Breve descripción del curso

Constructivism has its roots in the 18^th century philosophies of Kant and Vico. It is a psychological theory of knowledge which argues that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experience. Constructivist learning theory provides a framework through which the emergent ideas about teaching, learning and assessment can be unified.

The constructivist’s view of learning is reflected in the developmental theories of Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky among others.

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Piaget’s research on the development of children’s cognitive function is regarded by many as the founding principles of constructivist theory. Piaget’s theory portrayed children as a “lone scientists” creating their own sense of the world. The theorist stated that children even though quite young are sophisticated, active thinkers and theorists.

Specifically, Piaget posited that the existing cognitive structures of the learner determined how information is perceived and processed. If the new information makes sense to the existing mental structure of the learner, then the new information item is incorporated into the structure ( assimilation) if however, the data are very different from the existing mental structure of the learner, they are either rejected or transformed in ways that it fits into the structure of the learner,(accommodation). The learners have an active role in constructing their own knowledge in both of these ideas.

Piaget further observed that as children assimilate new information into their existing mental structure, their ideas gain complexity and power and their understanding of the world grows in richness and depth. The theorist equally observed that learning occurs through adaptation to interaction with the environment. Piaget assumes that learners come to classroom with ideas, beliefs and opinions that need to be modified by a teacher who facilitates this modification by devising activities and questions that create challenges to the learner.

This theory is related to the present study as it emphasizes allowing and encouraging the learner to construct an understanding of the world on its own. Piaget theory is also considered appropriate for this study since it can be used to explain the learning process when using learner-centered approach to teaching such as constructivism

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and meta-learning which gives the basic electricity teacher the opportunity to motivate and encourage the students to think critically and creatively through active involvement and participation in class work. In the course of this, the teacher understands how the students think by listening carefully to their comments, paying attention to their ways of solving problems so as to be able to match teaching strategies to student’s ability.

Similar to Piaget’s theory is the Bruner theory which emphasised that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their prior knowledge and past experience. Bruner viewed human beings as information processors, thinkers and creators of ideas whose cognitive development is through the interaction and exploitation of the environment. Bruner believed that learning is effective when learners are given opportunity to discover facts by themselves. Bruner went on to suggest that intellectual ability is developed in stages through step-by-step changes on how the mind is used. Bruner, therefore, identified three principles to guide development of instructions which include;

(a) Instructions must be concerned with the experiences and context that make the students willing and able to learn (readiness).

(b) Instructions must be structured so that students can easily grasp it (spiral organisation).

(c) Instructions should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).

Bruner’s theory is related to this study as it detects that teachers should expose the students to an array of learning experiences for the students to develop their mental

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abilities through activities inherent in the experiences. The learner-centered teaching approaches employed in the present study are such that will appeal to the students variously, providing them with opportunities to discover ideas and facts in the real-world setting through their own effort.

Substantiating the views of Piaget and Brunner, a social constructivist, Vygotsky (1978) developed social-cultural theory of learning which described learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture. The major theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of knowledge. The theorist believed that formal and conceptual knowledge emerges from a repertoire of daily experience and interaction with adults and peers. Vygotsky sees teaching and learning as what cannot be judged by what the learner can do when working alone but rather how far ahead the learner can go when offered some assistance by a more experienced person. Vygotsky also believed that everything is learned on two levels – through interaction with others and exploration of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Zone of Proximal development according to Vygotsky is the area of exploration for which the student is cognitively prepared, but requires help and social interactions to fully develop. The goal of Vygotsky theory is to identify the ZPD by asking children to solve problems, then given prompts and hints to see how they learn, adopt and use the guidance. The teachers watch, listen and take careful notes about how the children use the help and what level of support is necessary and then apply the information to plan instructional grouping, peer tutoring learning tasks, etc.

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Vygotsky social constructivist theory is related to the present study as it emphasizes much on active learning, collaborative learning, scaffolding which help to provide teachers with the instructional tools to cope with the diversity of abilities and learning preferences amongst students in the classroom. The social constructivist theory as well helps the students to interact with one another, their teacher, asses themselves and monitor their learning experiences. Basic electricity teacher in constructivist (specifically collaboration) and meta-learning classroom provides the students with socially rich environment in which to explore knowledge domains with their fellow students and teachers as well as providing cognitive support systems to students.

Incidentally, the constructivist learning theory did not consider the teacher or an expert providing support that gradually decreases as the learner become more proficient.

Rather it places much emphasis on students’ prior knowledge or experience by giving the students opportunity to interact with one another, explore and work as a group. Hence, the need for the study to discuss cognitive apprenticeship.