Constructivism

Jean Piaget’s work is the origin of Constructivism, which is the foundation of learning-centered classrooms (Bogost, 2007). Constructivism is a broad theory of learning that argues (quite unlike Essentialism) that what matters in learning is not the accumulation of facts, paradigms, and theories but rather the meaning making that comes from taking these disparate notions and integrating them to form new knowledge. What matters is not the received wisdom handed down from generation to generation but what the young learner does with that received wisdom.

The learner in a Constructivist context is a doer, and there’s no way around that. This form of student-centered classroom puts the onus of learning firmly on the learner. Indeed, at its most basic level, it begins with whatever the learner brings to the classroom and uses that knowledge as the basis for further work. This can prove problematic if the learner brings highly unorthodox ideas to the classroom and is more troubling still if the student begins his or her learning experience holding firm to a belief that is factually untrue (e.g., the sun revolves around Earth). What separates Constructivist classrooms from teacher-centered ones is how the teacher responds to this circumstance.

In a classroom informed by the practice of Direct Instruction, the fact that a student holds an untrue or factually erroneous idea is “solved” by rejecting the very idea that the idea is possible. What the student thinks coming into the conversation doesn’t matter; the teacher-centered approach rejects the notion that the student has anything to offer and ignores it. By contrast, in a student-centered Constructivist classroom, the teacher begins with the student’s false or incorrect perspective, combines it with his or her own wisdom, and facilitates the student’s learning in such a way that the student will come to see the truth from a unique vantage point as a learner (National Research Council, 2000). Ultimately, this is the difference between the two perspectives that matters most.