In this section we provide an overview of the theory of Contructivism; highlight the influence of a Constructivist approach in Adult Online Education, as well as on Project Based Learning; and conclude with a look at some criticism of Constructivism.
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Constructivism
Constructivism is a theory that can be accredited to many researchers, the most notable being Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner. As a theory, constructivism is founded on observation about how people learn (Brandon & All, 2010). True to its name, constructivism is grounded in the idea that “learning should be an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current or past knowledge” (Brandon & All, 2010, p. 90). Constructivism has ties to both social and cognitive psychology subsets, separately named social constructivism and cognitive constructivism. Despite having ties in both of these fields of psychology, advocates of constructivism agree that it is the “individuals processing of stimuli from the environment and the resulting cognitive structures that produces adapted behaviour” (Brandon & All, 2010, p. 90).
Constructivism is an individual matter in that “each of us will build an idiosyncratic version of reality based partly on identical experiences but shaped by individual experience and, importantly, upon an individual’s prior knowledge, understanding and experience” (Pritchard & Woollard, 2010, p. 5). Each individual will construct different knowledge and different learning outcomes based on their past experiences and knowledge.
Tam (2000) lists the following four basic characteristics of constructivist learning environments:
Honebein (1996), summarizes what he describes as the seven pedagogical goals of constructivist learning environments:
Constructivism is an individual matter in that “each of us will build an idiosyncratic version of reality based partly on identical experiences but shaped by individual experience and, importantly, upon an individual’s prior knowledge, understanding and experience” (Pritchard & Woollard, 2010, p. 5). Each individual will construct different knowledge and different learning outcomes based on their past experiences and knowledge.
Tam (2000) lists the following four basic characteristics of constructivist learning environments:
- Knowledge will be shared between teachers and students
- Teachers and students will share authority
- The teacher’s role is to act as a facilitator or guide
- Learning groups will be composed of a small number of heterogenous students (p. 52)
Honebein (1996), summarizes what he describes as 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 opportunities)
- To embed learning in social experience (collaboration)
- To encourage the use of multiple modes of representation (video, audio, text)
- To encourage awareness of the knowledge construction process (reflection, metacognition) (pp. 11, 12)
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CONSTRUCTIVISM - Adult online education and ubc's MEt program
Constructivism is one of the main approaches used in Adult Online Education as it both lends itself to Knowles six principles of adult education and is well suited to making use of the many affordances provided by online technology (Knowles, Holton III, & Swanson, 1998). Khanal describes 5 types of learning strategies that have their roots in constructivism, recognise the specifics of adult learning needs and are able to make good use of online learning technologies; namely, interactive; experiential; self-directed; collaborative and; authentic learning (Khanal, 2014). UBC’s MET program is an exemplar of the 5 types of learning strategies in action.
Interactive learning is most successful when it is a combination of social and cognitive interaction. The discussion boards, which are a feature in almost every MET course, are intended to provide opportunities for the adult learner to connect with and learn from other learners and different points of view. The discussion boards allow for both instructor to student and student to student interactions. These are generally managed in such a way as to encourage deliberate and engaged dialogue between students.
“Experiential learning is composed of three components: (a) knowledge of concepts, facts, information, and experience; (b) prior knowledge applied to current, ongoing events; and (c) reflection with a thoughtful analysis and assessment of learners’ activity that contributes to personal growth" (Cercone, 2008, p. 147). Weekly self reflections, the creation of concept maps, and the opportunities for peer review of assignments are common features in MET courses which encourage experiential learning.
Self-directed learning is an important idea for both constructivism and adult education. Meaningful learning occurs more easily when the learner is able to exercise their independence, pursue their curiosities and determine what is most useful to them at the present moment. The MET program in the first place allows learners to take courses in whichever order they prefer. Within courses scaffolding is provided to learners teaching them to evaluate their learning, with particular emphasis placed on evaluating information obtained from the internet and helping them to more usefully direct their interests. While lecturers do curate knowledge, they also encourage students to explore topics on their own and act as learning facilitators, rather than disseminators of knowledge.
Collaborative learning - “Social constructivists such as Vygotsky and Knowles...contend that the best learning occurs when students are actively engaged in the learning process and working in collaboration with other students to accomplish a shared goal” (Khanal, 2014, p. 98). Group projects are an important means of fostering both interactive and collaborative learning. Working on these projects learners are encouraged to utilize their personal experience, take on different roles, and work independently of the instructor. Often the focus of these projects are the development of tools and resources that help increase the understanding of other learners in the course, but equally can be made use of in real world contexts outside of the course. Work on these projects is made easier and enhanced by online tools such as Zoom, Google docs, etc.
Authentic learning, or learning by doing is a key feature of both adult education and constructivism. Learners learn best when they have practical experience and hands-on activities. In the MET’s ‘Digital Games & Learning’ learners build their own fully functioning educational games; in several of the courses learners build Open Education Resources (OERs) based on their own inquiry based learning and in the majority of courses students are encouraged to experiment with media tools such as video, infographics and podcasts. This ensures that students have the opportunity to develop real world skills while gaining course credits.
Interactive learning is most successful when it is a combination of social and cognitive interaction. The discussion boards, which are a feature in almost every MET course, are intended to provide opportunities for the adult learner to connect with and learn from other learners and different points of view. The discussion boards allow for both instructor to student and student to student interactions. These are generally managed in such a way as to encourage deliberate and engaged dialogue between students.
“Experiential learning is composed of three components: (a) knowledge of concepts, facts, information, and experience; (b) prior knowledge applied to current, ongoing events; and (c) reflection with a thoughtful analysis and assessment of learners’ activity that contributes to personal growth" (Cercone, 2008, p. 147). Weekly self reflections, the creation of concept maps, and the opportunities for peer review of assignments are common features in MET courses which encourage experiential learning.
Self-directed learning is an important idea for both constructivism and adult education. Meaningful learning occurs more easily when the learner is able to exercise their independence, pursue their curiosities and determine what is most useful to them at the present moment. The MET program in the first place allows learners to take courses in whichever order they prefer. Within courses scaffolding is provided to learners teaching them to evaluate their learning, with particular emphasis placed on evaluating information obtained from the internet and helping them to more usefully direct their interests. While lecturers do curate knowledge, they also encourage students to explore topics on their own and act as learning facilitators, rather than disseminators of knowledge.
Collaborative learning - “Social constructivists such as Vygotsky and Knowles...contend that the best learning occurs when students are actively engaged in the learning process and working in collaboration with other students to accomplish a shared goal” (Khanal, 2014, p. 98). Group projects are an important means of fostering both interactive and collaborative learning. Working on these projects learners are encouraged to utilize their personal experience, take on different roles, and work independently of the instructor. Often the focus of these projects are the development of tools and resources that help increase the understanding of other learners in the course, but equally can be made use of in real world contexts outside of the course. Work on these projects is made easier and enhanced by online tools such as Zoom, Google docs, etc.
Authentic learning, or learning by doing is a key feature of both adult education and constructivism. Learners learn best when they have practical experience and hands-on activities. In the MET’s ‘Digital Games & Learning’ learners build their own fully functioning educational games; in several of the courses learners build Open Education Resources (OERs) based on their own inquiry based learning and in the majority of courses students are encouraged to experiment with media tools such as video, infographics and podcasts. This ensures that students have the opportunity to develop real world skills while gaining course credits.
This video provides a useful overview of how constructivist theories are applied in online learning environments.
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Project Based Learning
“Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge”
- PBL Works
- PBL Works
Project based learning is an authentic learning experience (Leat, 2017; Laur 2013) that provides the important context to student learning (Laur 2013; Leat, 2017; Dumont et al, 2010) giving students purpose and necessity (Leat, 2017). Students are in charge of their own learning (Leat, 2017) and engaged because of it (Laur, 2013).
Constructivism is at the core of project based learning from its student centred approach (Leat, 2017), experiential focus (Leat, 2017; Laur, 2013), grounded in open ended, real-world questions (Leat, 2017). Student’s distinctive experiences are celebrated and encouraged, especially in group, interdisciplinary settings (Laur, 2013). Throughout the project, students are constantly developing, reflecting, and constructing their own knowledge. Overall, project based learning provides dynamic learning opportunities where the focus is on student learning rather than content delivery (Jobe, 2013). |
Constructivism - Criticism
Although constructivism is not a new idea, it has definitely seen a surge in popularity given the current state of education in the world. This surge can also be tied to the pressure on educators to design effective learning environments to meet the individual needs of students in a diverse and dynamic educational landscape. While constructivism has built upon its popularity over the last few decades, it has not been built without criticism. Most of this criticism is tied to the lack of emerging instructional theory which parallels the lack of refinement of constructivism (Tobias & Duffy, 2009). This criticism extends, stating that while yes, there are numerous instructional models that have been built upon the foundations of constructivist theory, but there still lacks efforts and focus on looking across the models for common principles and refinement (Tobias & Duffy, 2009).
Tobias and Duffy (2009) also describe criticisms aimed at constructivism that address human cognitive architecture. According to Kirschner et al., the “contention about cognitive architecture is based on the widely accepted information processing model that defines a limited-capacity working memory as the gateway to storage in long-term memory” (Tobias & Duffy, 2009, p. 5). From this information processing perspective, it can be said that “learners, especially novices, are unable to effectively process information due to the limits of working memory, hence learning suffers” (Tobias & Duffy, 2009, p. 5). Kirschner et al. believe that the limitations of working memory is overtaxed during minimally guided instruction which can be tied to a constructivist structured educational environment (Tobias & Duffy, 2009).
The popularity of constructivism was bound to attract critics and skeptics. While there is research that does exist that critiques this learning theory, this research was hard to come by and often was followed by additional research that defends constructivism as an effective learning theory.
Tobias and Duffy (2009) also describe criticisms aimed at constructivism that address human cognitive architecture. According to Kirschner et al., the “contention about cognitive architecture is based on the widely accepted information processing model that defines a limited-capacity working memory as the gateway to storage in long-term memory” (Tobias & Duffy, 2009, p. 5). From this information processing perspective, it can be said that “learners, especially novices, are unable to effectively process information due to the limits of working memory, hence learning suffers” (Tobias & Duffy, 2009, p. 5). Kirschner et al. believe that the limitations of working memory is overtaxed during minimally guided instruction which can be tied to a constructivist structured educational environment (Tobias & Duffy, 2009).
The popularity of constructivism was bound to attract critics and skeptics. While there is research that does exist that critiques this learning theory, this research was hard to come by and often was followed by additional research that defends constructivism as an effective learning theory.