Constructivism (learning Theory) - Historical and Theoretical Roots

Historical and Theoretical Roots

According to Kliebard, John Dewey created an active intellectual learning environment in his laboratory school during the early 20th century. Neuroscience now supports this form of active learning as the way people naturally learn. Active learning conditionalizes knowledge through experiential learning. Smith writes that John Dewey believed education must engage with and expand experience; those methods used to educate must provide for exploration, thinking, and reflection; and that interaction with the environment is necessary for learning; also, that democracy should be upheld in the educational process. Dewey advocates the learning process of experiential learning through real life experience to construct and conditionalize knowledge, which is consistent with the Constructivists.

Maria Montessori’s key points contribute to both Humanism and Constructivism; however, the following quote from her emphasizes her value of experiential learning to conditionalize knowledge:

"Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society."

Montessori’s beliefs are consistent with the Constructivists in that she advocates a learning process which allows a student to experience an environment first-hand, thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge.

David Kolb, in his books Learning Style Inventory Technical Manual and Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, emphasizes the importance of conditionalized knowledge through experiential learning. David A. Kolb and Roger Fry created the Kolb & Fry Model out of four elements: concrete experience, observation and reflection, the formation of abstract concepts, and testing in new situations. He represented these in the famous experiential learning circle . Kolb and Fry (1975) argue that the learning cycle can begin at any one of the four points, and that it should really be approached as a continuous spiral. However, it is suggested that the learning process often begins with a person carrying out a particular action and then seeing the effect of the action in this situation. Following this, the second step is to understand these effects in the particular instance, so that, if the same action were taken in the same circumstances, it would be possible to anticipate what would follow from the action. In this pattern, the third step would be to understand the general principle under which the particular instance falls.

Kolb’s beliefs are consistent with the Constructivists in that he includes Concrete Experience as part of the learning process and requires a student to test knowledge by acting upon the environment, thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge. Kolb’s work closely parallels recent work in the field of neuroscience, exemplified in the writings of James Zull.