Constructivism

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Constructivism

• EDU 330 Educational Psychology
• Daniel Moos

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Constructivism Introduction (I)
Which way is the bus below traveling? To the left
or to the right? Please do not share your answer
with anyone yet
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Constructivism Introduction (II)
ES students all over the United States were shown
this picture and asked the same question. 90
of the students gave this answer "The bus is
traveling to the left." ??
When asked, "Why do you think the bus is
traveling to the left?" ??They answered
?"Because you can't see the door to get on the
bus."
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Constructivism Introduction (III)
A father was listening to his oldest daughters
choir performance, during which they were singing
America the Beautiful. After hearing the line,
O beautiful for spacious skies, the fathers
youngest son asked, Why are they singing about
spaceship skies? "The law of gravity says no
fair jumping up without coming back down." "How
will that help?" -- Kindergarten student, when
the class was instructed to hold up two fingers
if any of them had to go to the bathroom. One
day the first grade teacher was reading the story
of Chicken Little to her class. She came to the
part of the story where Chicken Little tried to
warn the farmer. She read, '..... and so Chicken
Little went up to the farmer and said, 'The sky
is falling, the sky is falling!' The teacher
paused then asked the class, 'And what do you
think that farmer said?' One little girl raised
her hand and said, 'I think he said fill in
the blank! A talking chicken!'' The teacher was
unable to teach for the next 10 minutes.
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Meaningful Learning Within aConstructivist
Framework

• Jerome Bruner and Discovery Learning An Early
  Constructivist Perspective
• ? Too much school learning emphasizes rote
  learning that cannot be applied outside the
  classroom
• ? Children should be helped to discover how
  ideas relate to each other and to existing
  knowledge, and how to solve problems

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Constructivism Assumptions, four facets (I)

• How do children construct knowledge?

• Learners construct knowledge that makes sense to
  them.

• New learning depends on current understanding.

• Social interaction facilitates learning.

• The most meaningful learning takes place in
  real-world tasks.

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Constructivism Today

• Two Variations on a Constructivist Theme
• ? Cognitive Constructivism (Piaget)
• Emphasizes the development of meaningful
  learning by focusing on the cognitive processes
  that take place within individuals
• ? Social Constructivism (Vygotsky)
• Emphasizes the development of meaningful
  learning by focusing on culture and social
  interactions

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Constructivism Application to the classroom

• Provide learners with a varietyof examples and
  representations of content.

• Connect content to the real world.

• Treat verbal explanations skeptically.

• Promote high levels of interaction.

• Make assessment an integral part of the
  teaching-learning process.

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Constructivism Limitations

• As with any theory, there are some limitations
  you should be aware of...
• Time consuming!
• Are all forms of understanding equally good?
• What of the reality independent of individual
  understanding?
• Provides theoretical explanation of individual
  differences but, does it adequately provide
  explanation of how to address these differences?
• Does not address (or adequately) describe all
  aspects of learning behaviorism,
  information-processing, and social cognitive
  theory have their place in educational psychology
  as well!

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Constructivism Reflections

1. Tim, a 4th grader, concludes that we are closer
   to the sun in the summer than we are in the
   winter. When asked to explain why he thinks so,
   he says, When I stand close to the fireplace, I
   feel warm, and when I stand far away, I feel
   cooler. Which characteristics of constructivism
   are illustrated by Tims thinking? Explain.
2. Which of the following least illustrates a
   learning activity based on constructivist views
   of learning? Describe what could be done to
   better apply constructivist principles of
   instruction.
3. Geography students use longitude and latitude to
   describe how to tell a friend a remote camping
   location in the mountains
4. Math students look at manufacturing costs and the
   prices marked on a series of soap products to
   determine the percentage of profits
5. Science students explain why a can of pork and
   beans explode if a hole is not poked in the can
   when placed in a campfire
6. Language arts students rewrite a series of
   sentences, each of which contains grammatical
   errors

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Problem Solving Warm-up Activity
Problem There are three hobbits (H), three orcs
(O), and one boat (b) on the side of the
river Starting Point HHH OOO b
-------------------------
------------------------- Goal To get all
three hobbits and all three orcs across the
river. Ending Point ------------------------
-------------------------
HHH OOO b Rules (1) The orcs and
hobbits must travel by boat to the other side of
the river (2) The boat cannot hold more than
two (3) The orcs cannot outnumber the hobbits at
any point (either in the boat or on land)
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The Nature of Problem Solving

• Two Common Types of Problems
• ? Well-structured problems
• X3 9
• Clearly formulated, solved by specific
  procedure, solution evaluated against
  agreed-upon standard
• ? Ill-structured problems
• How can we maximize water resources in St.
  Peter?
• Complex, few clues to solution procedures,
  less- definite criteria for measuring solution
• Which type of problem do you think schools tend
  to emphasize?

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The Nature of Problem Solving

• Helping Students Become Good Problem Solvers
• ? Realize That a Problem Exists
• ? Understand the Nature of the Problem
• ? Compile Relevant Information
• ? Formulate and Carry Out a Solution
• ? Evaluate the Solution

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Helping StudentsBecome Good Problem Solvers

• Step 1 Realize That a Problem Exists
• ? Often called problem finding
• ? Depends on curiosity and dissatisfaction with
  current knowledge state (mmmrings of Piaget)
• ? Particularly useful when working with
  ill- structured problems
• Developmental issues Metacognition
• Implication Developmental, motivation, and
  nature of problem issues should guide scaffolding
  

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Helping Students BecomeGood Problem Solvers

• Step 2 Understand the Nature of the Problem
• ? Often called problem representation or problem
  framing
• ? Requires high level of knowledge of subject
  matter and familiarity with that type of problem
• Developmental issue? Prior domain knowledge
• Implications Increased scaffolding with new
  content

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Helping Students BecomeGood Problem Solvers

• Step 3 Compile Relevant Information
• ? For well-structured problems, recall relevant
  information from long term memory
• X 3 9
• ? For ill-structured problems, seek external
  sources of information
• How can we maximize water resources in St.
  Peter?

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Helping Students BecomeGood Problem Solvers

• Step 4 Formulate and Carry Out a Solution
• ? Study worked-out examples explain how and why
  a strategy is used
• ? Work on a simpler version of the problem
• ? Break the problem into parts, particularly
  when first introducing new/complex problem
• ? Ask students to explain what they are doing
  (Vygotsky would proud)
• ? Solve an analogous problem
• ------Heuristics General solution
  strategy--------

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Helping Students BecomeGood Problem Solvers

• Step 5 Evaluate the Solution
• Remember the lady from Are you smarter than a
  5th grader

Problem 1 A man has seven times as many quarters
as he has dimes. The value of dimes exceeds the
value of quarters by 2.50. How many quarters does
he have and how many dimes?
How much are quarters worth? How much are dimes
worth?
The man has more quarters than dimes
Can the value of dimes be greater than quarters
if he has more quarters?
Problem 2 How many 40-person buses are needed to
transport 540 GAC students to the Twins baseball
game?
Problem 2 The majority of MS students responded
with 13 and ½ buses.does that make sense?
(translating abstract to concrete)