What Every Principal Needs to Know about Constructivism

What is Constructivism? Constructivism is part of the Cognitive-Developmental Theory of Learning. Constructivism focuses on the nature of knowledge and learning. Each individual is actively involved in the process of their learning. Students participate in the construction of their own learning. Learners need to understand how they process and learn information. New knowledge must be connected to background knowledge.

Background on Cognitive-developmental theory Remember Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and John Dewey?

Jean Piaget Cognitive Stages of Development 1. Sensorimotor stage 2. Preoperational stage 3. Concrete operations stage 4. Formal operations stage from age birth to two; a child goes from reflex operations to more sophisticated actions; realizes the permanence of objects and can form relationships between objects. 2 to 7; objects and events take on meaning; can learn more complex concepts as long as familiar examples are provided 7 to 11; can organize data into logical relationships; can manipulate data when problem solving; can only learn from the manipulation of data if concrete objects are available or can draw on past experiences; reversibility and reciprocal relations 11 and up; grasp formal and abstract operations, analyze ideas, comprehend spatial and temporal relationships, think logically about abstract data evaluate data according to criteria, hypothesize, deduce consequences and reach conclusions; few or no limitations on learning. Learning depends on the individual’s intellectual potential and environmental experiences.

Lev Vygotsky His theory involved both cognitive and sociocultural development. He believed that a child’s cognitive development was determined by their social interactions. Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that children did not need to be in a certain stage to learn. He believed that children could advance to higher levels of thinking by effective instruction.

John Dewey learn by doing learning should be organized around the individual not the content inquiry-based approached to learning problem-solving skills and informal reasoning the learner's interest in an issue must be found and learning should be centered around that interest

Back to Constructivism Key Points: The learner is involved in generating meaning. Students connect new learning with prior knowledge. Learning is at its best when the learner is aware of how they learn – metacognition. As students learn, they question, interpret, and interact with their background knowledge. “(1) learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge, and (2) instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge” (Duffy & Cunningham (p.2).

Constructivism Allows Teachers to: METACOGNITION UNDERSTANDING HOW CHILDREN PROCESS INFORMATION AND LEARN UNDERSTANDING HOW TO CONNECT TO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE CRITICAL, CREATIVE, INTUITIVE THINKING; PROBLEM SOLVING; DISCOVERY EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION

SO, WHY DO PRINCIPALS NEED TO UNDERSTAND CONTRUCTIVISM? VISION STATEMENT MISSION STATEMENT STAFF DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION RELATIONSHIPS EFFECTIVE TEACHERS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT BRAIN RESEARCH

Finally, Lev Vygotsky believed that students could reach higher levels of cognitive development if they received highly effective instruction. So, the question becomes, if “students interacting with effective teachers may perform or think “better” than before, what about students interacting with less effective teachers?” (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009, p. 125).

Bottom Line… It is the principal’s responsibility to ensure the best, most effective teacher is in each classroom.

References Ornstein, A., Hunkins, F., (2009). Curriculum: foundations, principles, and issues. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Duffy, T., Cunningham, D., Constructivism: implications for the design and delivery of instruction. Retrieved from: http://iris.nyit.edu/~kkhoo/Spring2008/Topics/C ons/ConstructivismImplications.pdf. March 3, 2011