in a fluid, open-ended way.

This strategy is important when introducing new concepts, as it allows students to connect the new information with what they already know.

It also allows them to explore related concepts on their own and come up with creative solutions to problems.

For example, when discussing the concept of gravity, one student might say that it is strange that objects fall towards the ground.

Another student might point out that Earth’s gravity pulls objects towards its center. Together, these two students have created a connection between new information (the concept of gravity) and prior knowledge (their understanding of how objects behave).

This type of interaction is essential for building a strong foundation for learning new concepts.

By allowing your students to make connections between new information and prior knowledge, you are helping them build an understanding of the subject matter. This process will help them learn more quickly and retain information more efficiently.

3. Pose problems and challenges for students to solve collaboratively.

Challenge your students with problems and challenges, and help them solve them in collaboration with others. This is critical in a constructivist classroom.

By engaging in problem-solving, your students will build their understanding of the material while also developing critical thinking skills.

In addition to collaboratively solving problems, have your students share their insights and ideas with one another.

4. Encourage students to explain their thinking and reasoning aloud.

Constructivism is a philosophy of learning that encourages students to construct their own knowledge and understanding, as opposed to relying on preexisting information.

This philosophy can be applied in the classroom by encouraging students to explain their thinking and reasoning aloud as one of the strategies to apply.

By doing this, students are more likely to develop deeper understanding of the material they are studying and apply it in new and creative ways.

Also, by explaining their reasoning aloud, students can build relationships with classmates and teachers, which can further enhance their learning experience.

5. Use a variety of instructional methods and materials, including hands-on activities.

Constructivism is a theory that teaches that learning occurs through the construction of knowledge. This means that students are encouraged to use their own abilities and resources to explore, understand, and create new knowledge.

In order to implement constructivism in the classroom, you need to use a variety of instructional methods and materials. Some of these methods may include hands-on activities, group work, and interactive simulations.

By using a variety of techniques, you can help your students build their knowledge in a fun and engaging way.

6. Make sure that tasks and activities are appropriately challenging for each student.

Challenging tasks and activities are key to promoting creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving in a classroom setting.

By ensuring that tasks are appropriate for each student, you can help to foster a culture of learning that is based on collaborative exploration.

This type of environment will encourage your students to take ownership of their learning and become engaged in the process.

7. Provide opportunities for students to revise and reflect on their work.

One way to implement constructivism in the classroom is to provide opportunities for students to revise and reflect on their work. This allows them to engage with their learning and grow as thinkers.

It also allows you to track their progress and see how they are adapting their thinking as they learn. This helps you ensure that your teaching is helping them develop as thinkers.

8. Encourage metacognition by modeling your own thinking processes aloud.

Constructivism is a teaching philosophy that encourages students to construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

It is often implemented in classrooms by encouraging students to think for themselves and come up with their own solutions to problems.

By modeling your own thinking processes aloud, you can help encourage metacognition in your students. This will help them become more self-reliant and able to problem solve on their own.

9. Facilitate small-group discussions among students on a regular basis.

Small group discussions are a great way to help students learn and grow as thinkers. By facilitating these discussions on a regular basis, you can help students build their critical thinking skills.

This will allow them to better understand the material they are studying and develop a deeper understanding of it. Additionally, it will help them develop collaboration skills and work together as a team.

10. Help students learn how to give and receive constructive feedback from peers.

Constructivism is a model of learning that emphasizes the active construction of knowledge by children and adults. It is based on the idea that learners construct their own understanding of the world, and that they are actively involved in their own learning.

One way to implement constructivism in your classroom is to have students give and receive constructive feedback from their peers. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as having students take turns giving feedback to another student, or having students share feedback about a task together before completing it.

By providing students with constructive feedback, you can help them learn how to better understand and use information from their peers. This will help them build stronger relationships and skills in critical thinking and problem-solving.

11. Encourage students to reflect on their learning regularly.

One of the most important ways to implement constructivism in your classroom is to encourage students to reflect on their learning regularly.

This can help you identify what works well for them and helps them become more proactive in their learning.

By reflecting on their learning, students are able to make connections between what they have learned and how it can be applied in real-world situations. Additionally, it allows you to give feedback that is specific, relevant, and helpful.

12. Use assessments as opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways.

Assessments are one way to help teachers implement constructivism in the classroom. In many cases, assessments can be used as opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways.

This can help you identify areas where students need more assistance and help them to become more proficient thinkers.

Additionally, it can also help you to see how well your curriculum is addressing the concepts that are important for constructivist learning.

13. Help students see mistakes as learning.

As a teacher, it is important to help your students see mistakes as learning opportunities.

Constructivism is a philosophy that believes that students can learn most effectively by building their own knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.

By implementing constructivism into your classroom, you are helping your students to see mistakes as an opportunity to learn. This helps them to be more efficient learners and better problem solvers.

14. Encourage students to use creativity in their learning.

One of the primary tenets of constructivism is creativity. By encouraging students to use their creativity, you are helping them to learn in a more effective way.

This can help them to problem solve and think outside of the box. Additionally, it can help them to be more innovative thinkers.

For example, if you are teaching math, encouraging your students to use creativity could mean having them create their own mathematical problems.

Main Strengths of Constructivism Learning Theory

Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the role of the learner in the learning process. Constructivism views learning as a journey that is created and shaped by the learner’s prior experiences, knowledge, and beliefs. Constructivism is an approach to learning that has been shown to be effective for learners of all ages. The five main strengths of constructivism are:

1) Learners are actively involved in the learning process and are able to construct their own knowledge.

2) Constructivism views learning as a journey, which allows learners to explore and discover new ideas and concepts at their own pace.

3) Constructivism emphasizes the role of prior experiences, knowledge, and beliefs in the learning process, which helps learners to make connections between new and old information.

4) The constructivist approach has been shown to be effective for learners of all ages.

5) Constructivism views learning as an ongoing journey, which allows learners to continue to learn and grow throughout their lives.

5 Criticisms of the Constructivism Learning Theory

1. Critics of Constructivism argue that the theory is overly reliant on the idea of constructivist learners and that it ignores or even rejects important aspects of traditional education such as learning objectives, content knowledge, and disciplinary traditions.

2. Another criticism is that Constructivism does not offer a clear framework for how to measure student learning, making it difficult to determine if students are actually learning anything.

3. Some argue that the theory does not provide enough opportunities for students to experiment and try new things, which can lead to boredom and decreased motivation.

4. Finally, some critics believe that Constructivism is too abstract and doesn’t offer students enough opportunities to apply their knowledge in real world settings.

Despite these criticisms, Constructivism remains an important theory in the field of education. Its focus on learner-centeredness, constructivist learning, and feedback provides educators with a unique perspective on how students learn and helps them to better understand the individualized needs of their pupils.

Constructivism has been criticized for a number of reasons. Some believe that the theory does not adequately address the role of the learner in the learning process. Others argue that constructivism overemphasizes the role of the learning environment in helping students learn. Additionally, some critics believe that constructivism does not provide enough guidance for teachers on how to effectively implement constructivist principles in the classroom.

Constructivism has been criticized for a number of reasons. Some say that it is too learner-centered and does not take into account the role of the teacher in the learning process. Others argue that constructivism does not adequately address the issue of how students learn best. Additionally, some critics claim that constructivism does not help students learn content as effectively as other instructional approaches.

In conclusion, constructivism is a powerful tool that can be used in the classroom to promote student learning. When implemented correctly, constructivism can help students to develop critical thinking skills and to learn independently. However, it is important to note that constructivism is not a panacea; it is only one of many effective instructional approaches. As such, teachers should select the instructional approach that best meets the needs of their students and the objectives of the course.

About the author

Latest posts

Enhancing classroom communication with visual aids.

As a teacher, I’ve noticed that students often lose interest quickly. However, when I use visual aids in my lessons, the classroom becomes much more engaging. I want to share with you 15 effective ways that visual aids have made learning more exciting. These tools, which include interactive whiteboards and detailed mind maps, do more…

Boosting Student Participation: 13 Communication Tips for Success

As an educator, my goal is to find effective ways to increase student participation in the classroom. It’s important to understand that communication plays a crucial role in engaging students. In this article, I will share 13 communication tips that have proven to be successful in creating a positive classroom environment and fostering open dialogue…

Why Is Empathy Essential for Effective Classroom Communication?

Empathy is really important when we talk with our students. When we understand how they feel, it helps remove barriers and makes learning easier. Empathy builds trust, makes the classroom a supportive place, and gets students truly involved. When we pay attention to each student’s specific situation and treat them with respect, we’re doing more…

• Free Samples
• Premium Essays
• Editing Services Editing Proofreading Rewriting
• Extra Tools Essay Topic Generator Thesis Generator Citation Generator GPA Calculator Study Guides Donate Paper
• Essay Writing Help
• About Us About Us Testimonials FAQ
• Studentshare
• Constructivism in the Classroom

Constructivism in the Classroom - Essay Example

• Subject: Education
• Type: Essay
• Level: College
• Pages: 7 (1750 words)
• Downloads: 3
• Author: nmosciski

Extract of sample "Constructivism in the Classroom"

• anchoring script for teachers day
• descriptive essay on my classroom
• Cited: 1 times
• Copy Citation Citation is copied Copy Citation Citation is copied Copy Citation Citation is copied

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Constructivism in the Classroom

Constructivism and instructivism in teaching and learning, associationist and social constructivist theories and their implications in the classroom, the history of literacy instruction in spanish and in english, coming to terms with constructivism in the classroom, knowledge area module as a working theory of constructivism, constructivism and social constructivism, teaching and learning of constructivist, early childhood education: theory of constructivism.

• TERMS & CONDITIONS
• PRIVACY POLICY
• COOKIES POLICY

Sample details

• Words: 1061
• Views: 1,842

Related Topics

• Free education
• Female education
• Study skills
• Character education
• Critical Thinking
• Importance of Education
• Physical Education
• Multicultural education
• Higher Education
• Philosophy of Education
• Brown V Board of Education
• Technology in Education
• Right to education
• Educational Goals

Constructivism in the Classroom

The roots of constructivism could be traced from the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and education. The fundamental idea of constructivism lies in its understanding of human learning. According to the constructivist view, human learning is constructed. Using the foundation of their previous learning, learners build new knowledge. It is sharply contrasted with the notion that learning is just a passive transmission of information from one individual to another (Hoover, 1996). Knowledge is not a stimulus-response phenomenon. Rather, it requires “self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through reflection and abstraction” (Von Glasersfeld, 1995 cited in Murphy, 1997). Knowledge is acquired by building it from the innate capabilities of an individual and interacting with the environment (Houston, 1995, p. 64, cited in ncrel.org).  Constructed knowledge revolves around two important theories. First, “learners construct new understandings using what they already know” (Hoover, 1996).

Learners are placed in learning situations carrying with them prior knowledge from their previous experiences, which influences the new or modified knowledge to be constructed as they learn new things. There is no tabula rasa or empty vessel where new knowledge could be etched upon Hoover, 1996). Second, learning is an active process. As they encounter new learning situations, learners relate their understanding of the new knowledge with what they know. At times when the learners encounter new knowledge that is inconsistent with their current understanding, they could modify their previous understanding to accommodate the new knowledge. Throughout the learning process, the learners remain active. They use what they have learned so far and take note of relevant elements in new learning experiences. Then, they assess the consistency of prior and emerging knowledge, and modify knowledge based on their assessment (Hoover, 1996).

ready to help you now

Without paying upfront

How to translate constructivism into classroom practices is a challenge to all educators. This could be difficult since they need to “build a hypothetical model of the conceptual worlds of students” the nature of which could be very different from what the educators intended (Von Glasersfeld, 1996 cited in Murphy, 1997). To apply constructivism in the classroom, a number of constructivist teaching models and principles were devised. The following is a constructivist teaching model provided by Wilson and Cole (1991, pp.59-61, cited in Murphy, 1997): (1) embed learning in a rich authentic problem-solving environment; (2) provide for authentic versus academic contexts for learning; (3) provide for learner control; and (4) use errors as a mechanism to provide feedback on learners’ understanding. In addition, Honebein (1996, cited in Murphy, 1997) adds that a constructivist learning environment should set learning in social experience and provide activities that would enable students to appreciate multiple perspectives. In thirteen.org (2004), several ways on how to apply constructivism in the classroom are listed. One is to pose problems that are or will be relevant to the students by using examples that directly affect their personal lives. Another way is to structure learning around essential concepts by encouraging students to understand the whole concept by it into parts. The instructor can also apply a subject to various subjects when it emerges across various content areas.

The instructor should also facilitate an open-ended, nonjudgmental discussion so that students would not be threatened to speak up. Modifying the curriculum to address the suppositions and development of the students and development is also important by using a format that would engage students to the lesson. Finally, student learning in the context of teaching should be assessed to determine how much and what kind of help a student needs to be successful. Instead of assessing whether the student knows the material, an authentic assessment should ask the student what he or she knows.

While it seems that a constructivist approach to teaching could be an effective teaching strategy, applying it in real life poses a number of challenges. Constructivism promotes the idea of student autonomy and learner-driven inquiry which are not easily accepted by school boards, principals, parents, and even teachers. There are people who still retain a traditional view of classroom where “teachers transmit information to students while they sit in straight rows reading, working on worksheets, or listening to the teacher” (Haney, 2003).

Hence, it is becoming increasingly important to establish positive school community relationships to promote the advantages of constructivism. However, a teacher who is inspired to adapt a constructivist instruction could incorporate constructivism into the curriculum by starting with little changes. For starters, the teacher could try one or two constructivist explorations first in the regular curriculum. A good way to initiate the change is to listen to the students discussing ideas together, shifting the balance of responsibility to the student. Using primary sources and raw data instead of relying solely on the required text is another step towards a constructivist learning environment (Brooks ; Brooks, 1993 cited in Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1995).

The change in the demographics of the classroom is another concern that a teacher has to consider in using a constructivist teaching approach. In the United States, demographic changes in the school-age population resulted in greater cultural and linguistic diversity in the school (Mora, 2001). In a study conducted by McCarty et al (1991 cited in Marlowe, 1999), a pilot curriculum was introduced that emphasized open-ended questioning, collaborative group work, student-directed learning, and the use of cultural and linguistic resources to solve new problems. Results of the study show that the new curriculum enhanced student engagement, content mastery, and analytic reasoning in Navajo youth. This shows that accommodating cultural diversity in the classroom is attainable.

Haney, J. (2003). Constructivist beliefs about the science classroom learning environment:

perspectives from teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and students. School, Science, and Mathematics. Retrieved, October 11, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3667/is_200312/ai_n9316314/print

Hoover, W. (1996). The practical implications of constructivism. SEDLetter, 9, 6. Retrieved,

October 11, 2007 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v09n03/practice.html

Mora, J.K. (2001). Responding to the demographic challenge: an internet classroom for

teachers of language-minority students. Reading Online, 4(5). Retrieved, October 11, 2007 from http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic

/mora/index.html

Marlowe, B. (1999). Making the most of the classroom mosaic: a constructivist perspective.

Multicultural Education, Summer 1999.

Murphy, E. (1997). Constructivist learning theory. Retrieved, October 11, 2007 from

http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/%7Eelmurphy/emurphy/cle2b.html

Sedl.org. (1994). Constructing knowledge in the classroom. Retrieved, October 11, 2007

from http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v01n03/1.html

Thirteen.org. (2004). How do I apply constructivism in my classroom? Retrieved, October 11,

2007 from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

exploration.html

Cite this page

https://graduateway.com/constructivism-in-the-classroom/

You can get a custom paper by one of our expert writers

• Special education
• Writing Experience
• Intellectual property
• Educational inequality
• College Education
• Purpose of Education
• Online Education Vs Tradi...
• Health education
• Standardized Testing

Check more samples on your topics

Article review: building an understanding of constructivism.

Understanding

Constructivism is a theory; it is a supposition in which learning is observed and studied scientifically.  This theory states that people make and formulate their personal perception and awareness of the world.  This can be achieved through experience and the subsequent reflection on these experiences (EBC, 2004).  The knowledge founded therein possibly will “not be

Understanding of Constructivism Theory

Constructivism             Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences. Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in development of cognition. To him, the experiences in social interactions of the child in the community are what the child uses in making meaning (Jaramillo, 1996). In

Constructivism and Realism

Quiz#4 Both Constructivism and Realism remained to be relevant in the discussion of the interests US government has on South Africa who was by 1948 to 1994 remained to be under Apartheid government. But the real question would be which of these two schools of thought would provide better picture of the situation in terms of

Classroom routines

Guided Reflection Protocol Form 1.      Observation and Description a.       Describe the observed classroom routines. Different classroom routines observed in the video are the following: proper arrangement of a student’s desk, freedom to use classroom facilities, presence of attendance graph which will be updated every school day, practical sign-out area, and freedom to use classroom materials with certain limitations. b.     

Using Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom

Abstract Owing to the importance of intrinsic motivation to the life of an individual, it is of interest particularly to educational psychologists; hence it’s the major concern of this research paper. The paper gives a brief introduction on the concept of motivation, motives, theories that describe the principle of motivation, types and classification of motives, types

Deped Sees Solution to Classroom Shortage

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) is confident that it will be able to ease classroom shortage and other gaps in basic education in the next two years with continued support from various education stakeholders. During the formal turnover of the proceeds from the Jollibee's Build- A-Classroom project, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said

Classroom observation report

Observation

There really is no better place to see what kind of role technology plays in a college student's life than in the classroom itself. For my observation assignment, decided to observe a classroom on campus of The Ohio State University. I was TABLE to spend two hours observing this classroom, during which time was TABLE

Celta Assignment: Lessons from the classroom

What I have learnt from the observation of my peers and the experienced teachers about effective teaching. From observing my peers and experienced teachers, I have seen that effective teaching can be delivered in different ways yet still has certain key aspects. Perhaps the most important aspect of effective teaching is good planning. If it

A Busy Classroom of Second Graders

Christianity

I will be teaching this lesson to a group of second graders at my church. Are classroom is on the upstairs level and, I will also be utilizing the outside area that is directly behind of my church. There are about thirty second graders in my classroom. So, it is a really busy class. But,

Hi, my name is Amy 👋

In case you can't find a relevant example, our professional writers are ready to help you write a unique paper. Just talk to our smart assistant Amy and she'll connect you with the best match.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Constructivism in the ESL Writing Classroom: A Case for Collaborative Essay Writing

"This paper reports a case study on how movies and collaborative writing influence ESL writing classroom. The Constructivist theory emphasizes that learning environment can be effective when it emphasizes the use of authentic tasks in a meaningful context (Jonassen, 1999). Instead of learning academic writing from textbook context which students may neither be familiar with nor find them interesting, movies help bring fun into the academic writing classroom. Using movies also helps make learning authentic as students learn from something they are familiar with. Furthermore, learners need to form mental images when they learn in the classroom and movies can help to do that. In addition to that, Mulligan & Garofalo (2011) found that collaborative writing enhances students’ writing and lowers anxiety associated with completing the task alone. This study involves students using the contents of a movie to write academic essays using collaborative approach. Findings of this research will reveal interesting implication in the teaching of writing. "

Related Papers

Dr Yong Mei Fung

NIK IZYANI NIK NORDIN

Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and …

Mei Fung Yong

Teachers' Perceptions on Collaborative Activity in ESL Writing Class Yong Mei Fung* and Tan Bee Hoon Department of English Language, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia * E-mail: yong@ ...

euis meinawati

Revista Científica del Amazonas

Henry Alberto Álvarez Guayara

Writing is a way to express and communicate ideas and thoughts. However, during class, students present different challenges and difficulties to convey their ideas using the vocabulary learnt in the English class. The current paper describes an action research process aimed at exploring the contributions that videos with sociocultural content have for the improvement of the writing skill in English among 10th graders at Institución Educativa Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in Florencia-Caquetá, Colombia. This research was developed in four interventions in which surveys and researchers’ field notes were the instruments used to collect data. The findings of this research demonstrated the impact and benefits of the use of videos to improve students’ writing skill. Additionally, along with the interventions it was possible to evidence students’ motivation because they participated, corrected, and improved the written paragraphs together.

LANGUAGE TEACHER

Russ Garofalo

Language Teaching Research

izaskun villarreal

Collaborative writing (CW) has been proven advantageous to enhance the second and foreign language skills of university students. However, little research to date has explored whether CW practices are fruitful for secondary school learners in foreign language (FL) contexts, a population characterized by low language proficiency levels, and few opportunities to engage with the FL. The present classroom-based study examines CW in this setting and aims to determine whether CW fosters language opportunities, operationalized as language-related episodes (LREs), which will allow learners in low-input scenarios to compose better texts. Two parallel intact classes were studied: a control group ( n = 16) which produced an argumentative essay individually, and an experimental group ( n = 16) which did so in pairs while recording their interactions. The findings revealed that the pairs produced shorter but more accurate and slightly more lexically and grammatically complex texts and obtained h...

sandhya rao mehta

The Journal of Language Teaching and Learning (JLTL)

RELATED PAPERS

Fitria Ramadhani

Endocrinology

Laura Burger

EPJ Web of Conferences

David Donovan

The Journal of physiology

Dewan Majid

Brian D Linkhart

Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Computer Aided Geometric Design

sayed mustafa badr

Romain Telliez

Radiation Oncology

Afshin Hatami

Journal of Medical Virology

PRODUSEN RAK BUNGA ALUMINIUM

Estudios Gerenciales

Jhon Edinson Cuero Rodriguez

Alexandre Victor

Nigerian Journal of Surgery

adewale adisa

Cornelia Seigneur

Muhammad Iqbal

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo

Moradeyo Odunfa

Sofia Rossi

Nonlinear Engineering

Le Thi Nhu Trang

Pest management science

jesus barboza

arXiv (Cornell University)

Theodoros PAPANIKOLAOU

R. Bryan Simon

Norma Padilla

Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions

Tony De Jesus

Elsevier eBooks

Amitava Dutt

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Share full article

Advertisement

Subscriber-only Newsletter

Jessica Grose

Get tech out of the classroom before it’s too late.

By Jessica Grose

Opinion Writer

Jaime Lewis noticed that her eighth-grade son’s grades were slipping several months ago. She suspected it was because he was watching YouTube during class on his school-issued laptop, and her suspicions were validated. “I heard this from two of his teachers and confirmed with my son: Yes, he watches YouTube during class, and no, he doesn’t think he can stop. In fact, he opted out of retaking a math test he’d failed, just so he could watch YouTube,” she said.

She decided to do something about it. Lewis told me that she got together with other parents who were concerned about the unfettered use of school-sanctioned technology in San Luis Coastal Unified School District, their district in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Because they knew that it wasn’t realistic to ask for the removal of the laptops entirely, they went for what they saw as an achievable win: blocking YouTube from students’ devices. A few weeks ago, they had a meeting with the district superintendent and several other administrators, including the tech director.

To bolster their case, Lewis and her allies put together a video compilation of clips that elementary and middle school children had gotten past the district’s content filters.

Their video opens on images of nooses being fitted around the necks of the terrified women in the TV adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It ends with the notoriously violent “Singin’ in the Rain” sequence from “A Clockwork Orange.” (Several versions of this scene are available on YouTube. The one she pointed me to included “rape scene” in the title.) Their video was part of a PowerPoint presentation filled with statements from other parents and school staff members, including one from a middle school assistant principal, who said, “I don’t know how often teachers are using YouTube in their curriculum.”

That acknowledgment gets to the heart of the problem with screens in schools. I heard from many parents who said that even when they asked district leaders how much time kids were spending on their screens, they couldn’t get straight answers; no one seemed to know, and no one seemed to be keeping track.

Eric Prater, the superintendent of the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, told me that he didn’t realize how much was getting through the schools’ content filters until Lewis and her fellow parents raised concerns. “Our tech department, as I found out from the meeting, spends quite a lot of time blocking certain websites,” he said. “It’s a quite time-consuming situation that I personally was not aware of.” He added that he’s grateful this was brought to his attention.

I don’t think educators are the bad guys here. Neither does Lewis. In general, educators want the best for students. The bad guys, as I see it, are tech companies.

One way or another, we’ve allowed Big Tech’s tentacles into absolutely every aspect of our children’s education, with very little oversight and no real proof that their devices or programs improve educational outcomes. Last year Collin Binkley at The Associated Press analyzed public records and found that “many of the largest school systems spent tens of millions of dollars in pandemic money on software and services from tech companies, including licenses for apps, games and tutoring websites.” However, he continued, schools “have little or no evidence the programs helped students.”

It’s not just waste, very likely, of taxpayer money that’s at issue. After reading many of the over 900 responses from parents and educators to my questionnaire about tech in schools and from the many conversations I had over the past few weeks with readers, I’m convinced that the downsides of tech in schools far outweigh the benefits.

Though tech’s incursion into America’s public schools — particularly our overreliance on devices — hyperaccelerated in 2020, it started well before the Covid-19 pandemic. Google, which provides the operating system for lower-cost Chromebooks and is owned by the same parent company as YouTube, is a big player in the school laptop space, though I also heard from many parents and teachers whose schools supply students with other types and brands of devices.

As my newsroom colleague Natasha Singer reported in 2017 (by which point “half the nation’s primary- and secondary-school students” were, according to Google, using its education apps), “Google makes $30 per device by selling management services for the millions of Chromebooks that ship to schools. But by habituating students to its offerings at a young age, Google obtains something much more valuable”: potential lifetime customers.

The issue goes beyond access to age-inappropriate clips or general distraction during school hours. Several parents related stories of even kindergartners reading almost exclusively on iPads because their school districts had phased out hard-copy books and writing materials after shifting to digital-only curriculums. There’s evidence that this is harmful: A 2019 analysis of the literature concluded that “readers may be more efficient and aware of their performance when reading from paper compared to screens.”

“It seems to be a constant battle between fighting for the students’ active attention (because their brains are now hard-wired for the instant gratification of TikTok and YouTube videos) and making sure they aren’t going to sites outside of the dozens they should be,” Nicole Post, who teaches at a public elementary school in Missouri, wrote to me. “It took months for students to listen to me tell a story or engage in a read-aloud. I’m distressed at the level of technology we’ve socialized them to believe is normal. I would give anything for a math or social studies textbook.”

I’ve heard about kids disregarding teachers who tried to limit tech use, fine motor skills atrophying because students rarely used pencils and children whose learning was ultimately stymied by the tech that initially helped them — for example, students learning English as a second language becoming too reliant on translation apps rather than becoming fluent.

Some teachers said they have programs that block certain sites and games, but those programs can be cumbersome. Some said they have software, like GoGuardian, that allows them to see the screens of all the students in their classes at once. But classroom time is zero sum: Teachers are either teaching or acting like prison wardens; they can’t do both at the same time.

Resources are finite. Software costs money . Replacing defunct or outdated laptops costs money . When it comes to I.T., many schools are understaffed . More of the money being spent on tech and the maintenance and training around the use of that tech could be spent on other things, like actual books. And badly monitored and used tech has the most potential for harm.

I’ve considered the counterarguments: Kids who’d be distracted by tech would find something else to distract them; K-12 students need to gain familiarity with tech to instill some vague work force readiness.

But on the first point, I think other forms of distraction — like talking to friends, doodling and daydreaming — are better than playing video games or watching YouTube because they at least involve children engaging with other children or their own minds. And there’s research that suggests laptops are uniquely distracting . One 2013 study found that even being next to a student who is multitasking on a computer can hurt a student’s test scores.

On the second point, you can have designated classes to teach children how to keyboard, code or use software that don’t require them to have laptops in their hands throughout the school day. And considering that various tech companies are developing artificial intelligence that, we’re meant to understand, will upend work as we know it , whatever tech skills we’re currently teaching will probably be obsolete by the time students enter the work force anyway. By then, it’ll be too late to claw back the brain space of our nation’s children that we’ve already ceded. And for what? So today’s grade schoolers can be really, really good at making PowerPoint presentations like the ones they might one day make as white-collar adults?

That’s the part that I can’t shake: We’ve let tech companies and their products set the terms of the argument about what education should be, and too many people, myself included, didn’t initially realize it. Companies never had to prove that devices or software, broadly speaking, helped students learn before those devices had wormed their way into America’s public schools. And now the onus is on parents to marshal arguments about the detriments of tech in schools.

Holly Coleman, a parent of two who lives in Kansas and is a substitute teacher in her district, describes what students are losing:

They can type quickly but struggle to write legibly. They can find info about any topic on the internet but can’t discuss that topic using recall, creativity or critical thinking. They can make a beautiful PowerPoint or Keynote in 20 minutes but can’t write a three-page paper or hand-make a poster board. Their textbooks are all online, which is great for the seams on their backpack, but tangible pages under your fingers literally connect you to the material you’re reading and learning. These kids do not know how to move through their day without a device in their hand and under their fingertips. They never even get the chance to disconnect from their tech and reconnect with one another through eye contact and conversation.

Jonathan Haidt’s new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” prescribes phone-free schools as a way to remedy some of the challenges facing America’s children. I agree that there’s no place for smartphones on a K-12 campus. But if you take away the phones and the kids still have near-constant internet connectivity on devices they have with them in every class, the problem won’t go away.

When Covid hit and screens became the only way for millions of kids to “attend” school, not having a personal device became an equity issue. But we’re getting to a point where the opposite may be true. According to the responses to my questionnaire, during the remote-school era, private schools seemed to rely far less on screens than public schools, and many educators said that they deliberately chose lower-tech school environments for their own children — much the same way that some tech workers intentionally send their kids to screen-free schools.

We need to reframe the entire conversation around tech in schools because it’s far from clear that we’re getting the results we want as a society and because parents are in a defensive crouch, afraid to appear anti-progress or unwilling to prepare the next generation for the future. “I feel like a baby boomer attacking like this,” said Lewis.

But the drawbacks of constant screen time in schools go beyond data privacy, job security and whether a specific app increases math performance by a standard deviation. As Lewis put it, using tech in the classroom makes students “so passive, and it requires so little agency and initiative.” She added, “I’m very concerned about the species’ ability to survive and the ability to think critically and the importance of critical thinking outside of getting a job.”

If we don’t hit pause now and try to roll back some of the excesses, we’ll be doing our children — and society — a profound disservice.

The good news is that sometimes when the stakes become clear, educators respond: In May, Dr. Prater said, “we’re going to remove access to YouTube from our district devices for students.” He added that teachers will still be able to get access to YouTube if they want to show instructional videos. The district is also rethinking its phone policy to cut down on personal device use in the classroom. “For me,” he said, “it’s all about how do you find the common-sense approach, going forward, and match that up with good old-fashioned hands-on learning?” He knows technology can cause “a great deal of harm if we’re not careful.”

Jessica Grose is an Opinion writer for The Times, covering family, religion, education, culture and the way we live now.