Approaches to IR Assignment: 01Topic: ConstructivismWhat is constructivism?Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant.Definition:Constructivism is an educational philosophy which holds that learners ultimately construct their own knowledge that then resides within them, so that each person's knowledge is as unique as they are.Over view of Constructivism:There is a great deal of overlap between cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky's social constructivist theory. However, Vygotsky's constructivist theory, which is often called social constructivism, has much more room for an active, involved teacher. For Vygotsky the culture gives the child the cognitive tools needed for development. The type and quality of those tools determines, to a much greater extent than they do in Piaget's theory, the pattern and rate of development. Adults such as parents and teachers are conduits for the tools of the culture, including language. The tools the culture provides a child include cultural history, social context, and language. Today they also include electronic forms of information access.Although Vygotsky died at the age of 38 in 1934, most of his publications did not appear in English until after 1960. There are, however, a growing number of applications of social constructivism in the area of educational technology. One such use was described byMartin (1992).General implication of social constructivism If Vygotsky is correct and children develop in social or group settings, the use of technology to connect rather than separate students from one another would be very appropriate use.A constructivist teacher creates a context for learning in which students can become engaged in interesting activities that encourages and facilitates learning. The teacher does not simply stand by, however, and watch children explore and discover. Instead, the teacher may often guide students as they approach problems, may encourage them to work in groups to think about issues and questions, and support them with encouragement and advice as they tackle problems, adventures, and challenges that are rooted in real life situations that are both interesting to the students and satisfying in terms of the result of their work. Teachers thus facilitate cognitive growth and learning as do peers and other members of the child's community.All classrooms in which instructional strategies compatible with Vygotsky's social constructivist approach are used don't necessarily look alike. The activities and the format can vary considerably. However, four principal are applied in any Vygotskian classroom.1. Learning and development is a social, collaborative activity.2. The Zone of Proximal Development can serve as a guide for curricular and lesson planning3. . School learning should occur in a meaningful context and not be separated from learning and knowledge children develop in the real world.4. Out-of-school experiences should be related to the child's school experience.Types of social constructivism Technology provides essential tools with which to accomplish the goals of a social constructivist classroom. Below are a few examples of the way information technology can support social constructivist teaching and learning: Telecommunications tools such as e-mail and the Internet provide a means for dialogue, discussion, and debate -- interactivity that leads to the social construction of meaning. Students can talk with other students, teachers, and professionals in communities far from their classroom. Telecommunications tools can also provide students access to many different types of information resources that help them understand both their culture and the culture of others. Networked writing programs provide a unique platform for collaborative writing. Students can write for real audiences who respond instantly and who participate in a collective writing activity. Simulations can make learning meaningful by situating something to be learned in the context of a "real world" activity such as running a nuclear power plant, writing up "breaking" stories for a newspaper, or dealing with the pollution problems of local waterwaysApplicationsBruner's constructivist theory is a general framework for instruction based upon the study of cognition. Much of the theory is linked to child development research. The ideas outlined in Bruner (1960) originated from a conference focused on science and math learning. Bruner illustrated his theory in the context of mathematics and social science programs for young children (see Bruner, 1973). The original development of the framework for reasoning processes is described in Bruner, Good now & Austin (1951). Bruner (1983) focuses on language learning in young children.Note that Constructivism is a very broad conceptual framework in philosophy and science and Bruner's theory represents one particular perspectiveExamplesThis example is taken from Bruner (1973):"The concept of prime numbers appears to be more readily grasped when the child, through construction, discovers that certain handfuls of beans cannot be laid out in completed rows and columns. Such quantities have either to be laid out in a single file or in an incomplete row-column design in which there is always one extra or one too few to fill the pattern. These patterns, the child learns, happen to be called prime. It is easy for the child to go from this step to the recognition that a multiple table , so called, is a record sheet of quantities in completed mutiple rows and columns. Here is factoring, multiplication and primes in a construction that can be visualized.Principal 01. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).02. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).03. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).

References01. http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index_sub1.html02. http://otec.uoregon.edu/learning_theory.htm#Constructivism03. http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/et-it/social.htm04. http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm05. http://www.ucdoer.ie/index.php/Education_Theory/Constructivism_and_Social_Constructivism_in_the_Classroom