Chapter 10 - Constructivism and interactive learning

Constructivism

People don’t just absorb information—they actively build (construct) their own understanding of the world

Individual (cognitive) constructivism

• Students use information and resources to construct personal knowledge, beliefs, self-concept, and identity

• It means that what matters is how each student personally understands an idea, not whether their understanding matches the exact correct version

  • If students learn about gravity:

    • One student might imagine it as “earth pulling things down.”

    • Another imagines it as “things wanting to fall.”

Social constructivism

• If an individual learner is constructing their own learning and it will be in a particular social and cultural context

• Internalize (appropriate) co-constructed knowledge, cultural tools

Social constructivism: Radical constructivism

• We can never be completely sure our knowledge truly matches reality.
  Everything we know comes from our own experiences and how our brain interprets them.
  So the “truth” we believe in is actually a personal construction we build in our minds.

• We can’t prove our understanding is “correct” — only that it works for us.

Community of practice (CoP)

• An idea is considered true because the community agrees it works, not because it’s objectively proven.

• ________ are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly

Elements of constructivist approaches

1. Complex learning tasks

2. Social negotiation

3. Multiple representations/perspectives

4. Understand construction

5. Ownership

Complex learning tasks

1. Learning activities should be challenging and meaningful, not simple memorization

   1. Real-world, authentic tasks → Students should work on problems that feel real, relevant, and useful outside of school

   2. Complex problems → students should explore problems that have multiple ways to solve them, not a single correct method.

   3. Teachers scaffold, resources

Social negotiation

1. Students learn by talking, discussing, debating, and collaborating with others

   1. Learning collaborative

   2. Learners diverse

   3. Respect others perspectives

Multiple representations/perspectives

1. Students learn better when they see ideas in many forms (examples, diagrams, videos, real objects, different viewpoints)

   1. If they see only one example, they may form a too-simple or incorrect understanding

   2. Multiple examples including including negative, tasks, and perspectives

   3. Spiral curriculum (Bruner)

      1. Teach big ideas early, simply, then come back to them later with: more detail, more complexity, more depth

      2. Students revisit and build on concepts over time.

1. Spiral curriculum (Bruner)

1. Teach big ideas early, simply, then come back to them later with: more detail, more complexity, more depth

2. Students revisit and build on concepts over time

Understand construction

1. Students should know how they build knowledge—not just the final answer

   1. Role of learner in learning: how assumptions, beliefs, and experience shape learning

   2. Reflection is necessary for knowledge construction

Ownership

Students should feel responsible for and involved in their own learning.

Constructivist techniques:
Inquiry learning

• Teaching approach where students learn by asking questions, exploring, investigating, and solving problems, rather than being told the answers.

1. Formulate hypotheses

   1. General question (context, memory, attention)

   2. Specific questions - guide discussion/understanding

2. Investigate

   1. First-hand (eg. observation, experimentation)

   2. Second hand (eg. library research

3. Draw conclusions

4. Reflect on the original problem, processes used to solve it

Constructivist techniques:

Discovery learning

• When students figure out ideas for themselves instead of being told the answers. They explore, try things out, look for patterns, and discover the underlying principle.

• It is a type of inquiry learning approach

• Students research topic

• Work to discover basic principles

• They use Inductive reasoning → Specific examples to general idea

• Could be guided or unguided

Constructivist techniques:

Problem-based learning

• Unformed, real-world problems

• Open-ended questions may not have a single correct answer

• A form of inquiry learning, often treated separately

1. Teacher presents problem; provides guidance/support throughout process

2. Students formulate hypotheses

3. Collect data/do research

4. Draw conclusions, arrive at a solution

5. Reflect the original problem

6. Reflect on the thinking process

• Inquiry learning vs problem-based learning

• Inquiry learning

  • Starts with a question, desire to learn about this topic

  • Emphasis on inquiry; exploring, investigating an issue or topic

• Problem-based learning

  • Starts with a problem that needs to be resolved

  • Emphasis on problem solving; presented with a problem and need to find a solution

Constructivist techniques:

• Cooperative learning

• Structured form of group work where students work together toward a shared goal, and each member is responsible for their own learning and for helping their group succeed

• Mixed ability groups

• Co-operate to complete the task

• Different students/groups are responsible for each segment

• Instructional conversation

• Student-directed dialogue

• Opportunities for scaffolding, peer learning

• Cognitive apprenticeship

Teaching approach where students learn by working alongside an expert (like the teacher), who shows how to think, not just what to do.

Flipped classes

Classes where students learn the basic content at home (like through videos or readings) and then use class time to do activities, practice, and problem-solving with the teacher’s support.

On average, small advantage to _________ over traditional classes

• Behaviourism and associative learning

• Classical (pavlovian) conditioning and operant conditioning (enactive learning)

• Classical conditioning: learn by association (something predicts something) (Bell + food → dog salivates, Eventually: bell → dog salivates)

Operant conditioning: learn by consequences (reward or punishment).

• Social learning theory

We learn things because of social interactions and by watching other people behave

• Observational learning

We learn by watching someone else; the model behaves

• Greater attention is needed:

• Status of model

  • skilled

  • respected

• Similarity

  • Similar to a learner

• Outcome

  • The behavior leads to a reward

Elements of observational learning

• Attention

  • Establishing and maintaining attention on relevant cues

• Retention

  • Remember each step, multiple encoding (verbal, visual, kinesthetic)

• Prodution

  • Practice with feedback

• Motivation

  • Acquisition vs performance

Reinforcement of observational learning

• Direct reinforcement

  • YOU get rewarded for doing the behavior.

    • You copy a classmate’s study habit, and the teacher praises you.

• Vicarious reinforcement

  • You see the model get rewarded, so you want to copy them.

    • A student gets praised for raising their hand → you raise your hand too.

• Self reinforcement

  • Intrinsic (eg. satisfaction, pride)

  • Extrinsic (eg. external reward)

Triadic Reciprocal Causality

your personal thoughts, your behavior, and your environment all influence each other.

Personal

• Beliefs 

• Goals

Behaviour (external behaviours)

• Overt actions

• Performance

Envrionment

• Teacher

• Instructions

Failing scenario

• Personal → Expect to fail

• Behaviour → Low effort

• Envrionment → Criticism

  • *Makes you want to try less

    
    

Success scenario

• Personal → Expect success

• Behaviour → Effort

• Environment → Praise

  • * Makes you want to try more

Human agency

we are active and able to control our own lives — we don’t just react to things, we make choices, set goals, and take action to reach them.

Self-efficacy

• Your belief in your ability to succeed at a specific task.

• High self-efficacy

  • Students put in more effort

  • Students stay persistent on a task and take the time to do it

  • All of this causes stress and anxiety

    • If they have strong feelings of control, they can recover from a stressful period more successfully than those with low self-efficacy

• Mastery experiences

• Vicarious experiences

• Social persuasion

• Arousal

Mastery experiences

• Best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour

  • Support self-efficacy because knowing you were successful in the past gives you high self-efficacy for the future

    • To heighten that self-efficacy, you need to give people tasks that they are able to succeed at to strengthen their confidence 

Vicarious experiences

• If other people can do it, I can do it too

  • You always compare yourself to others to see how they're doing 

  • Roger Bannister ran a marathon, and people said, “If Roger can do it, so can I.”

  • Seeing other people do it and thinking you can do it yourself increases your self-efficacy

Social persuasion

People take criticism/feedback very hard, especially from parents and powerful teachers

Arousal

•  If someone is feeling stressed and excited, the physiological changes in the body are the same

  • Heart beating faster

  • What matters is how the individual interprets these changes. Are you excited or stressed

• For people to act with agency, they need to have positive self-efficacy beliefs

Self-regulated learning

• students take control of their own learning by planning, monitoring, and evaluating their work

• Development of _______ influenced by:

  • Knowledge of the subject, learning strategies, of self as a learner (ways of how you best learn), and the task

  • Motivation, how to motivate oneself, and maintain motivation

  • Volition → the individual has to make a deliberate decision to do it, able to control distractions or any conflicts

    • Self-control → Ability to alter one’s thoughts, emotions, behaviour

    • Grit → Perseverance

  • Development of self-regulated learning supported by:

    • Co-regulation

    • Shared regulation

• Volition

• the individual has to make a deliberate decision to do it, able to control distractions or any conflicts

Co-regulation

• guided learning experiences in which teachers or peers provide mentoring, modeling, direct instruction, and feedback so that students gradually internalize self-regulated learning skills.

Shared regulation

• Students and teachers work together to regulate each other (prompts, guidance, reminders, questions) (partnerships, teacher does not need to regulate the student)

Self-regulated learning and agency

1. Analyze the learning task

2. Goals and plans:

3. Tactics and strategies:

4. Regulating learning:

Executive function

• Mental skills that help you plan, focus, remember instructions, control your behaviour, and manage tasks

  • Impaired by stress, poor health, and emotional turmoil

  • Enhanced if relaxed, healthy, and a sense of connection to others