Components of
Constructivism

Constructivism is a holistic philosophy. Tenets of this philosophy include: the need to situate learning and problem solving in real-life contexts where the environment is very rich in information and there are no right answers (embedded knowledge); authentic tasks; cognitive apprenticeship; meaning negotiated through interactions with others; multiple perspectives on reality; nurturance of reflexivity and learning in ill-structured domains.

Situated Learning and Authentic Tasks

Situated learning (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1988) is proposed as a method of ensuring that students learn to understand concepts anchored within the context of the area of study. Instead of abstracting unrelated bits of knowledge deemed to be the important components of an area of study, a student would learn about a subject area by immersion in that culture. The final objective is to produce a student who, if studying geology, understands how a geologist would acquire knowledge, find information in his field and integrate this knowledge to solve problems in his field. A rich context for problem solving becomes part of this component.

The Cognition and Technology Group (1991) profile an example of how authentic situated learning in a rich context could be shared in a classroom setting by embedding mathematics problems in a video format where students must attend to many cues in order to solve problems. They have developed a video series called "The Adventure of Jasper Woodbury" which features "anchored" instruction, "whereby instruction is situated in engaging, problem-rich environments that allow sustained exploration by students and teachers." (CGCT, 1992, p. 65) The features of this program include a narrative presentation with embedded data design where students must decide what information can be useful in solving the problem posed, and what information is extraneous. The problems are engaging for students, and they mimic the complexity of real life, where problems are messy, and defining the problem can sometimes be harder than solving it.

Cognitive Apprenticeship

Another feature of constructivism sometimes mentioned is the idea of cognitive apprenticeship, where a teacher models the thought processes which would characterize an expert in a particular field. (Collins, 1988) Experiences are provided for the student which mimic the apprenticeship programs of adults in the trades, or teachers in the internship. Although it is not possible to submerse the student to the extent that an internship would imply, through the use of simulations and meaningful experiences, the student would learn the ways of knowing of an expert. I watched a program where a teacher recreated an archaeological site for his students. Students then proceeded to carry on the activities of an archaeologist, how to segment the site, how to unearth artifacts without disturbing the site, how to record the data, suppositions about the uses for various artifacts found at the site - all the activities of a practising archaeologist. (Check out this site - Summer Archaeology Program)

Social Construction of Shared Perspectives - Collaborative Learning

von Glaserfeld (1988) discusses the social construction of knowledge. Concepts are developed in a process of fine-tuning which involves the interaction of others. Group interaction is thought to aid this process, because it exposes the learner to multiple perspectives about a theme. Collaborative learning which emphasizes the need to examine an issue from all sides gives the student the understanding of various points of view.

As an example, consider how medical interns can be brought together to discuss symptoms noticed in a particular case. Having taken note of different things, they may propose alternative treatments, which they must then justify to their peers...Hearing a variety of other perspectives helps learners to judge the quality of their own solutions and to learn perhaps more effective strategies for problem solving. (Driscoll, 1994, p. 369)

Nurturance of Reflexivity

Constructivists believe it is important to encourage reflexivity, the process whereby a student becomes aware of how their own thinking processes work. Helping students to think about how they are arriving at conclusions, or how they go about solving problems, may help to form more meaningful links between knowledge and develop more elaborate schemas.

Ill-Structured Problem Domains

Spiro, et al. (1991) developed a theory termed Cognitive Flexibility theory which addresses knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. The theory was developed after they discovered that many learning failures resulted from cognitive oversimplification and the inability to transfer knowledge and apply it to new cases. In many cases, the design of learning involved the use of typical cases to explain a concept. The solutions to these typical cases were usually too obvious for students, so many students could not solve problems which involved more complex sets of factors. For example, in teaching interns, if the instructor used the example of a typical case of hypertension, students often missed this diagnosis if the patient did not exhibit the symptoms in the same way. To counter these problems they suggested the need for instructional systems which allow students to revisit "the same material, at different times, in rearranged contexts, for different purposes, and from different conceptual perspectives" (p. 28). The idea is that many crosslinks may occur, and conceptual richness will develop as a student spends time investigating the various connections between themes or concepts.

For an example of a software tool developed according to principles of cognitive flexibility see The Knowledge Mediator Framework Full explanation found in: