What is constructivist theory in teaching

Bullock (1982) argues that the basic claims of behaviorism are: objectivism - the key to analyzing human behavior is the examination of external events; environmentalism - the environment is the most important determinant of human behavior; Reinforcement - the results of people's actions influence subsequent behavior.

The objectivist view of behaviorism is reflected in teaching and learning, which sees learning as the reinforcement of the chain that establishes the link between the stimulus and the response; the educator's goal is to transmit knowledge of the objective world, and the learner's goal is to achieve the goals set by the educator in this transmission process, to gain exactly the same understanding as the educator. Behaviorists simply ignore the understanding and mental processes of the student during this transmission.

Cognitivists, such as the theorists of information processing, still largely adopt the objectivist tradition. They believe that the world is made up of objective entities, their characteristics, and the relationships between objective things. Where they differ from behaviorists is in the cognitive processes within the learner. The goal of teaching is to help the learner acquire these things and their characteristics so that the external objective things (knowledge and their structures) are internalized into their internal structures.

Constructivism is a further development of cognitivism. The idea of constructs was already present in the thought of Piaget and early Bruner, but relatively speaking, their view of cognitive learning was mainly concerned with explaining how objective knowledge structures could be internalized into cognitive structures through the individual's exchange of action with them.

From the end of the 70's, the American educational psychologists led by Bruner introduced the Soviet educational psychologist Vygotsky's ideas to the United States, which played a great role in promoting the development of constructive thinking. Vygotsky emphasized the role of social and cultural history in psychological development, especially the prominent role of activity and social interaction in the development of higher mental functions. According to him, the source of higher mental functions is related to the internalization of external actions, which is achieved not only through teaching but also through daily life, play and labor. On the other hand, internal intellectual action is also externalized into actual action, making the subjective visible to the objective. The bridge between internalization and externalization is human activity. In addition, Vygotsky's theory of "zone of nearest development" is of great significance to the correct understanding of the relationship between education and development. All these have a great influence on today's constructivists.

Today's constructivists claim that the world exists objectively, but it is up to each individual to make sense of it and give it meaning. We construct facts, or at least interpret them, on the basis of our own experiences; our individual world of experience is created in our individual minds, and because our experiences and beliefs about them are different, our understanding of the external world is very different. So they are more concerned with constructing knowledge based on original experiences, mental structures and beliefs. They emphasized the active, social, and contextual nature of learning, and offered many new insights into learning and teaching.

While there is much controversy over the constructivist theory of learning, today's constructivists have come up with many insightful ideas about teaching and learning. They emphasize the learning process of the learner's initiative, constructive; for learning to make a distinction between primary learning and advanced learning, criticizing the traditional teaching of primary learning teaching strategies unreasonably pushed to advanced learning; they put forward the top-down instructional design and knowledge structure of the network of the concept of ideas, and to change the teaching of the contextual teaching out of the real world, and so on. These propositions have far-reaching significance for further strengthening the leadership of cognitive psychology in the field of education and teaching, and deepening the reform of teaching.

Constructivism emphasizes the relativity of truth and the importance of subjective initiative in cognition, which is a kind of progress compared with objectivism, but over-emphasis on relativity can easily lead to epistemological relativism, which is something we should avoid.

Application of Constructivist Learning Theory in Teaching and Learning

Constructivism provides a different learning theory from traditional objectivism. Constructivist learning theory suggests that the learning process is not one in which the learner passively receives knowledge, but one in which knowledge is actively constructed. Because constructivist learning activities are learner-centered and authentic, learners are more interested and motivated, can be encouraged to think critically, and can more easily provide individual learning styles. Thus, the application of constructivism in teaching and learning will bring about a revolution in teaching or learning.

(i) Anchoring all learning tasks in larger tasks or problems

The purpose of learning is to be able to adapt more effectively to the world. The purpose of any learning activity is clear to the learner. Individual learning activities can be of any type?D?DThe key issue is that the learner clearly perceives and accepts the relevance of a particular learning activity to a larger complex task.

(ii) Supporting the learner in developing ownership of the whole problem or task

Traditional lesson plans place special emphasis on learning objectives, but unfortunately, students usually do not accept these objectives and are only concerned with passing the exam. Thus, our instructional goals should be compatible with the student's achievement of the goals in the learning environment. We can get questions from the learners and use these questions as a driving force for learning activities. The questions identified by the teacher should be such that the students feel that they are their own questions.

(iii) Designing authentic tasks

Constructivism suggests that teachers should use authentic tasks in the classroom and some everyday activities or practices within the learning domain. These close-to-life real-life, complex tasks integrate multiple content or skills, and they help students apply what they have learned in an authentic way, as well as help them realize the relevance and meaningfulness of what they have learned.

(iv) Designing tasks and learning environments that reflect the complexity of the environment in which learners will be able to adapt to effective action at the end of their learning

Environments, rather, are designed so that learners will be able to learn and work in complex environments. This is consistent with Cognitive Apprenticeship and the theory of cognitive resilience, reflecting the importance of context in determining a learner's understanding of a concept or principle.

(v) Giving Learners Ownership of the Problem Solving Process

Learners should not only identify the problem they are trying to learn, but must also have ownership of the problem solving process. Teachers should stimulate learners' thinking and motivate them to solve problems on their own.

(vi) Designing learning environments that support and stimulate learners' thinking

(vii) Encouraging learners to test their own ideas against alternative viewpoints and contexts? ブ? Knowledge is socially negotiated. The quality or depth of someone's understanding can only be determined in a social context. It is in the social context that we can discover whether our understanding is compatible with the views of others, and find out if there are some ideas that we are able to incorporate into our own understanding. Learning ****similarities are important in designing an effective learning environment.

VIII) Provide opportunities and support learners to reflect on what they have learned and the learning process

The goal is to develop students' skills of self-control and to become independent learners.

Constructivist teaching models

The main teaching models formed under the influence of constructivist learning theory are: Anchored Instruction (Anchored Instruction) model, Cognitive Apprenticeship (Cognitive Apprenticeship) model, Random Access (Random Access) model. Insturction) model, etc.

(A) Anchor Teaching Mode

The teaching mode is closely related to contextual learning, contextual cognition, and Cognitive Flexibility (Cognitive Flexibility) theory, which emphasizes technological-based learning. The Anchor Teaching Model was developed by the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) under the direction of John Brownsford. Bransford (John Bransford) developed it.

The main purpose of teaching is "to enable students to develop a need to learn in the context of a complete and authentic problem, and to experience the whole process of identifying a goal and formulating and achieving it through mosaic teaching and interaction and communication among members of the learning *** community, i.e., collaborative learning, and by virtue of their own active learning and generative learning. ". This kind of teaching requires the creation of interesting and authentic contexts that encourage learners to actively construct them. The GGV views "anchors" as macrocontexts, as distinguished from microcontexts. Microcontexts characterize the unconnected "application problems" that follow the textbook. The creation of such authentic 'macrocontexts' is intended to re-enable children and apprentices to take advantage of the benefits of learning in context. The design principles of anchor teaching are based on Gibson's Theory of Affordance. "Affordance refers to the potential of a situation to facilitate learning activities. According to Gibson, different environmental features can supply different activities to various special organisms, such as "those who can walk", "those who can climb", "those who can swim", etc. Similarly, different types of teaching and learning materials can be used to promote learning. Similarly, different types of teaching materials can provide different types of learning activities. Thus, instructional materials should be designed to provide constructivist learning activities that are different from the types of activities promoted by other types of materials. "Anchors are not only contexts in which learners apply what they already know, but more importantly, anchors are used to help students discover the necessity of new learning and thus the importance of setting learning goals. In other words, teaching should help students identify learning goals in complete and authentic contexts. Teachers preteach in order to provide resources and "scaffolds" to help students move forward.

There are several ways to teach.1. Scaffolding. Anchor teaching is not about teaching students what they already know, but about providing them with help or "scaffolding" as they learn. The "scaffolding" should be built according to the student's "zone of nearest development," providing some support for the development of further understanding, so that the student's understanding will gradually deepen and improve. In two new Jasper geometry adventures, the researchers provide students with "scaffolding" in the form of "Embeddingteaching". Such embedding episodes are a natural part of the adventure story. Students are not expected to fully understand the Embeddingteaching plot from the start, but rather the need to understand the concepts and procedures provided by the Embeddingteaching plot arises naturally when students encounter difficulties. 2. Organize instruction around an Anchor. Organizing instruction around "anchors" does not exclude students from doing the work themselves. "Anchors are an effective way to get instruction started, but they are not the end goal. The goal of anchoring is to encourage self-generated learning. CTGV believes that organizing instruction around anchors and then gradually transitioning to hands-on problem solving has several advantages. First, organizing instruction around "anchors" is more manageable for teachers than seeking out all the resources available to complete the task; second, because students are at different levels of proficiency, starting with an "anchor" helps prepare them to complete the task; and third, "anchors" are more effective in preparing students for the task. "Third, anchors provide a context of *** shared knowledge, which helps learners and other members of the community to collaborate, interact and actively participate; fourth, anchors provide a basis for self-sensitive formative assessment of learners to ensure that they get as much as possible out of the teaching and learning; fourth, anchors provide a basis for self-sensitive formative assessment of learners to ensure that they get as much as possible out of the teaching and learning. Encourage students to take the initiative in learning. Anchor-based instruction emphasizes active learning because students understand that the best way to solve problems and share experiences is to be actively engaged in the activity. For example, the Jasper activity designed by CTGV requires students to: consider many possible solutions to a problem; identify the sub-goals needed to accomplish each option; identify relevant data and separate them from non-relevant data; estimate the correct answer to evaluate different plans; and communicate their reasoning with other members of the same group and class. Instructional problems should provide many possible answers, and students can come up with their own solutions and discuss them with the rest of the class to develop a more advanced understanding of the *** enjoyment.4. Encourage cooperative learning. One of the goals of anchor instruction is to create an environment that facilitates cooperative learning. Because the problems described in the Anchor are complex and cannot be fully solved by a single student, cooperative learning is necessary. In addition, the visual nature of the Anchor makes it easy for students to participate in group work, so that even academically disadvantaged students can contribute to group learning and gain the respect of their peers.

The main aspects of teaching are: 1. designing "anchors" for real "macro-contexts"; 2. organizing teaching around "anchors"; 3. students' independent and cooperative learning and problem-solving processes; and encouraging students to work on their own. The process of problem solving; encouraging students to find out how to solve problems by themselves: collecting information, determining the sub-objectives of the task, utilizing and evaluating the relevant information and materials, and putting forward hypotheses to solve the problem, etc. The teacher provides students with the necessary support when they encounter difficulties. Teachers provide scaffolding when students encounter difficulties in order to further deepen their understanding. In addition, while students are learning independently, discussions or dialogues among teachers, students and peers should be encouraged to seek possible solutions to problems from multiple perspectives, and to improve students' ability to cooperate and communicate; 4. "Dissolving" specific "anchors", i.e. anchoring Teaching can not only let students limited to a specific context of problem solving, but also to develop their knowledge transfer ability to solve new contexts of the problem (such as new similar problems, part of a similar problem, "Whatif" problem, problems outside the classroom context, problems in other disciplines, etc.). This is something that should be kept in mind with anchor teaching and other constructivist instruction. The key to teaching is that there should be a balance between contextualization and decontextualization. Students' learning in a context should be able to move out of that particular context to other contexts.5. Evaluation of effectiveness. Anchor teaching is not only to enable students to solve the problems in the "anchor", but also to enable students to accomplish the learning objectives independently, solve real problems in complex contexts independently, as well as cooperate with others, communicate, evaluate each other and self-reflect. CTGV's research found that not only did anchored instruction improve students' ability to solve complex problems, but interestingly, "teachers in regular schools can also use the time slots in the anchored curriculum that correspond to a particular piece of knowledge or skill to help their students achieve high scores on standardized tests and a variety of other tests".

(ii) The Cognitive Apprenticeship Model

The apprenticeship model is considered by many researchers to be an important model for constructivist teaching and learning. "Indeed, of the many constructivist orientations to teaching and learning, the apprenticeship model has received the most widespread attention" (Honebeinetal, 1993). Apprenticeship was one of the earliest forms of "learning by doing", in which tasks placed in authentic contexts provided an organized and unified role and purpose for learning. However, the current model of teaching and learning in schools is seriously divorced from apprenticeship. Students are in teaching and learning environments that "often lack the support of real-world contexts and engage purely in theoretical knowledge ...... Formal schooling is often defined as a site of activity representing cognitive experience as opposed to the variety of contexts outside the classroom... ...students learn knowledge passively through subjects taught in isolation from real life." Dewey, Vygotsky, and many contemporary cognitive psychologists have reflected on and criticized this form of school teaching. "Cognitive apprenticeship" is to change the traditional detached from real-life teaching and learning, and in response to some of the shortcomings of the traditional apprenticeship system (modern education can not be completely returned to the apprenticeship system of learning, and the skills required by the modern society is only partially visual at best) and proposed.

Apprenticeship prescribes 18 strategies in 4 areas, which arguably builds an environment for effective teaching and learning.

1. Content. Cognitive Apprenticeship prescribes 4 ways of presenting content. (1) as subject area knowledge, which are concepts, facts, or procedures. (2) Experience-based strategies or first-hand principles that enhance effective problem solving. (3) Control or metacognitive strategies. Learners should be able to control and diagnose the decisions they make as their mastery of subject matter knowledge grows: choosing among different problem-solving strategies, determining the best strategy for solving a particular problem, and so on. (4) Strategies for learning content, such as inquiry learning.

2. Strategies. Cognitive Apprenticeship prescribes six instructional strategies for stimulating cognitive activity. (1) Imitation. The thinking process is made explicit by the expert's explanation of his or her problem-solving process. (2) Tutoring. "Coaching involves observing students as they perform tasks, providing clues, scaffolding, counter-guilt mimicry, prompts, and new tasks to bring their behavior closer to that of the expert." (3) Scaffolding is provided and gradually removed or reassembled. The expert continually modifies the scaffolding as the novice's ability develops in order to make it appropriate for a level slightly beyond what the novice can handle independently. (4) Providing opportunities for students to demonstrate or express their newly acquired subject matter knowledge. (5) Reflection. It "enables students to compare their own problem-solving processes with those of experts so that they can eventually develop an internalized model of expert cognition." (6) It encourages students' inquiry skills.

3. Sequencing. Cognitive Apprenticeship prescribes 3 ways of sequencing instructional content. (1) Increase the complexity of the content, i.e., increase the difficulty vertically upwards from the bottom of the hierarchical task structure. (2) Increase the diversity of the content, i.e., increase the content at the same level of the hierarchy in a horizontal degree. For example, changing the context of problem solving, changing the goal or reason for the learning activity, or changing factors in the learning environment. (3) Presenting the overall skill before breaking down the skill?D?D A top-to-bottom, elaborated, vertical or horizontal sequence of content, i.e., the highest level of skill is taught first. This has two important advantages: the task is meaningful and has an overall structure or a systemic view of the problem. Upon completion of such a task (scaffolding provides a way for students to accomplish such high-level tasks when they lack sufficient part skills), exploring the connections between the parts and the whole is logically progressive. Further, the learner has a conceptual model of the content that makes up the whole.

4. Social. Cognitive Apprenticeship recommends five strategies to enable learning to be socialized and to take environmental factors into account in the learning ****same body. (1) Contextual learning. Instruction should be placed in certain contexts because then "learners can understand why they are learning; learners learn more by doing, not just by listening; learners can explore what strategies work in a particular context and what strategies do not work in real-world contexts; and learners can learn problem solving skills in diverse contexts ". (2) Simulation. Instruction can further simulate activities in the real world. (3) Cultural communities of expert practice. When problem solving occurs, it is important that learners and experts interact in a dynamic way. These activities create a cultural community of expert practice. (4) Intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is connected to the learner's ability to perform tasks independently in a non-controlled environment. Teaching should strive to stimulate intrinsic motivation in students. (5) Utilization of cooperation. Cognitive Apprenticeship emphasizes that instruction should be based on "learning*** in community". "As students gradually move from the edges of that ****some to the center as a beginner or novice, they become more motivated and more exposed to the culture within it, and thus gradually move into the role of the expert or skilled practitioner."

(iii) Randomized Interview Instructional Model

Spiro) et al. in 1991 categorized learning into primary and advanced learning. Elementary learning is the primary stage in learning, in which students only need to master a series of concepts and facts and reproduce them in the same context; advanced learning requires students to master the complexity of concepts and be able to apply them broadly and flexibly to specific contexts. They point out that traditional teaching blurs the boundary between elementary and advanced learning, and irrationally generalizes instructional strategies used at the elementary level (e.g., partitioning the whole into parts, learning with an eye to universal principles, and building basic representations of a single standard) to advanced learning. Constructivism seeks instructional strategies that are appropriate for advanced learning?D?D Random-access teaching, in which teaching avoids talking about the general application of concepts in the abstract, but instead makes concepts concrete in certain instances and relates them to specific contexts. In other words, learners can enter into the same teaching content through different ways and means at will, so as to obtain knowledge and understanding of the same thing or the same problem in many aspects, which is random access teaching. It originates from a new branch of constructivist learning theory, D.D. Cognitive flexibility theory. The central idea of this theory is that "repeated access to the same material at different times, in reset situations, for different purposes, and from different conceptual perspectives is the key to achieving the goal of acquiring advanced knowledge". According to Spiro, in the pedagogical model based on the theory of cognitive flexibility, the analogy used is a multidimensional and non-linear "criss-crossing" of conceptual and case landscapes ("Criss?crissing" of conceptual and case landscape), i.e., it tries to enhance the cognitive resilience of learners through the conceptual-case hybridization, in order to achieve the adequacy of the rich conceptual understanding and the completeness of the case coverage. Randomized visit instruction is still under research and fewer concrete examples can be provided. In the following, we take the example of a teaching reform experiment made by the College of Agriculture of Washington State University in applying the randomized access teaching model to illustrate the specific application of this teaching model.

Washington State University College of Agriculture, under the leadership of R.E. Calza and J.T. Meade, established an experimental research group for the teaching reform of the course "Genetic Technology", which aimed at developing an interactive teaching system with animation and hypertext control under the Internet environment, guided by the constructivist learning theory. The aim of the group was to develop an interactive teaching system with animation and hypertext control in an Internet network environment, using the random access teaching model. The goal of the teaching is to help students develop motivation for learning, which can be used to learn about molecular genetics and biotechnology. The learning focuses on basic concepts, principles and mutation processes. Through learning, students can not only complete the construction of the meaning of what they have learned but also verify it practically. The teaching process of the system is carried out according to the following steps: 1. Determine the theme?D?D Determine a number of themes of the course through the analysis of the teaching objectives of the network; 2. Create a situation (to create conditions for the teaching of random access); 3. Independently explore?D?D Depending on the wishes of the students, they can choose the following different themes, and in the process of learning a certain theme, students can watch different presentations on the theme at will in order to deepen their understanding of the theme from different sides. Collaborative learning?D?D On the basis of the above independent explorations, Internet-based thematic discussions can be carried out, during which teachers can assign homework to students through bulletin boards and emails (e-mail), criticize the views in the discussions and provide individual counseling; 5. Self-evaluation?D?D In order to test the construction and validation of knowledge, students are given the opportunity to learn about different topics. In order to test the construction and validation of knowledge, students should carry out self-evaluation after the above learning stages. To this end, the system is designed with a set of self-evaluation exercises: the content of the exercises has been carefully selected so that they can effectively test the students' understanding of the basic concepts, principles and processes; 6. Deepening Understanding?D?D Based on the results of the self-tests, additional study and practice are targeted to the weak areas in order to deepen the understanding of knowledge and the ability to validate it.

The Role of Teachers and Students in Constructivist Teaching

(I) Teachers\Supporters of Students' Construction of Knowledge

Emphasis is placed on the active learning of students, but it is also emphasized that the teacher provides a certain amount of help and support in the process of students' construction of knowledge in order to further deepen the students' understanding. Constructivist teaching imposes some new responsibilities on teachers.

1. The role of the teacher changes from the traditional authoritative role of transmitting knowledge to students to that of a counselor of student learning and a senior collaborator in student learning. Teachers need to mentor students not only in terms of content, but also in terms of new learning skills and techniques that may be less familiar to teachers themselves.

2. Teachers should provide students with real-world, complex, and authentic problems. As such, they must not only develop or discover them, but they must be willing to abandon the idea of "knowing the exact answer to a well-conditioned question". Teachers must recognize the potential for multiple answers to complex real-world problems and encourage students to develop multiple perspectives on problem solving. This, of course, means changing traditional assessment strategies.

3. Teachers must create a learning environment in which students can learn through experimentation, independent inquiry, and collaboration.

4. Teachers must adapt the curriculum so that constructivist learning activities can be balanced with what is being learned at a given grade level.

5. Teachers must provide students with metacognitive and psychometric tools to develop connected, critical cognitive processing strategies and mental models for constructing their own knowledge and understanding.

6. Teachers should recognize that the goals of instruction include not only cognitive but also affective goals. Teachers need to emphasize the affective domain of students and make teaching relevant to the individual learner. Teaching is a process of gradually decreasing external control and gradually increasing student self-control of learning.

(ii) Students?D?D active constructors of knowledge

1. Constructivist teaching requires students to complete tasks in complex authentic situations. In traditional teaching, students usually choose a learning path that lacks "cognitive conflict," meaning that they tend to choose tasks that are not difficult for them. In constructivist instruction, however, students are challenged by real-world situations that require cognitive complexity. Students may say, "Why can't you tell me that?" Consequently, students need to adopt a new learning style, new cognitive processing strategies, and a mental model of themselves as constructors of knowledge and understanding.

2. Constructivist teaching requires students to take on more management tasks than traditional teaching. Obviously, if students lack opportunities to manage their own learning, they are unlikely to become autonomous thinkers and learners. However, constructivist teaching should not completely allow students to manage their learning tasks all at once; this highly cognitively complex learning environment can be overwhelming. In constructivist teaching, teachers should be aware that tasks are in the students' "zone of nearest development" and provide some "scaffolding" or coaching. However, the scaffolding should be gradually dismantled or reassembled as students' understanding deepens. Students should develop the ability to control their own learning process with the help of the teacher.

3. Students should recognize the importance of being a self-controlled learner and strive to learn some self-control skills and habits. Students should be actively involved in the constructivist teaching agenda and actively engaged in new ways of learning. Learning theory has brought about a revolution in teaching and learning in traditional teaching. The center of instruction shifted from the teacher to the student. The aim of constructivist teaching is to develop adept lifelong learners of the new century who are capable of self-control of the learning process, self-analyzing and evaluating, reflective and critical, and innovative. Constructivist teaching also implies a change in the roles of teachers and students, and both teachers and students have to work hard to successfully adapt to their new roles. In addition, teachers and students are not in a vacuum, but in a community. As a result, parents, administrators, curriculum designers, evaluators, and a number of other key players will have to change their mindsets and positively face the revolution in learning and teaching that constructivism has brought about.

Main

References:

1. Cognition & Technology Groupat Vanderbilt.(1992),Technology and the Design of Generative Learning Environment. in. T. M. Duffy & D. H. Jonassen (Eds).

2. Collins, Brown & Newman (1989),?Cognition Apprenticeship: teaching the Crafts of Reading, Writing and Arthmetic. In L. B. Resnick (Eds). .

3. Mao, X. Y.: The Application of Contextual Learning in Classroom Teaching, in Foreign Primary and Secondary Education, No. 5, 1998.

4. Gao Wen and Wang Haiyan, "Anchor Teaching Mode", in Foreign Education Materials, No. 3 and 4, 1998.