Constructivism is an educational theory where a person learns by building their own view of the world through assimilation and accommodation. It has influenced various teaching methods, but critics argue that it requires a solid knowledge base. Jean Piaget established the basic principle of constructivism, and it has led to pedagogical approaches such as constructionism and guided instruction. Critics argue that it reduces the importance of instructors, but teachers strive to find a balance between presenting new ideas and guiding students towards building their own knowledge.
Constructivism is an educational theory built around the idea that a person, especially as a child, learns new material by building their own view of the world, and then adds or changes this view to continue learning. This is not a specific pedagogy, or teaching method, but has influenced a number of specific pedagogical movements and teaching methods in classrooms and homes. Critics of constructivism argue that the processes of assimilation and accommodation are valid only if a solid knowledge base already exists.
The main figure of constructivism was a Swiss philosopher named Jean Piaget. Piaget established the basic principle of constructivism, which is that knowledge is not simply acquired but is constructed in a person’s mind during the learning process. This is achieved through two methods, referred to as assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process by which a person incorporates new information into the existing knowledge base that he possesses.
This is done simply in learning situations where the material is new, but not necessarily revolutionary to the person learning it. For example, a person who is learning about specific dog species may simply assimilate new ideas about dog types into the existing structure of their dog knowledge. Accommodation, on the other hand, is about incorporating new knowledge that modifies a person’s existing knowledge.
The basic units of knowledge that a person knows are usually referred to as schemata, with a different schema dictating different things that a person understands. If someone encounters dogs all their life, they have an unconscious understanding of what a dog is, a pattern of “dog”. Constructivist theories state that if that person encounters a cat for the first time, they will regard the cat as a new type of dog, assimilating the knowledge into existing patterns, or create a new pattern to establish a cat as a separate type of creature. adapting its existing knowledge base with new information.
These ideas have led to a number of different pedagogical approaches to teaching such as ‘constructionism’ and ‘guided instruction’. In these approaches, the instructor often acts more as a facilitator than a teacher, working to guide students towards discoveries and build knowledge for themselves. Critics of constructivism argue that this often serves to reduce the importance of an instructor in the classroom and that students require adequate guidance to arrive at an accurate understanding of subjects such as math and science. While this is a concern, many teachers strive to find a balance whereby they can present and teach new ideas while also guiding students to find their own means of understanding and building knowledge.
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