Constructivism in the Classroom - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Constructivism has been defined by researchers and educators in numerous ways. With a history that can be traced to the days of Socrates, Constructivism has become an important learning technique for all students. Jacqueline Grennon Brooks in her book Concept to Classroom Interviews (1999) states that ‘as long as there were people asking each other questions, we have had constructivist classrooms. Constructivism, the study of learning, is about how we all make sense of our world, and that really hasn’t changed’. ‘The concept of constructivism has roots in classical antiquity, going back to Socrates’s dialogues with his followers, in which he asked directed questions that led his students to realize for themselves the weaknesses in their thinking. The Socratic dialogue is still an important tool in the way constructivist educators assess their students’ learning and plan new learning experiences… in this century, Jean Piaget and John Dewey developed theories of childhood development and education, what we now call Progressive Education, that led to the evolution of constructivism. According to William J. Matthews, a professor in the School Psychology Program of the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, ‘there are numerous variations and definitions of post-modernist thought of which constructivism is a subset (e.g. , radical constructivism, social constructivism, and deconstructivism). However, Piagetian constructivism is a subset of a larger historical challenge to modernist notions. of objective reality in general and the use of empirically validated methods of teaching specifically'.

As Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks state, 'Constructivism is basically a theory - based on observation and scientific study - about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active ...Download file to see next pagesRead More