Constructivist Classrooms

In Scottish education, the Assessment is for Learning initiative stresses the importance of talk, emotions, formative assessment and learning to learn in an environment where the learning outcomes have been negotiated and shared. This is being complemented by a move to a ‘curriculum for excellence' in an attempt to remove excessive assessment which restricts learning so that more time can be given to learning and teaching and thus deepen the learning.   This should help avoid the old trap of teaching to pass assessments and exams and pave the way for a move to more constructivist classroom practice.

Formative assessment aims to improve awareness about the importance of children’s feelings and dispositions towards learning. This can be achieved by providing valuable feedback to teacher, pupil and parent/carer and should become part of ongoing classroom life. It must be realised that it goes deeper than skills testing and should examine strengths and reflect individual cultural and linguistic diversity without any bias.

In constructivist classrooms the emphasis is on Knowledge construction rather than Knowledge instruction. Knowledge construction, which proposes hands on activities, where children move from concept to acquisition of skills should replace Knowledge instruction, with its emphasis on rote memorisation and drill and practice on isolated skills. Assessment should be performance-based rather than multi-choice achievement tests. By replacing passive learning with active learning activities all learners should be inculcated into the learning to learn or metacognition (thinking about learning) pedagogy.

The principal tenet of constructivism (purported by Stein et al) is that the learner actively constructs new ideas and concepts based on new and existing knowledge. In this approach, the learner is active rather than passive and teachers are facilitators rather than transmitters of knowledge.

The teacher's role is to observe and engage with the children completing activities, using questioning techniques for the promotion of reasoning. Intervention takes place when conflicts arise and children should be encouraged to seek resolution determination by figuring things out for themselves.

Constructivism itself has a variety of learning models (methodologies) such as Cooperative/Collaborative Learning, Generative Learning, Cognitive Apprenticeship, Problem-Based (Inquiry) Learning, Jigsaw Learning, Discovery Learning, Situated learning. Regardless of the variety, constructivism promotes a student's free exploration within a given framework or structure. These variations in constructivism range from teaching the processes that experts use to handle complex tasks focusing on the metacognitive skills that can be externalized to interacting with the environment by exploring and manipulating objects.