Have you heard the saying: "Knowledge is not a copy of reality, but the product of a person’s interaction with their environment"? This is a quote from Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who argued that understanding doesn’t imitate life, rather, it is a construction that each person builds from information they already possess and from interacting with their environment. This way of thinking is the basis of a constructivist classroom.
With this in mind, do you like studying and exploring topics on your own such as business management, marketing and soft skills? If the answer is yes, then even if you don't realise, you are already applying the foundations of constructivism in education to your learning process. In this article, we explain what it is, what benefits it brings, and we provide you with several examples of how it can be applied.
Education is of great importance in people's lives. In the words of the American philosopher, pedagogue and psychologist John Dewey: "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
The constructivist classroom is one of the main trends in education. However, unlike the traditional system, which is based on memorisation and repetition, this education model aims for students to build their own knowledge based on previous learning. In other words, knowledge is built when we move beyond reproduction, producing new ideas based on our own experiences.
Below, we explain the main features of the constructivist classroom and the benefits it brings:
There are numerous examples of how to put a constructivist classroom in practice. For example:
With discussion forums, knowledge is generated via every individual's own interests and way of thinking.
To this end, the teacher’s role is to put forward a subject for debate, guiding this with open questions. Meanwhile, students should research the topic for themselves and contribute their ideas. At this point, the teacher needs to question their ideas, their reasoning and the source of these, as well as raise new questions.
The idea here is to create a group of students to research a technical topic and write an article for a specialist magazine.
In this case, the team members have to collaborate with one another and with professionals who are experts in a certain field in order to produce the article.
Mind maps allow you to represent ideas and connect them based on new or existing knowledge.
These can be created individually or shared online to be explored in groups, and thus hone cooperation skills.
Self-directed learning is a quintessential example of constructivism in education.
There must be plenty of topics that interest you and that you would love to delve into and learn more about. So, by exploring these, we are constantly questioning the information we come across and integrate new knowledge into what we already know.
Constructivism in education creates knowledge that is better anchored in the mind because it isn't easily forgotten, given that it’s based on a person's willingness to learn and their own experiences. Hence it is one of the most effective means of learning.
However, what is really important is that each person knows which learning method allows them to acquire knowledge more quickly and effectively, and that teachers have the necessary pedagogical skills to support students in this process of identifying and applying the most appropriate learning methodology.
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