Constructivism/ Constructionism

The constructivist constructionist learning theory is centered around a basic principle that learners construct their own knowledge actively. It is believed that people learn best doing hands on activities, by making something. Through that creating, the learner makes his or her own experience. There are several ways for the learner to be successful in the constructivist constructionist learning: active learning, solving authentic problems, collaboration with others, discovery and inquiry, viewing many perspectives to the same issue, and ownership.

The instructional strategies presented in this week’s learning theories involve generating and testing hypotheses. The tasks that are presented in the book correlate to constructionist constructivist learning theory because they actively involve the learner in creation of something to help them learn.

In the systems analysis task, students are involved in discovery and inquiry where they predict what would happen if a situation changes. Using research, background knowledge, and any other resources they may have available to them, the students would be creating their own knowledge and guessing what an outcome would be. The teacher could then confirm their guesses. Problem solving is similar to this in that the students examine different outcomes to an issue.

In historical investigation, the students are involved again in problem solving, discovery and inquiry as they try to come up with a solution to a problem that has not yet been solved.

When students setup an experiment to test their hypothesis in an experimental inquiry task, they are actively engaged in carrying out the experiment. Making and doing an experiment is especially what this theory is about as it involved creating something to learn.

Finally, with decision making, the students are involved in viewing many different perspectives before they come to a conclusion about an issue.

Throughout all of these tasks in the generating and testing hypotheses strategy, the students are learning through making something. They are collaborating with others and sharing ideas, they are taking ownership of their learning. It is truly a constructivist constructionist theory.