Constructivism: Critical Thinking in a Social Context
by Lorraine Ledger
Closely related to Cognitivism, Constructivism also deals with the mental processes that collect and build knowledge, but the emphasis is on social and situational learning experiences.
Learners construct their own understanding of the world by experiencing it and reflecting on those experiences, applying prior learning to new or unfamiliar situations.
The learner’s willing and active participation in the process is essential, and constructivists believe that social interaction is where most, if not all, knowledge is acquired. Theorists like Lev Vygotsky go so far as to say that all knowledge is collectively built within the society, placing great importance on culture and context in his learning theory.
Theories overlap here, with some theorists emphasizing developmental stages as causal and other theorists emphasizing the social interactions as causing growth. They all agree that individuals develop their intellect and knowledge through a process involving social learning and that this social interaction is essential to moving forward, stretching to reach more advanced states of intellectual development. Terminology they use include Social Learning, Social Cognitivism, Discovery Learning, and the like.
Main Theories and Theorists
This learning theory has been well-established in educational circles since the 1950s and has many branches and research areas to look into. For this course on instructional design learning theories, we have been presented with a handful of the most important theories and their progenitors, which are briefly discussed here.
Cognitive constructivist Jean Piaget laid the foundation. He identified 4 developmental stages of human development, based on observations and interviews he conducted while administering standardized tests at a local grade school in Paris, where he spent 2 years at the Sorbonne in post-doctoral study in pathological psychology, logic, and the philosophy of science. His developmental theory asserts that all people move through 4 intellectual stages according to age and physical maturation, beginning at birth and continuing through at least adolescence.
These four stages are:
- Sensorimotor – age 0 to 24 months – object permanence
- Pre-operational – age 2 to 7 years – symbolic thought, pretending, imaginative play
- Concrete Operational – age 7 to 11 years – operational thought, proximal reason
- Formal Operational – age 11 to adulthood – abstract concepts, formal reasoning
Because of inspiration from his ideas on developmental psychology, people like Maria Montessori and Howard Gardner have helped educators move away from standardized testing and traditional teaching practices. Preschools everywhere emphasize the early years as the time to educate the senses because Piaget put forth the idea that children learn much about the world before they can even speak.
He first began writing about his interest in child development when he was only 18 and studying toward his doctorate in biology, around 1918. By 1952 he had built his ideas into a scientific system of psychology and published his theory on the 4 Stages of Development. His work has changed the emphasis of education in general from memorizing facts to guided self-discovery. Examples of this are integrated studies programs, use of math manipulatives, use of computers in the classroom, and learning experiences that increase a child’s adaptability. Piaget’s only direct comments on teaching were that “you need a mixture of direction and freedom” (Evans, p. 53).
Important Concepts and Contrasts
Piaget says cognitive development happens in stages according to the physical age of a child, and that the capacity to learn is dependent on which stage has been achieved. Vygotsky, in contrast to Piaget, says that cognitive development happens as a result of external learning experiences, which he emphasizes always requires social interaction and internalization by the child of her external language-based experiences.
Piaget views knowledge as actively constructed by and within the individual learner in relation to new environmental stimuli. Vygotsky views knowledge as something co-constructed through agreement with others that is both internal and external (GSI Berkeley, 2020).
Citing his respect for, but disagreement with, the work of Jean Piaget, Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky introduced a radical new idea into educational psychology that he called “The Zone of Proximal Development” or ZPD, which he used to explain how anyone at any age can be taught anything—if given the right kind of help. He disagreed with Piaget that we must wait to teach a child at specific stages of development. Instead, Vygotsky believed that a child’s interaction with the world around her matured her brain and that learning through social and environmental interaction actually caused the development to happen.
Vygotsky defines ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” He also said, “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to logical memory, to voluntary attention, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.” (Vygotsky, 1978).
Another important concept in Social Constructivism, called scaffolding theory, is closely related to ZPD and was introduced in education by Jerome Bruner. Bruner believed that as learners begin to build on their prior knowledge and schemata, they require the active and purposeful support of instructors to be successful. It is important to create learning experiences that “stretch” learners’ abilities and encourage them to “go beyond what is given” (Bruner, 1957).
Other important concepts introduced by constructivist theories include personal agency, self-efficacy, perception and incongruity, observation and modeling, self-management, Social Cognitive Learning, attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation, Situated Learning, Reciprocal Teaching, Flipping the Classroom. Research focusing on the subject of human agency and the role of perception was undertaken by both Bandura and Bruner. Both have contributed tremendously to the study of Social Learning theory and cognition.
Scaffolding Techniques
Peer Tutoring – Vygotsky suggests pairing More Knowledgeable Others (MKOs) with students who are struggling, allowing MKOs to share expertise during group tasks.
Hints – Sometimes simple hints and suggestions from the teacher when new skills are being acquired is all a learner needs to move forward and have success.
Feedback – Providing timely, contextual feedback to learners gives them opportunities to correct errors. This can be done through a variety of means including formative assessments, vocal encouragement, or physical correction (e.g., realigning an object).
Teacher Questioning – Frequent, casual, contextual questions posed to students guide their thoughts, provides personalized feedback and promotes observation and reflection.
Reciprocal Teaching – Teacher-led small groups engage in group dialogues on any topic, employing four cognitive strategies: Questioning, Summarizing, Clarifying, and Predicting. Active participants collaborate to construct personal meaning and accept new concepts.
Ill-Structured Problems – Problem-solving tasks that are messy and ill-structured require students to choose their assumptions, come to tentative conclusions, and proceed with uncertainty. These kinds of learning experiences are ideal for group work so that learners can help each other decide what to do next and assess whether the task is complete. Being forced to make choices without all the information and to evaluate their own progress in uncertain situations helps “stretch” their brains into more abstract thinking.
Pedagogy
The objectives of Constructivism are centered around helping students connect new experiences to prior understanding in order to form new knowledge. Teachers guide learners through structured experiences that focus on social and environmental interactions (Vygotsky, 1978).
An important step, one that is essential in determining whether learning has taken the student beyond ZPD or not, is using occasional summative assessments to measure each individual’s ability to perform tasks on their own following group activities. It is important to distinguish, in this way, between conformist behavior and actual learning. Oftentimes, learners mimic role models–and that’s a good thing, but summative assessments will reveal evidence of cognitive growth more accurately.
Formative assessment is important too, but teachers must remember to allow each child freedom to explore, analyze, and interpret experiences uniquely. Constructivist teaching takes a different approach from Behaviorism, because the goals of each are different. Some suggested techniques are outlined below.
This learning theory emphasizes that the individual’s journey of discovery, and her self-directed knowledge construction (i.e., cognitive development) is more important than behavioral conformity; and, although it is task-based, tasks are primarily a means by which students practice reasoning ability in analyzing, interpreting and solving problems. Contextual problem-solving activities, which apply critical thinking skills, develop the intellect.
References
Bandura, A. (2005). The evolution of social cognitive theory. In K.G. Smith & M.A. Hitt (Eds.) Great Minds in Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 9-35..
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review,Vol. 84, No. 2, 191-215.
Bruner, J. S. (1957). Going beyond the information given. New York: Norton.
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, Mass.: Belkapp Press.
David, L. (2014, July 22). Stage Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget). Learning Theories.
Evans, R. (1973). Jean Piaget: The Man and His Ideas (translated by Eleanor Duckworth). E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., NY, pp. 53 – 142.
McLeod, S. A. (2018, Feb 05). Bruner. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html
Moore M. (2011) Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory. In Goldstein S., Naglieri J.A. (Eds) Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. Springer, Boston, MA.
Piaget, J. (1976). Piaget’s theory. In Piaget and his school. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 11-23.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In Gauvain & Cole (Eds.) Readings on the Development of Children. New York: Scientific American Books, pp. 34 – 40.
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