What is Constructivist Learning & What are Its Advantages and Challenges

Learning is a dynamic process. It must keep pace with the evolving needs of the curricula by creating a strong foundation of essential skills and concepts. The teaching and learning process has the vital job of building knowledge while nurturing students’ higher-order skills. The Constructivist Learning approach is a student-centric, active learning strategy that fulfills these criteria.

What Is Constructivist Learning?

The Constructivist Learning approach works by actively engaging students in ‘constructing’ new knowledge through exploration, experimentation, observation, collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection. This learner-centric method leverages the joy of discovery to engage students and deeply involve them in their own learning process.

Under this approach, new information can build further knowledge upon the foundation of existing learning or it can be used by the students to revise their current understanding leading to enhanced knowledge. Students might use one or both of these dimensions of the constructivist approach, unlocking new insights for an in-depth understanding of the topic.

Moving away from teacher-centric teaching practices, constructivist learning emphasises the student’s role in building their understanding and knowledge instead of purely internalising the information passed on by the teacher. Here a student’s interest and motivation, cultural factors, and interaction with peers and mentors all play a vital role in directing their grasp of the topic.

Principles of Constructivism

The theory of constructivist learning is based on 5 crucial principles, each playing an important role in the learning activity.

• Learners Build Knowledge Actively – Students are actively engaged in deciphering meaning, adding to their knowledge, or adapting their existing knowledge to include newer information. Students routinely learn to examine information, analyse their inferences, and alter outcomes and opinions.
• Learning is a Social Process – Social interaction makes constructivist learning a robust educational approach. It gives students well-rounded contexts via group discussions, peer and teacher interaction,s and collaborative work, while also allowing them to understand how they process information individually.
• Knowledge Built Around Real-World Contexts – Constructivist learning helps students learn through application and experimentation. This places their knowledge in real-world, relevant situations, instead of being purely theoretical and rote.
• Role of Reflection – Reflection plays a crucial role in constructivist learning. First, it enables students to critically analyse any new information, and process its implications while adding to the learner’s knowledge bank. Second, it informs the student of deficient areas such as where they need work or gaps where more information is required.
• Mistakes Are Important – Another way constructivist learning is different from traditional learning is how it views mistakes. This approach encourages students to try multiple strategies, some of which might fail, in turn ensuring the student gains knowledge on why something works versus why it might not.

Types of Constructivism

Now that we’ve understood the core principles of constructivist learning, let us now see how it can be classified. Constructivist Learning can be broadly classified into three types basis a learner’s interaction with the subject.

• Cognitive: Cognitive Constructivism highlights a student’s ability to learn through observation followed by critical or analytical thinking to draw meaning from what they experience while interacting with their environment.
• Social: Social Constructivism builds on a student’s ability to learn through inferences drawn via discussions, collaboration, dialogue, etc. making social interactions the basis for constructing new knowledge.
• Radical: Radical Constructivism takes into account personal influences on a student’s learning. It emphasises the role of individual environments, circumstances, and personal perspectives that shape the student’s specific understanding of the concept.

Stages of Constructivism

Having understood what Constructivist Learning is, let us proceed to understand how it can be applied in a classroom. There are 5 successive stages to constructivist learning. Each stage must be rolled out sequentially to build on the previous one to reach the final learning outcome.

• Inviting Ideas: The first step requires the educator to engage students with a question or share new information about a given topic. They then invite students to apply their existing knowledge to generate fresh ideas and hypotheses. Students might come up with multiple ideas or probable outcomes
• Exploration: This stage requires students to process the new information and explore the concept through active interaction with their guides and teachers. Here the students are building new knowledge and exploring its various implications. They use this time to work through their various hypotheses.
• Proposition: Next, students work on synthesising their individual takeaways. The teacher plays the role of a guide helping students actively process and distil their ideas and understanding. The students may choose to follow a specific line of thought to arrive at their proposed result.
• Explanation And Solution: This stage is all about sharing, interacting and discussing their line of thinking with peers and educators. Here the students might be exposed to multiple solutions and strategies, identify gaps in their thinking or collaborate to create better solutions.
• Taking Action: This last stage is the ultimate test of the solution. Students can see the practical outcome of their ideas in actual situations. An execution, evaluation, and learning stage rolled into one, this step helps students understand the efficacy of their solution. It further aids discussions on how the solutions can be improved completing the learning process.

Advantages of Constructivist Learning

Constructivism in learning offers many advantages to the student, helping them become independent thinkers. Some of the key advantages include

• Active Engagement: Students become actively engaged in their learning process. Instead of being passive recipients of information, they need to decipher new information to build on their existing knowledge.
• Meaningful Learning: Active engagement in the learning process helps students decode and apply new information in a meaningful manner. This involvement in their learning process also ensures knowledge becomes deeply ingrained in the student’s repertoire.
• Critical Thinking: Constructivist learning requires students to hone their critical thinking skills to understand, analyse and apply the new information presented to them. They constantly need to assimilate and accommodate new information to build on their existing knowledge.
• Collaboration And Communication: Given that social interaction is a vital aspect of the constructivist learning method, students quickly learn to communicate their ideas accurately while working with their teachers and peers to develop and enhance their solutions collaboratively.
• Personalised Learning: Each student processes information differently. Constructivist learning takes this into account, allowing each student a personalised take on their learning journey. It is open to students having different outcomes when building on their existing knowledge.
• Lifelong Learning Skills: Another key advantage of this approach is that it helps students be receptive to evolving inputs and new information. They develop agility and the skill to continue learning as the environment around them changes.
• Higher-Order Thinking: In addition to developing a learner’s mindset, students also hone higher-order skills such as analytical thinking, critical reasoning, creative solution building, etc., essential for their success in the world beyond school.
• Increased Motivation: Being a student-centric learning approach, the constructivist learning method is a great tool to drive student involvement and motivation in their own learning and progress.
• Joy of Learning: The joy of discovery and the pride of developing mastery are two ways that this learning method helps students get more involved in their learning process. Not only is it a great motivator but it also encourages students to take their learning forward, developing a sense of expertise in a topic.

Challenges of Constructivist Learning

Though the Constructivist Learning method has many advantages, it needs to be applied in a balanced manner to reap all its benefits. Educators should take note of some of the areas that could need their attention.

• Overemphasis on Independent Learning: Even though it stresses independent and individual learning via student engagement, teachers must provide guidance and direction at each stage while implementing the constructivist learning method. Without some structure, this technique could lead to sub-optimal learning outcomes.
• Token Application for Defined Curriculum: The constructivist learning approach rests on providing students with new information to build further knowledge. It requires educators to remain flexible towards the learning outcome. This might lead to timeline challenges with a pre-defined curriculum to cover for the educators
• Misconception about Hands-On Learning: Educators must keep in mind that the constructivist learning approach is one of the many active cognitive learning approaches available to them. Many other learner-centric methods also offer similar advantages of hands-on learning, while suiting the subject better. Educators can work with a combination of methods that suit their teaching requirements while supporting the student’s learning needs.

How Extramarks Smart Class Plus Promotes Constructivist Learning?

Extramarks Smart Class Plus offers educators essential support to implement a constructivist learning environment in several ways

1. Active and Interactive Learning: With tools like pop-up quizzes, brain-teasers, and interactive simulations Extramarks Smart Class Plus helps introduce interactivity into the classroom. These tools engage students while supporting active learning by testing and building on their existing knowledge, helping them retain information better, and clarifying any doubts for a deeper understanding of concepts.
2. Interactive Whiteboard: A great asset for educators, interactive whiteboards allow teachers to elaborate on complex topics with ease. With one click, teachers can access geometrical instruments, drawing tools, and more. Not only does it save class preparation time for teachers, but it also helps students to grasp concepts visually leading to a more effective grasp of foundational knowledge.
3. Class Recordings: Recording and sharing classroom lectures ensures that students can catch up on missed lessons or revisit them as needed. This feature can be used to clear doubt through information covered in class or as a tool for the revision of concepts, strengthening the students’ existing knowledge.

Conclusion

With the right strategy and appropriate tools, Constructivist Learning Methodology can be a great approach for educators to help students become more involved in their learning and growth. It can help highlight core expertise and interest areas in students while building essential higher-order skills for them. More importantly, it can bring the joy of teaching and learning to a classroom, setting up a perfect learning environment for optimal outcomes.

Last Updated on January 13, 2025