Constructivism (Pedagogy)

The Constructivism is a current pedagogical created by Ernst von Glasersfeld , based on the theory of constructivism knowledge, which postulates the need to deliver to the alumnoherramientas (generate scaffoldings) that allow create their own procedures to resolve a problematic situation, which means that their ideas are modified and follow

Educational constructivism proposes a paradigm where the teaching process is perceived and carried out as a dynamic, participatory and interactive process of the subject, so that knowledge is an authentic construction operated by the person who learns (by the “subject knowing “). Constructivism in pedagogy is applied as a didactic concept in action-oriented teaching .

As key figures of constructivism, we can mention Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky . Piaget focuses on how knowledge is built starting from interaction with the environment. Rather, Vygotsky focuses on how the social environment enables internal reconstruction. Learning instruction arises from the applications of behavioral psychology, where behavioral mechanisms are specified to program the teaching of knowledge.

There is another constructivist theory (of cognitive and social learning) by Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel , two theorists of cognitive and social learning.

Summary

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• 1 Constructivism
• 2 Origins
• 3 Meaningful learning
  • 1 Fundamental ideas of the constructivist conception
  • 2 Design and planning of teaching
• 4 Philosophical conception of Constructivism
• 5 Social Conception
  • 1 Steps
• 6 Psychological Conception
• 7 Characteristics of a constructive teacher
• 8 Successive stages in the development of intelligence
• 9 Summary
• 10 Sources
• 11 Related Links
• 12 External links

Constructivism

Teachers are constantly mentioned the importance of establishing constructivist processes in our classrooms, with which we usually agree; However, they do not explain what constructivism is and, above all, how to implement it.

The first obstacle to face is that most of us learned under guidelines not very similar to this educational proposal: our teachers knew little about significant learning and the active participation of the student, except for some honorable exception that has always been.

To understand it better, we must ask a question that has concerned philosophers of all times, How is knowledge acquired?, To which constructivism, as a school of knowledge, responds by conceiving learning as a unique and personal process that occurs between the subject and the object to be known, and places the teacher as a facilitator of this process. From a psychological and philosophical position, he argues that the individual forms or builds a large part of what they learn and understand highlights the situation in the acquisition and improvement of skills and knowledge.

From the point of view of constructivism, the teacher does not teach in the traditional sense of standing in front of the class and imparting knowledge, but instead they go to materials with which students actively engage through manipulation and social interaction. A basic assumption of constructivism is that individuals are active participants and must rediscover basic processes. Exogenous constructivism emphasizes the strong influence from the outside in the construction of knowledge.

origins

Although its roots can be traced back to philosophers such as Giambattista Vico (“… la verità umana è ciò che l’uomo conosce by building it with le sue azioni, and forming it attraverso di esse”), psychologists George Nelly can be considered as initiators of constructivism in clinic (with his Psychology of Personal Constructs of 1955 ) and Jean Piaget , a Swiss psychologist who began to study human development in the twenties of the 20th century in developmental psychology (with his “genetic epistemology” that is, the study of the psychological origins of the theory of individual knowledge).

In addition to those mentioned, George Herbert Mead , Humberto Maturana , Ernst von Glassersfeld , Francisco Varela , Heinz von Foerster , Niklas Luhmann , Paul Watzlawick , Gregory Bateson , Lev Vygotski, Kurt Lewin can also be considered as fathers of constructivism .

Meaningful learning

Meaningful learning arises when the student, as a constructor of their own knowledge, relates the concepts to be learned and gives them a meaning from the conceptual structure that they already have. In other words, you build new knowledge from the knowledge you have previously acquired. This can be by discovery or receptive. But he also builds his own knowledge because he wants and is interested in it. Meaningful learning is sometimes built by relating new concepts to concepts you already have, and sometimes by relating new concepts to existing experience.

Meaningful learning occurs when the tasks are related in a congruent way and the subject decides to learn them.

Fundamental ideas of the constructivist conception

The constructivist conception of learning and teaching is organized around three fundamental ideas:

• The student is ultimately responsible for his own learning process. It is he who builds knowledge and no one can replace him in that task. The importance given to the student’s activity should not be interpreted in the sense of an act of discovery or invention but in the sense that it is he who learns and, if he does not do it, no one, not even the facilitator, can do it in its place. Teaching is totally mediated by the constructive mental activity of the student. The student is not only active when manipulating, exploring, discovering, or inventing, but also when reading or listening to the facilitator’s explanations.
• The constructive mental activity of the student is applied to contents that already have a considerable degree of elaboration, that is, it is the result of a certain process of construction at the social level.

Students construct or reconstruct objects of knowledge that are in fact constructed. Students build the written language system, but this system has already been developed; Students construct elementary arithmetic operations, but these operations are already defined; Students construct the concept of historical time, but this concept is part of the existing cultural baggage; Students construct the norms of social relationships, but these norms are the ones that normally regulate relationships between people.

• The fact that the student’s constructive activity is applied to pre-existing learning content conditions the role that the facilitator is called upon to play. Its role cannot be limited solely to creating optimal conditions for the student to display a rich and diverse constructive mental activity; The facilitator must also try to guide this activity so that the student’s construction progressively approaches what the contents mean and represent as cultural knowledge.

Teaching planning and design

In a constructivist perspective, the design and planning of teaching should pay attention simultaneously to four dimensions:

1. The contents of the teaching: It is suggested that an ideal learning environment should contemplate not only factual, conceptual and procedural of the field in question, but also the planning, control and learning strategies that characterize the knowledge of the experts in that field.
2. Teaching methods and strategies: The key idea that should govern their choice and articulation is to offer students the opportunity to acquire knowledge and to practice it in a context of use that is as realistic as possible.
3. The sequence of contents: In accordance with the principles derived from meaningful learning, it begins with the most general and simple elements to gradually introduce the most detailed and complex ones.
4. Social organization: Properly exploiting the positive effects that relationships between students can have on the construction of knowledge, especially cooperative and collaborative relationships.

Philosophical conception of Constructivism

Constructivism states that our world is a human world, the product of human interaction with natural and social stimuli that we have managed to process from our “mental operations ( Jean Piaget). This constructivist philosophical position implies that human knowledge is not received passively neither from the world nor from anyone, but is actively processed and constructed, in addition the cognitive function is at the service of life, it is an adaptive function, and therefore knowledge allows the person to organize their experiential and experiential world. Constructivist teaching considers that human learning is always an inner construction. For constructivism, objectivity in itself, separated from man, makes no sense, since all knowledge is an interpretation, a mental construction, from which it is impossible to isolate the researcher from what is being investigated. Learning is always an inner and subjective reconstruction. Getting to understand the problem of the construction of knowledge has been the object of philosophical concern since man began to reflect on himself. It is stated that what the human being is is essentially the product of their ability to acquire knowledge that has allowed them to anticipate, explain and control many things.

Social Conception

Vygotsky’s contribution has meant that learning is not seen as an individual activity, but rather a social one. Social interaction in learning should be valued. It has been proven that students learn more effectively when they do so cooperatively. Although teaching must also be individualized in the sense of allowing each student to work independently and at their own pace, it is necessary to promote collaboration and group work, since better relationships are established with others, they learn more, they feel more motivated , increase their self-esteem and learn more effective social skills.

Steps

In practice, this social conception of constructivism is applied in cooperative work, but it is necessary to be very clear about the following steps that allow the teacher to structure the cooperative Teaching-Learning process .

• Specify teaching objectives.
• Decide on group size
• Assign students to groups
• Prepare or condition the classroom
• Assign roles to ensure interdependence.
• Explain academic assignments.
• Structure the group goal of positive interdependence.
• Structure the individual assessment.
• Structure intergroup cooperation.
• Explain the criteria of success.
• Specify the desired behaviors.
• Monitor student behavior.
• Provide homework assistance.
• Intervene to teach in relation to homework.
• Provide a closure to the lesson.
• Evaluate the quality and quantity of student learning.
• Assess the functioning of the group.

Psychological Conception

Constructivism aims for the student to build their own learning, therefore, the teacher in his role as mediator must support the student to:

• Teach them to think: Develop in the student a set of cognitive skills that allow them to optimize their reasoning processes
• Teach them about thinking: Encourage students to become aware of their own mental processes and strategies (metacognition) in order to control and modify them (autonomy), improving performance and effectiveness in learning.
• Teach on the basis of thinking: It means incorporating learning objectives related to cognitive skills, within the school curriculum

Characteristics of a constructive teacher

• Accepts and promotes the autonomy and initiative of the student
• Use raw materials and primary sources in conjunction with physical, interactive and manipulable materials.
• Use cognitive terminology such as: Classify, analyze, predict, create, infer, deduce, estimate, elaborate, think.
• Research students’ understanding of concepts before sharing your own understanding of these concepts.
• Challenge inquiry by asking questions that need well thought-out answers, and challenge asking each other as well.

Successive stages in the development of intelligence

1. Stage of sensorimotor or practical intelligence, of elementary affective regulations and of the first external fixations of affectivity. This stage constitutes the infant’s period and lasts until the age of one and a half or two years; it is prior to the development of language and thought proper. 2. Stage of intuitive intelligence, spontaneous interindividual feelings and social relationships of submission to the adult. This stage ranges from two to seven years. In it the preoperative thought is born: the child can represent the movements without executing them; It is the time of symbolic play and egocentricity and, from the age of four, of intuitive thinking. 3. Stage of concrete intellectual operations, of the moral and social feelings of cooperation and the beginning of logic. This stage ranges from seven to eleven-twelve years. 4. Stage of abstract intellectual operations, of the formation of the personality and of the affective and intellectual insertion in the society of adults (adolescence).

Summary

Learning is this long journey of the objects of knowledge: from sensory and selective perception to assimilation processing according to personal interest and the accommodation of the new experience in accordance with what is already known. It is the incorporation process with which we are forming (building) our knowledge.

The personal characteristics of the subject definitely influence: each teacher knows that their students have different levels of intellectual development, different morals, critical thinking or acceptance of what they hear. Each one has a unique way of studying and the ability to reflect on himself and his environment, his own motivations and responsibility for studying, a willingness to learn and cooperate for the collective good. The art of being a facilitator lies in finding the formulas that help the group in general and each and everyone in particular to build their learning.