2. KEY PEOPLE IN CONSTRUCTIVISM
Jean Piaget
• Originally a biologist who studied mollusks
• Switched to the development of children’s understanding
• Developed the cognitive learning theory
• Believed children learned new things in different stages and
created four cognitive stages
• Also believed children learn through
adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation

3. KEY PEOPLE IN CONSTRUCTIVISM
Jerome Bruner
• American psychologist and educator
• Believed that learning is an active process where the learner
constructs new ideas based on current or past knowledge
• Emphasized on integrated curriculum and technology offers
many strategies for a constructive environment
• His theory states that teachers should engage their students in
their own learning

4. KEY PEOPLE IN CONSTRUCTIVISM
Lev Vygotsky
• Russian educational psychologist
• Social Development Theory is one
of the foundations of constructivism
• Developed social cognition
• Focused on children’s cognitive development and believed
they had a zone of proximal development (ZPD).
• ZPD: the gap between what a child can already do and what
they can do with help from a more experienced person
• Also proposed new ways of teaching using scaffolding

5. KEY PEOPLE IN CONSTRUCTIVISM
John Dewey
• Educational psychologist, philosopher, and political advocate
for child-centered instruction
• Believed education was a social process
• Stated students learned by doing and should be allowed to
construct, create, and inquire
• Founded the Laboratory school and many others
• He has been called The Father of Education

6. KEY PEOPLE IN CONSTRUCTIVISM
Giambattista Vico
• Published articles in the 1700’s about education
• Concepts deal with the relationship between
truth, knowledge, and origins of language and the desire of
the human mind to create knowledge
• Through his writings the word “constructivist” comes about

7. KEY POINT OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Knowledge is acquired by personal experiences and
observations of the environment.
• Four theories of constructivism
• Social Development Theory - 3 Themes
• Social interaction plays an essential role in the process of
cognitive development
• Someone who is more knowledgeable than the learner
• The ability of the students to complete a task with and
without guidance
• Communities of Practice Theory
• Learning that occurs within a group of people who have a
common interest

8. KEY POINT OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Discovery Learner Theory
• Learn by handling objects, critical thinking, or experiments
• More likely to remember what you learned if you discovered
it yourself
• Stage Theory of Cognitive Development - 4 stages in children
• Sensorimotor - birth to age 2 - Building of understanding of
oneself through interaction with environment
• Preoperational - ages 2-7 - Objects are classified in simple
ways
• Concrete Operational - ages 7-11 - Thinking begins to become
abstract and conceptual
• Formal Operational - ages 11 and older - Capable of deductive
and hypothetical reasoning

9. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS: TEACHERS
• Try to use raw data and primary sources, in addition to
manipulative, interactive, and physical materials.
(Computers, eReaders and movies are technology that
could be used here)
• When assigning tasks to the students, use cognitive
terminology such as "classify," "analyze," "predict," and
"create.“
• Encourage communication between the teacher
and the students and also between
the students.

10. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS: TEACHERS
• Encourage student critical thinking and inquiry by
asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and
encourage them to ask questions to each other.
• Ask follow up questions and seek elaboration after a
student's initial response.
• Make sure to wait long enough after posing a question so
that the students have time to think about their answers
and be able to respond thoughtfully.
• Provide enough time for students to construct their own
meaning when learning something new.

11. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS: STUDENTS
• Under the constructivist theory, students are active
learners.
• They learn by doing, practicing and by exploring.
• The role of the student is primarily to assimilate
whatever the teacher presents.
• Teachers can use the constructivist theory with or
without technology.

12. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS: STUDENTS
With technology students can:
• Complete Web Quests, scavenger hunts, treasure
hunts, or curriculum pages.
• Research topics by using online books, videos, and
other digital media.
• Use electronic flash cards
• Use netbooks to write findings in a word
document, spreadsheets or create PowerPoint
presentations.

13. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS: STUDENTS
Without technology students can:
• Draw on his or her own past experience and
existing knowledge to discover facts, relationships
and new truths to be learned.
• Students interact with the world by exploring and
manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and
controversies, and performing experiments.
• Work as self-directed, active investigators and
problem-solvers in small collaborative groups

14. CONSTRUCTIVISM AND TEACHING
Confucius once said, “I hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand.”
When students learn by the constructivism theory it encourages them
to use their critical thinking skills to create, analyze, and solve their
own problems. Personally this is my choice of learning theory when
teaching my students. I believe that students learn more by doing
rather than listening to a teacher talk all day. When it comes to
younger students like the elementary age, I feel that they’re more likely
to engage in a learning activity verses sitting still and listening. There
are many great activities you can do with your students. Some ideas
include, using technology to create digital books or
presentations, vocabulary bingo, you can play jeopardy when
reviewing for a test, etc. Anything that will get your students actively
involved in the classroom will be effective.

15. CREDITS
http://mason.gmu.edu/~wwarrick/Portfolio/Products/constructivism.html
http://www.learning-theories.com/
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm - information
and picture of ZPD
http://techforinstructionandassessment.wikispaces.com/Constructivism - Piaget
picture
http://computerbasicsebook.com/computer-basics-introduction-to-computers/ -
picture of computer
http://www.clipartguide.com/_pages/0511-0909-0119-4524.html -
teacher/computer clipart
http://www.nded.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learni
ng.htm
Shelly, Gary B. Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital
Media in the Classroom. Boston, MA: Thomson/Course Technology, 2010. 376-
90. Print.