CONSTRUCTIVISM AND ITS STRANDS

(1) Introduction
In the constructivist perspective, learning is a process of construction of
knowledge. A child constructs his/her own knowledge while engaged in the process
of learning. The engagement of learners through relevant activities, can further
facilitate in the construction of mental images of the relationships (cause and effect).
Allowing students to ask questions that requires them to relate what they are
observing in school and out side the school. ‘Intelligent guessing’ must be encouraged
as a valid pedagogic tool. Quite often children gains ideas from every day experiences
of because of their exposure to media, but they are not quite ready to articulate it in
ways that teachers or parents may not appreciate. Active engagement should involve
enquiry, exploration, questioning, debates, application and reflection and creation of
ideas/positions. Remember that what is challenging for a particular age group
becomes easy and under standing for the other age group, and may be remote and
uninteresting to another stage. On the name of uniformity and objectivity we teachers
and parents should not sacrifice the flexibility and creativity of the children.

(2) Types of Constructivism

Constructivism is not a unitary theoretical position; rather, it is a continuum.

The assumptions that underlie this continuum vary along several dimensions and have
resulted in the definition and support for multiple types of constructivism. Typically,
this continuum is divided into three broad categories: Cognitive Constructivism,
Social Constructivism, and Radical Constructivism. Von Glasersfeld (1984, 1990)
proposed three essential epistemological tenets of constructivism to which a fourth
has been added in light of recent writings.

1. Knowledge is not passively accumulated, but rather, is the result of active

cognizing by the individual;
2. Cognition is an adaptive process that functions to make an individual's
behavior moreviable given a particular environment;
3. Cognition organizes and makes sense of one's experience, and is not a process
to render an accurate representation of reality; and
4. Knowing has roots in both biological/neurological construction, and social,
cultural, and language based interactions (Dewey, 1916/1980; Garrison, 1997,
1998; Gergen, 1995; Maturana & Varela, 1992).

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2.1 Cognitive Constructivism:

Cognitive constructivism represents one end, or extreme, of the constructivist

continuum and is typically associated with information processing and its reliance on
the component processes of cognition. While emerging from the four, previously
mentioned, epistemological tenets, and cognitive constructivism only emphasizes the
first two tenets, that is, that knowledge acquisition is an adaptive process and results
from active cognizing by the individual learner. These particular epistemological
emphases lead to defining principles that maintain the external nature of knowledge
and the belief that an independent reality exists and is knowable to the individual.
Knowledge then, from the cognitive constructivist position, is the result of the
accurate internalization and (re)construction of external reality. The results of this
internalization process are cognitive processes and structures that accurately
correspond to processes and structures that exist in the real world. This claim, that
reality is knowable to the individual, differentiates cognitive constructivism from both
social and radical constructivism.

2.2 Radical constructivism:

Radical constructivism represents the opposite end of the constructivist

continuum from cognitive constructivism. Radical constructivism fully embraces the
first three epistemological tenets, that is, that knowledge acquisition is an adaptive
process that results from active cognizing by the individual learner, rendering an
experientially based mind, not a mind that reflects some external reality. In addition,
there is a current movement within radical constructivism to more fully accept the
fourth epistemological tenet, thus recognizing social interactions as a source of
knowledge.

The adaptive nature of knowledge underscores that knowledge is not objective

"truth,” that is, internal knowledge does not match external reality, but rather is a
viable model of experience (von Glasersfeld, 1995). These viable models are created
within an individual, influenced by the context within which an activity was
experienced, and relative to the accomplishment of a particular goal. Thus, according
to Staver (1995), "knowledge is knowledge of the knower, not knowledge of the
external world; improving knowledge means improving its viability or fit in, but not
match with, an external world" (p. 1126).

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2.3 Social constructivism:
Social constructivism lies somewhere between the transmission of knowable
reality of the cognitive constructivists, and the construction of a personal and coherent
reality of the radical constructivists. Social constructivism, unlike cognitive and
radical constructivism, emphasizes all four of the previously mentioned
epistemological tenets. These particular epistemological emphases lead to defining
principles that maintain the social nature of knowledge, and the belief that knowledge
is the result of social interaction and language usage, and thus is a shared, rather than
an individual, experience (Prawatt & Floden, 1994). In addition, this social interaction
always occurs within a socio-cultural context, resulting in knowledge that is bound to
a specific time and place (Gergen, 1995; Vygotsky, 1978). This position is
exemplified by Bakhtin (1984), "truth is not to be found inside the head of an
individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the
process of their dialogic interaction". Truth, in this case, is neither the objective reality
of the cognitive constructivists nor the experiential reality of the radical constructivist,
but rather is a socially constructed and agreed upon truth resulting from "co-
participation in cultural practices".

Like radical constructivism, social constructivism would be considered a

"strong" form of constructivism, emphasizing all four of the epistemological tenets.
However, social constructivists generally downplay the mental construction of
knowledge (not because social constructivists do not believe in mental construction
but because it is seen as relatively trivial) and emphasize the co-construction of
meaning within a social activity. In this sense, social constructivism is more
concerned with meaning than structure.

(3) Constructivist Pedagogy

Cognitive constructivists emphasize accurate mental constructions of reality.

Radical constructivists emphasize the construction of a coherent experiential reality.
Social constructivists emphasize the construction of an agreed-upon, socially
constructed reality. Constructivist pedagogy consists following elements of common
pedagogy:

(i) Learning should take place in authentic and real-world environments.

(ii) Learning should involve social negotiation and mediation.
(iii) Content and skills should be made relevant to the learner
(iv) Content and skills should be understood within the framework of the learner’s
prior knowledge.

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 (v) Students should be assessed formatively, serving to inform future learning
experiences.
(vi) Students should be encouraged to become self-regulatory, self-mediated, and
self-aware.
(vii) Teachers serve primarily as guides and facilitators of learning, not instructors.
(viii) Teachers should provide for and encourage multiple perspectives and
representations of content.

(4) Constructivist Learning

National Curriculum Frameworks (2005) envisages that following processes

are involved in dealing with the academic activities in the classroom situations:
(i) Observation (ii) Contextualization
(iii) Cognitive Apprenticeship (iv) Collaboration
(v) Interpretation (vi) Multiple Interpretations
(vi) Multiple Manifestations
(i) Observation: Learners watch the scenes enacted. They make notes of the
key events or behaviour or activities.
(ii) Contextualization: Learners relate their analysis to the theme of the text
with illustration.
(iii) Cognitive Apprenticeship: By using a scene enacted the teacher models
how to integrate story/events and illustrations of the background materials.
(iv) Collaboration: In this process, learner works in small groups to generate
interpretation while the teacher suggest/guide them as they proceed further.
Here they learn to live and work together.
(v) Interpretation/Construction: learners analysis and generate their won
interpretations of the activities/stories/illustrations.
(vi) Multiple Interpretations: In this process, learners provide explanation and
define their ideas or hypotheses by using their analysis and text both within
and between groups.
(vii) Multiple Manifestations: By going back and forth through the process and
relating each contextual background on various events and the behaviour
related to subject, the learners notice that the general principles embedded in
what they are doing become manifested. Using the text, background
illustrations and their own reflections, the learners see how the same
characters and themes can be manifested in several ways.

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(5) Suggestions for the teachers implementing Constructivist format

The following procedures for teachers while implementing a Constructivist

format are suggested by Yager (1991):

* Accept and encourage student initiation of ideas and use student thinking,
experiences and interests to drive lessons.
* Promote student leadership, collaboration, location of information and taking
actions as a result of the learning process.
* Encourage the use of alternative sources for information both from written
materials and experts.
* Encourage students to suggest causes for events and situations and encourage
them to predict consequences.
* Seek student ideas before presenting teacher ideas or before studying ideas
from textbooks or other resources.
* Encourage students to challenge each other’s conceptualizations and ideas and
give adequate time for reflection and analysis; respect and use all ideas that
students generate.
* Encourage self-analysis, collection of real evidence to support ideas and
reformulation of ideas in light of new knowledge.
* Use local resources as original sources of information that can be used in
problem resolution and involve students in seeking information that can be
applied in solving real-life problems.
* Extend learning beyond class period, classroom and the school.
* Encourage self-evaluation among students.

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Reference:

1. Doolitle, Peter E. & Tech Virgenia (1990). Constructivism and Online Education.
pdoo@vt.edu

2. Lewy, Arich ed. (1991). “The International Encyclopedia of Curriculum.” Oxford:

Perganuin Press.

3. National Curriculum Framework for School Education (2000). New Delhi: NCERT.

4. National Curriculum Framework (2005). New Delhi: NCERT.

5. Sarangpani, Padma M. (2003). “Cosntructing School Knowledge: An Ethnography of

Learning in an Indian Village. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

6. Sridevi, K.V. “Constructivism: A Shift in the Parading of Teaching-Learning Process

in Education, Dec. 2007, val. 7. No. 4

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 CONSTRUCTIVISM AND ITS STRANDS

Abstract

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, psychology,

and cybernetics. It asserts two main principles whose application has far-reaching
consequences for the study of cognitive development and learning as well as for the
practice of teaching, psycho-therapy, and interpersonal management in general. The
essential core of constructivism is that learners actively construct their own
knowledge and meaning from their experiences. Constructivism is not a unitary
theoretical position; rather, it is a continuum. The assumptions that underlie this
continuum vary along several dimensions and have resulted in the definition and
support for multiple types of constructivism. Typically, this continuum is divided into
three broad categories: Cognitive Constructivism, Social Constructivism, and Radical
Constructivism. Cognitive constructivists emphasize accurate mental constructions of
reality. Radical constructivists emphasize the construction of a coherent experiential
reality. Social constructivists emphasize the construction of an agreed-upon, socially
constructed reality.
National Curriculum Frameworks (2005) envisages that following processes
are involved in dealing with the academic activities in the classroom situations:
(i) Observation (ii) Contextualization
(iii) Cognitive Apprenticeship (iv) Collaboration
(v) Interpretation (vi) Multiple Interpretations
(vi) Multiple Manifestations
Constructivist pedagogy should consists following elements of common
pedagogy:
(i) Learning should take place in authentic and real-world environments.
(ii) Learning should involve social negotiation and mediation.
(iii) Content and skills should be made relevant to the learner
(iv) Content and skills should be understood within the framework of the learner’s
prior knowledge.
(v) Students should be assessed formatively, serving to inform future learning
experiences.
(vi) Students should be encouraged to become self-regulatory, self-mediated, and
self-aware.
(vii) Teachers serve primarily as guides and facilitators of learning, not instructors.
(viii) Teachers should provide for and encourage multiple perspectives and
representations of content.

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 Dr. S.K. Gupta
Reader in Education
Regional Institute of Education
Shyamla Hills, Bhopal
Pin Code - 462013