Haychee and leati, read this:
According to constructivist learning theories, how we construct knowledge will depend on what is already known. What we know depends on the kinds of experiences that we have had and how we have come to organize these into existing knowledge structures. A variety of labels are used to describe similar concepts inherent in many constructivist learning theories (e.g., generative learning, embodied cognition, cognitive flexibility, situated learning, educational semiotic, and cognitive apprenticeship). Behind the labels are several epistemological positions underpinning constructivist learning theories. The essential difference between each position relates to what constitutes a perception of reality and how this perception is created and maintained. Common to each position is that (a) we construct knowledge based on what we already know, and (b) learning is an active rather than a passive process.
There are two widely accepted constructivist learning theories: critical constructivism and social constructivism.
Critical constructivism assumes that knowledge is constructed as an integration of internal contradictions resulting from environmental interactions. It is not unlike the theory of cognitive dissonance (Carson, Butcher, & Coleman, 1988) or Schmidt?s (Belkin, 1982) cognitive restructuring, or even Mezirow?s (1990) perspective transformation. These are existing theories of learning that are essentially concerned with changes that occur as a result of new knowledge that is internally contradictory. Contradictions drive us to construct knowledge by conceiving of phenomena that lead toward greater understanding of unspecifiable complexities of organization and abstraction (Young, 1997). In this view, there is an objective universe that we aspire to understand.
The other prevalent position is social constructivism. This position is currently the most accepted epistemological position associated with online learning. In this view, the assumption is that knowledge is grounded in the relationship between the knower and the known. Knowledge is generated through social intercourse, and through this interaction we gradually accumulate advances in our levels of knowing. Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist and philosopher in the 1930s, is most often associated with social constructivism. Vygotsky (1978) emphasized the influence of cultural and social contexts in learning. In this view, we construct meanings actively and continuously in a social context (Young, 1997). Meanings emerge from the patterns of our social experiences that occur over time in a contextual, situated, and continually changing synthesis. Social constructivism, sometimes referred to as symbolic social interaction, uses conversational language for negotiation of meaning and conceptual delimitations. How we construct knowledge, in this position, is based on our social experiences where ?the mind is instrumental and essential in interpreting events, objects, and perspectives on the real world, and that those interpretations comprise a knowledge base that is personal and individualistic? (Jonassen, 1991, p. 29). This position, according to Young (1997), views knowledge construction as a kind of narrative where ?human beings who live in language, live in a multiverse rather than a universe? (p. 250). In this view, we all have a different understanding of the external world based on our individual experiences and beliefs about those experiences (Jonassen, 1991).
Constructivist learning theories are becoming widely accepted in all fields of education, including the application of technology to teaching and learning. This interest is related to the capacity of the computer to provide an interactive environment that creates ?an effective means for implementing constructivist strategies that would be difficult to accomplish in other media? (Driscoll, 1994, p. 376). The use of computers and telecommunications technology supports this social construction of knowledge while simultaneously creating an archive of this interactive process (the online transcripts).
(right, that should keep them occupied for a while )