Constructivism Piaget and Vygotsky
- 1. Constructivism. It is a school of thought that emphasizes both the learner’s role in constructing meaning out of their social interactions with the environment. 1-Cognitive Constructivism 2-Social Constructivism 1. Cognitive Constructivism: Learners must inductively discover and transform complex information if they are to make it their own. For PIAGET: Learning is a developmental process that involves change, self generation and construction each building on prior learning experiences.
- 2. Piaget's Key Ideas Adaptation What it says: adapting to the world through assimilation and accommodation The process by which a person takes material into their mind Assimilation from the environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their senses to make it fit. The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process Accommodation of assimilation. Note that assimilation and accommodation go together: you can't have one without the other. The ability to group objects together on the basis of common Classification features. The understanding, more advanced than simple classification, Class Inclusion that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. (E.g. there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of animals includes that of dogs) The realization that objects or sets of objects stay the same Conservation even when they are changed about or made to look different. The ability to move away from one system of classification to another one as appropriate. Decentration The belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around you: the corresponding inability to Egocentrism see the world as someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just an early stage of psychological development. The process of working something out in your head. Young Operation children (in the sensorimotor and pre-operational stages) have to act, and try things out in the real world, to work things out (like count on fingers): older children and adults can do more in their heads. The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, Schema (or scheme) and/or actions, which go together. Stage A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of understanding some things but not others
- 3. Stages of Cognitive Development Stage Characterised by Differentiates self from objects Sensori-motor Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: (Birth-2 yrs) e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley) Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Pre-operational Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of (2-7 years) others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of colour Can think logically about objects and events Concrete Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight operational (age 9) (7-11 years) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses Formal systematically operational Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and (11 years and up) ideological problems
- 4. Piaget's Developmental Thoery Suggests that a child's cognitive abilities progess through four different stages: sensorimotor preoperational concrete operational formal operational 2. Social Constructivism. Emphasizes the importance of social interaction and cooperative learning in constructing both cognitive and emotional images of reality. -Constructivist research tends to focus on individuals engaged in social practices on a collaborative group on a global community
- 5. Constructivism Lev Vygotsky. He is the champion of constructivism. Children thinking and meaning making is socially constructed and emerges out of their social interactions with the environment.
- 6. Vygotsky ZPD Zone of Proximal Development. The distance between learners existing developmental state and their potential development. -a learner has not yet learned but is capable of learning with appropriate stimuli.
- 7. What is the Zone of Proximal Development? The ZPD is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. Vygotsky ZPD Zone of Proximal Development (Unity of learning and development) contrasted with Piaget theories of learning, -stages development. -setting a precondition or readiness of learning. -individual cognitive development. -biological timetables. (social interaction only to trigger development)
- 8. El constructivismo es una corriente de la didáctica que se basa en la teoría del conocimiento constructivista. Postula la necesidad de entregar al alumno herramientas que le permitan crear sus propios procedimientos para resolver una situación problemática, lo cual implica que sus ideas se modifiquen y siga aprendiendo. El constructivismo en el ámbito educativo propone un paradigma en donde el proceso de enseñanza- aprendizaje se percibe y se lleva a cabo como proceso dinámico, participativo e interactivo del sujeto, de modo que el conocimiento sea una auténtica construcción operada por la persona que aprende (por el «sujeto cognoscente»). Se considera al alumno como poseedor de conocimientos que le pertenecen, en base a los cuales habrá de construir nuevos saberes. No pone la base genética y hereditaria en una posición superior o por encima de los saberes. Es decir, a partir de las conocimientos previos de los educandos, el docente guía para que los estudiantes logren construir conocimientos nuevos y significativos, siendo ellos los actores principales de su propio aprendizaje. Un sistema educativo que adopta el constructivismo como línea psicopedagógica se orienta a llevar a cabo un cambio educativo en todos los niveles.