Cognitive Constructivist Theories 

Overview

Constructivist models have emerged from the work of developmental theorists such as Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky. There are, however, two major strands of the constructivist perspective. One strand might be called cognitive constructivist; it adopts the epistemology of Piaget as a foundation for practice. Perhaps the most important responsibility of the teacher in a Piagetian classroom is to provide an environment for the spontaneous research of the child. The classroom filled with plenty of authentic activities to challenge students will allow students to construct their own knowlede. In this theory, children construct their own knowledge of the world through assimilation and accommodation. It is easy to assimilate information as we read provided that it fits within our existing schemata. When there is a conflict between what we think we know and what we are learning, accommodation must occur to rebuild those schema.

General Implications

There are three key Piagetian principles:

Learning is an active process: Direct experience, making errors, and looking for solutions are vital for the assimilation and accommodation of information. How information is presented is important. When information is introduced as an aid to problem solving, it functions as a tool rather than an isolated arbitrary fact.

Learning is a social process: Group collaboration is perhaps one of the fundamental principles of Piaget's theory of learning. Collaboration, interaction among a community of learners, small-group activities -- these are essential for the real and experimental activities that provide new information to build the child's schemata.

Learning is a developmental process: Piaget helps us to understand that meaning is constructed. Readers must be capable of learning through reading in the sense of assimilating new knowledge to established schemata and also of accommodating existine schemata to new knowledge.

Within the field of educational computing, the best-known cognitive constructivist theoretician is Papert (1993), who characterizes behavioral approaches as "clean" teaching whereas constructivst approaches are "dirty"teaching. The contrast emphasizes the differences between approaches that isolate and break down knowledge to be learned (clean) versus approaches that are wholistic and integrative (dirty).

Papert's idea of clean and dirty learning gives us a somewhat fuzzy feel for the differences between behavioral and constructivist visions for teaching and learning. Copley's (1992) contrast of two approaches to instruction -- didactic (behavioral) and constructivist -- provides a bit more detail.

Constructivist approaches to technology in the classroom are not yet commonplace. However, a number of promising approaches exist within this theoretical framework. As a point of departure for your study of constructivist learning, consider the eight characteristics (Johassen, 1994) that differentiate constructivist learning environments (CLEs).

Types of Instruction

In a Piagetian classroom, students must be given opportunities to discover truths at their own pace and through their own experiences. Technology, particularly multimedia, offers a vast array of such opportunities. With technology support such as videodisks and CD-ROMs, teachers can provide a learning environment that helps expand the conceptual and experiential background of the reader. By the end of the 1980s a significant percentage of the more innovative educational computer programs were based on constructivist theories. The face of educational software changed dramatically. The appropriate setting for technology in the classroom is one tht invites social interaction.

Technology provides essential tools with which to accomplish the goals of a constructivist classroom:

• Multimedia products encourage students to travel to far off locations, see some of the world's uniqure people, animals, and natural and constructed wonders, and listen to unfamiliar sounds. Through their exploration of multimedia packages, students learn to connect images with text and to pursue their own interests. Therefore, they can engage in activitties that will expand their schemata as they naturally seek new information. Electronic encyclopedias are rich sources of multimedia information children in all grades can use.
• Problem-solving simulations make learning meaningful. Students join intellectual forces to solve probelms, and as they solve problems they develop important skills.
• Interactive electronic books help to build students' conceptual and experieential background. They immerse young readers in language and provide a setting for them to associate sounds with letters and images. Electronic books for older students provide images and explanations that help to build backgound knowledge, and they provide a stimulating context for interpretation of often unfamiliar language usage in the classics.
• Games challenge students. Comprehension and critical thinking skills are stimulated as students read to find main ideas and details in text in order to gather useful clues. They must make inferences in order to solve the case.
• Desktop publishing and presentation programs provide readers and writers access to an authentic purpose for literacy -- publishing. The multimedia programs that allow students to add animation, sound, and images create a rich setting for language use. As students write, draw, paint, animate, and add sound to their interpretation of their world, they construct meaning.
• Telecommunications tools provide a means for social interaction. Students can talk with other students, teachers, and professionals in palces far from their classroom.

	Electronic Books		Games
	Reading/Writing Workshop		Whole Language
	Graphic Organizer/Semantic Web

Additional Information

Classroom Compass: Constructivism (Winter 1995 Volume 1 Number 3)

SEDL is the regional education laboratory serving Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. SEDL conducts applied research and development, delivers training, and provides technical assistance to K-12 educators and decision makers. Classroom Compass, e-journal sponsored by SEDL, devotes the whole Winter 1995 issue to the topic of constructivism. Informative articles include:

• Constructing Knowledge in the Classroom
• In a Constructivist Classroom
• Building an Understanding of Constructivism
• Geometry Activities
• Resources and Opportunities

Constructivism Web Pages

This web site provides links to web pages for those interested in constructivism.

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