Social Constructivism

Social Constructivism

EDUC1049 – Blog Assignment

From my understanding developed through researching teaching pedagogies, Constructivism is a learning theory that involves learners creating knowledge through active interaction, and when extended within a social and culture context it forms Social Constructivism.


Central to the social constructivism pedagogy are social interaction and knowledge construction, often nurtured in group work scenarios. Typical of constructivism, interaction is encouraged over observation, and when complimented with a social environment, this promotes development of social skills in addition to content knowledge. In my view, both equally essential skills, and this is reflected in my admiration of Social Constructivism as a very appealing teaching pedagogy. Within a classroom context, social constructivism is facilitated most successfully through activities such as group discussions and group assignment tasks.
I found the reading in Chapter 2 of Howell’s text Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (Howell, 2012) regarding learning theories was quite brief, but provided a succinct summary of the fundamental pedagogies. She reinforced that Constructivism is grounded in the belief of students as the constructors of knowledge, not solely as vacuums of the teacher's knowledge. This was reflected in the quote "students generate knowledge and meaning from the interaction between their experiences and their ideas”. Howell continued on to detail Jean Piaget’s learning stages, which were less relevant to me, and secondary schooling.

 

Social Constructivism – Found on http://socialconstructionism.pbworks.com/w/page/17016216/Web%202-0%20and%20Constructivist%20Theory

I gained greater understanding of the various learning theories from reading Constructivism: Its Theoretical Underpinnings (Yilmaz, 2008). Similiar to Howell, the author Yilmaz, emphasized that the constructivism learning theory is formed off the concept that “knowledge is not discovered but constructed by individuals based on experiences”. I strongly agree with the extract “The constructivist perspective, there-fore, posits that knowledge is not passively received from the world or from authoritative sources but constructed by individuals or groups making sense of their experiential worlds”. From my personal experience, I find that this quote accurately depicts my own learning process, and compliments the notion of interaction over observation. 

Another noteworthy excerpt from the text was this summary of the constructivist principles: 

•      Learning is an active process.

•      Learning is an adaptive activity.

•      Learning is situated in the context in which it occurs.

•      Knowledge is not innate, passively absorbed, or invented but constructed by the learner.

•      All knowledge is personal and idiosyncratic.

•      All knowledge is socially constructed.

•      Learning is essentially a process of making sense of the world.

•      Experience and prior understanding play a role in learning.

•      Social interaction plays a role in learning.

•      Effective learning requires meaningful, open-ended, challenging problems for the learner to solve”.

 “Constructivism is a theory of learning, not a theory of teaching (Fosnot 1996; Richardson 2003). For this reason, although there is an enormous body of literature on constructivism, the elements of effective educational constructivist teaching are not known (Richardson 2003)”.

Through learning about education I have become increasingly accustomed to reading about contemporary pedagogies and learning theories in which “Teachers facilitate and guide rather than dictate autocratically”. Which I personally believe is a positive step from traditional didactic approaches wherein the teacher is a vessel of knowledge that students were merely extracting knowledge from. As most predominately with Constructivism but also recognized in a number of other teaching theories, I believe student-centred learning, knowledge construction and interaction are essential aspects of optimal learning.

References:

Fosnot, C. T. 1996. “Constructivism: A Psychological Theory of Learning”. In Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives and Practice, ed. C. T. Fosnot, 8–33. New York: Teachers College Press

Richardson, V. (2003). “Constructivist Pedagogy”. Teachers College Record 105 (9): 1623–1640

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yilmaz, K. (2008). Constructivism: Its Theoretical Underpinnings, Variations, and Implications for Classroom Instruction. Educational Horizons, 86(3), 161-172.