Constructivism Learning Theory Chrystal Merriam Educational Psychology April 14th 2014

Constructivism Learning Theory
Chrystal Merriam
Educational Psychology
April 14th 2014
Everyone goes through major changes in their lifetime as they grow up, but one of the
biggest changes every one goes through is their process of growth. Growing up can be quite
challenging in some cases. The changes that are made are by what and who has influenced us as
we grow and by our very own experiences. There are many milestones that everyone goes
through during their lifetime. When thinking back to your very own first milestones as a child,
what do you think yours were? Mine would have to be learning how to crawl, walk, and talk.
Learning to walk and talk are important developmental milestones. People learn by relating the
new information their being taught to their experiences and by making connections to
knowledge. Constructivism influences instruction theory by encouraging discovery learning,
hands-on learning, experiential learning, collaborative learning, project-based learning, and taskbased learning. This theory is applied to children when they are at their young ages to help them
obverse their own surroundings and create results. By applying Constructivism to a classroom
will help the students in many different ways when it comes to understanding new things using
old experiences.
For individuals to grow in their surroundings they must first adjust to their own
environments. The adapting process for an individual includes parts such as accommodation and
assimilation. Accommodation was Initially proposed by Jean Piaget, and refers to part of the
adaptation process. The process of accommodation involves altering one's existing schemas, or
ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed
during this process. Accommodation is the ability to adjust their ideas and views; they must
accommodate expectations with the outcomes. An example of this would be, A young child may
have an existing schema for dogs. Dogs have four legs, so the child may automatically believe
that all animals with four legs are dogs. When the child learns that cats also have four legs, she
will undergo a process of accommodation in which her existing schema for dogs will change and
she will also develop a new schema for cats. Assimilation is the process by which a person or
persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group. Assimilating causes an
individual to develop new views and rethink what ideas they have on new materials. An example
of assimilation would be, Waves of immigrants have been assimilated into the American
culture, immigrants have adapted to the surroundings of American culture, which may have
made them develop their own views about the culture compared to their own.
Constructivism is a philosophy formed by Jean Piaget. Piaget made assumptions about
how children learn different things based off childrens characteristics and abilities. He became
intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers on the questions that required
logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between
the thinking of adults and children. Piaget created four development stages that he believes a
child goes through as they are growing up. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage, which are
the ages from birth to around two years old. Where the child can speak but doesnt do so very
well because they are still learning. During this stage, behavior is organized around its sensory
or motor effects, and there is culminated in attaining the concept of object permanence. Object
permanence is the understanding that objects have continued existence when they disappear from
view. The second stage, the Preoperational Stage is from two years old to a child at about six
years old. There are things children can and cant do at this stage. Things they can do would be
that they are naming things on their own, things are oversimplified so children can talk using
simple vocabulary, and they are also are characterizing things by egocentric thought. Things they
cannot do during this state are things like adopt alternative viewpoints, and think from another
persons perspective. Next is the Concrete Operational Stage is from six years old to twelve years
old. During this stage, children are able to adapt to alternative viewpoints. As a conservation
task, you could pour water from short wide glass then into a tall thin glass. Concrete operational
children will understand the amount of water stay the same with both glasses. The last stage is
the Formal Operations stage during the ages of twelve and up so teenage years. During these
years, a childs independence is grown. The child can now reason abstractly and logically. They
also are not limited to any concrete thinking during this stage. The goal of the theory is to
explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an
individual who can reason and think using hypotheses.
The role of all teachers is very important within the constructivism learning theory. The
educators role is to mentor the learner during heuristic problem solving of ill-defined problems
by enabling quested learning that may modify existing knowledge and allow for creation of new
knowledge. This theory centers the consideration of the students learning, interests, and
themselves. Instructors are facilitators rather than teachers. Where a teacher gives a didactic
lecture that covers the subject matter, a facilitator helps the learner to get to his or her own
understanding of the content. When teachers follow Piaget's theory of constructivism they need
to challenge their students by turning them into effective critical thinkers. When teaching to your
students I think that lecturing should change to other forms that way students will learn and
remember the information better. Maybe teach the lesson briefly to the class then use activities
and projects to further teach the lesson you are working on with your students.
When individuals are learning about any type of new information they use their own
experiences from their past to make the connections to the new knowledge. The Constructivism
learning theory allows children to develop skills to observe their own surroundings and create
results. What the students gain through their insight and understanding make up experiences of
knowledge. When they are undertaking problems, they are using their prior experiences to help
them in understanding. As a teacher, my role will be to encourage my students to use the
knowledge they already know from their prior experiences and I will also explain to my students
my very own examples of how I would relate to my experiences to learn new things every day.
Works Cited
"Constructivism (philosophy of Education)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Nov. 2014.
Web. 13 Apr. 2014
Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. "Assimilation (society)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia

Britannica, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014
"What Is Accommodation?" About.com Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
"Jean Piaget." Simply Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.

Constructivism Learning Theory Chrystal Merriam Educational Psychology April 14th 2014

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Constructivism Learning Theory Chrystal Merriam Educational Psychology April 14th 2014

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Constructivism Learning Theory Chrystal Merriam Educational Psychology April 14th 2014

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Constructivism Learning Theory

Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. "Assimilation (society)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.