Constructivism is a widely accepted philosophy for learning, especially in online

classes. Brent Muirhead examines how building concept maps can facilitate
research, interpretation, product development, collaboration and assessment of
conceptual materials using a graduate education course as an example. He uses
this opportunity to show how these procedures incorporate research and best
practices in teaching and learning, and how environmental factors may affect the
outcomes.
Constructivism is a student-centered approach that places responsibility on
students to take charge of their learning experiences
The constructivist educational philosophy operates on a basis of four major
assumptions:
1. Knowledge depends on past constructions. We know the world through our
mental framework and we transform and interpret new information
through this framework.
2. Constructions come through systems of assimilation and accommodation
into our existing mental framework. If information is incongruent with that
framework, it cannot be assimilated. But we can develop a higher-level of
cognition to accommodate this new information and zones of new
development.
3. Learning is an organic process of invention, not mechanical. Knowledge is
more than facts or information. Learners must be able to hypothesize,
predict, manipulate, and construct knowledge.
4. Meaningful learning occurs through reflection and scaffolding of new
knowledge upon existing framework of knowledge. Cognitive
developmental abilities play a key role in all four premises and the ability
and evolution of each student's ability to learn and assimilate knowledge.

Main Theorists
Dewey
John Dewey rejected the notion that schools should focus on repetitive, rote
memorization & proposed a method of "directed living" students would engage
in real-world, practical workshops in which they would demonstrate their
knowledge through creativity and collaboration. Students should be provided with
opportunities to think from themselves and articulate their thoughts.
Piaget
Piaget rejected the idea that learning was the passive assimilation of given
knowledge. Instead, he proposed that learning is a dynamic process comprising
successive stages of adaption to reality during which learners actively construct
knowledge by creating and testing their own theories of the world.
This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of
knowing. Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the
learners previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught. Thus, even listening
to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge.
Bruner
Influenced by Vygotsky, Bruner emphasizes the role of the teacher, language and
instruction. He thought that different processes were used by learners in problem
solving, that these vary from person to person and that social interaction lay at the
root of good learning.
Bruner builds on the Socratic tradition of learning through dialogue, encouraging
the learner to come to enlighten themselves through reflection. Careful curriculum
design is essential so that one area builds upon the other. Learning must therefore
be a process of discovery where learners build their own knowledge, with the
active dialogue of teachers, building on their existing knowledge.

Bruner initiated curriculum change based on the notion that learning is an active,
social processes in which students construct new ideas or concepts based on
their current knowledge.

Vygotsky
Social constructivism was developed by Vygotsky. He rejected the assumption
made by Piaget that it was possible to separate learning from its social context.
According to Vygotsky:
Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social
level and, later on, on the individual level; first, between people
(interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies
equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts.
All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.
Constructivist
1. Discovery Learning (Bruner)
In discovery learning, the student is placed in problem solving situations where
they are required to draw on past experiences and existing knowledge to discover
facts, relationships, and new information.
Students are more likely to retain knowledge attained by engaging real-world and
contextualised problem-solving than by traditional transmission methods.

1. Piaget's Cognitive Development theory

Piaget (1970) proposed that children progress through a sequence of four stages,
assumed to reflect qualitative differences in children's cognitive abilities. Limited
by the logical structures in the different developmental stages, learners cannot be
taught key cognitive tasks if they have not reached a particular stage of
development.
The major concepts in this cognitive process include:

 Assimilation: it occurs when a learner perceives new objects or events in

terms of existing schemes or operations. This information is compared with
existing cognitive structures.
Accommodation: it has occurred when existing schemes or operations must
be modified to account for a new experience.
Equilibration: it is the master developmental process, encompassing both
assimilation and accommodation. Anomalies of experience create a state of
disequilibrium which can be only resolved when a more adaptive, more
sophisticated mode of thought is adopted.

The Constructive theory

The constructivist educational philosophy operates on a basis of four major
assumptions.
First, previous constructs are the foundation of the learning process in each
student. In other words, students know the world through their existing mental
framework, and new information is transformed and interpreted based upon
previous learning (Muirhead, 2006).
Second, assimilation and accommodation processes lead to new constructions.
Information that is incongruent with the students existing mental framework
cannot be assimilated; therefore, new zones of cognitive development or higher
learning transpire through the accommodation process.
Third, learning is an organic process of invention, not mechanical (Muirhead).
Constructivists place the stu-dents ability to hypothesize, predict, manipulate, and
construct knowledge as more meaningful learning than the memorization of facts.
Finally, constructivists assume that meaningful learning occurs through reflection
and by linking new knowledge to an existing framework of knowledge (Muirhead).