Homeschool 101: What is constructivism?

August 24, 4:41 PMAlbuquerque Homeschooling ExaminerMindy Baca

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This article on constructivism is the first article in a series about different educational philosophies adopted by homeschoolers. Constructivism is an educational philosophy that is ideally suited to homeschool. It encourages educators to step away from a “packaged” or standardized curriculum. It is child-centered and it encourages students to actively participate in the learning process. It depends on collaboration, cooperative learning, and shared experiences.

This is particularly important to homeschooling families who may struggle to find an effective way to teach multiple children at different grade levels and with varying levels of understanding. Constructivism promotes hands-on learning.

Constructivism is capturing more attention in mainstream education as an alternative to behaviorism.  Unfortunately, many teachers feel that the explanations of constructivism are too abstract and difficult to put into practice. In traditional schools, bridging the gap between theory and practice and developing learning environments that support constructivism can be a slow process.

Constructivism differs from the positivist, objectivist, and behavioralist theories that see children as passive learners. In these frameworks, the students depend on teachers to present information to the students which they are then expected to regurgitate. Under this model, a successful student achieves the behavioral goals, masters skill sets, and passes tests as determined by the teacher. This style of teaching is based on assimilation.

Constructivism is more accommodating. The constructivist approach recognizes that children have their own ideas about how the world works. Their thoughts, expectations, and explanations about the world around them are constructed based on their past experiences.  This is their frame of reference going into a learning situation. For this reason, a constructivist approach is student-centered, not authority centered. Students do not depend on the teacher or the textbook to be the authority.

Oftentimes, a child’s initial explanations may not be in line with known scientific knowledge. In response to this, teachers develop a cognitive conflict for the student and take on the important role of a facilitator. In this capacity the teacher helps the student to adjust his or her understanding and construct new knowledge. The constructivist approach to learning values dialogue among students and reflection on experiences.

Read more about constructivism:

Constructivism

http://www.funderstanding.com/content/constructivism

Constructivist Learning in a Hypertext Environment

http://www.accesswave.ca/~hgunn/special/papers/hypertxt/conlearn.html

Constructivism: From Philosophy to Practice

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emurphy/stemnet/cle.html

A Definition of Constructivism

http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/pschulte/def%20of%20constFrame1Source1.htm