...Constructivism (learning theory) Constructivism is a theory to explain how knowledge is constructed in the human being when information comes into contact with existing knowledge that had been developed by experiences. It has its roots in cognitive psychology and biology and an approach to education that lays emphasis on the ways knowledge is created in order to adapt to the world. Constructs are the different types of filters we choose to place over our realities to change our reality from chaos to order. Von Glasersfeld describes constructivism as “a theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, psychology, and cybernetics”.[1] Constructivism has implications to the theory of instruction. Discovery learning, hands-on, experiential, collaborate, project-based, tasked-based are a number of application that base teaching and learning. Constructivists • John Dewey (1859–1952) • Maria Montessori (1870–1952) • Władysław Strzemiński (1893–1952) • Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) • Jean Piaget (1896–1980) • George Kelly (1905–1967) • Heinz von Foerster (1911–2002) • Ernst von Glasersfeld (1917–2010) • Paul Watzlawick (1921–2007) • Edgar Morin (1921–) • Humberto Maturana (1928–) • Laszlo Garai (1935–) • David A. Kolb (1939–) Historical and Theoretical Roots According to Kliebard,[2] 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...
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...Ever since the earliest hominid knew something he wanted to share, the human race has been in an eternal struggle to find slightly more effective ways of conveying knowledge and skills. Thousands of years of evolution, Ancient Greece society notwithstanding, culminated in the invention of the ruler, which was not only a tool to measure the dimension of various objects, but it also doubled as a form of negative reinforcement to incentivize poorly performing and troublesome students. In the western world, specifically the United States, people began to turn away from physically abusing students and began to look for more effective ways of educating the nation’s larval citizenry. It would be unfair to speak of education theories without mentioning Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as they together were of the first to put forth an effort towards understanding, among many things, how people think and why. Roughly 2000 years later, there were a growing number of educated individuals beginning to take second look at everything we thought we knew about being human. Among these people, there was Ivan Pavlov, who began ringing a bell, and not only did Clarence get his wings, but what was learned through the well-known story of Pavlov and his dogs also served as the impetus for John Watson and B. F. Skinner and their ground-breaking notion of Behaviorism. Behaviorism, simplified, is the theory that a person is the product of their environment, and to change a person’s behavior,...
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...------------------------------------------------- Constructivism Main article: Constructivism (learning theory) Constructivism is a revolution in educational psychology. Built on the work of Piaget and Bruner, constructivism emphasizes the importance of active involvement of learners in constructing knowledge for themselves...Constructivism emphasizes top-down processing: begin with complex problems and teach basic skills while solving these problems [13]. Constructivism explains why students do not learn deeply by listening to a teacher, or reading from a textbook. Learning sciences research is revealing the deeper underlying basis of how knowledge construction works. To design effective environments, one needs a very good understanding of what children know when they come to the classroom. This requires sophisticated research into children's cognitive development, and the learning sciences draws heavily on psychological studies of cognitive development (e.g., Siegler, 1998). The learning theories of John Dewey, Marie Montessori, and David Kolb serve as the foundation of constructivist learning theory.[14]Constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon current and past knowledge or experience. In other words, "learning involves constructing one's own knowledge from one's own experiences." Constructivist learning, therefore, is a very personal endeavor, whereby internalized concepts, rules, and general...
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...Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotsky formed constructivism, a learning theory which explains how “knowledge is constructed by organizing, structuring, and restructuring of experiences.” (Morrison, 2011, p. 66) Jean Piaget devoted his life and used his own children for observation and conducting research to develop this theory. Constructivism views the child as an active, social, and creative learner. Traditional method of teaching presents students with passive knowledge, this method has many pitfalls. Teachers that use the constructivist method view this theory as a tool box for the many problems of learning. (Perkins, 1999) Constructivism is a cognitive theory which focuses on experiential, hands-on, and activity based teaching and learning. Students are actively engaged in learning so it is very important to have learning environments that support active, reflective, contextual, and collaborative learning. (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2011) Students should not just receive passive knowledge but instead be actively engaged with hands-on or mind-on activities. (Morrison, 2011) A constructivist teacher understands that it is very important for the students to form their own representation of knowledge, and this can be done by active experience and exploration. Piaget believed that all children pass through different developmental stages. Sensorimotor, preoperational, and concrete operations start at birth and continue up to approximately 12 years of age. In these stages a child...
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...Constructivism as an Educational theory in Mathematics Name: Institution: Instructor: Date: Introduction Learning is an inevitable process for human beings and even animals. A young one is born with little or no knowledge of the surrounding, both within and without. In this case, things start acquiring a given shape through the learning process. Learning becomes the preoccupation of human beings as their growth and development takes course. In the former times, learning was accomplished in an informal setting. As development and modernization took shape, dedication was formalized and confined to the classroom. Classroom teaching methods has been revolutionized with development of various theories and philosophies for the same. Among them is constructivism theory. This theory has been applied in many subjects including mathematics. This paper explores constructivism as an educational theory in mathematics. Constructivism as an Educational theory Constructivism theory is coined around a philosophy of self experience of the learner. This theory is coined on the basis of how a student connects information or instructions give in class. Jean Piaget, who came up with this theory suggest that learning is accomplished through a connection of the experience of the learner with new information. In most cases, the new information or ideas leant in the classroom or anywhere is not really taken in as intended. Instead, a student processes information given based...
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...NARRATIVE THERAPY: 1. Focus of narrative Therapy: Narrative conversations are interactive and always in collaboration with the people consulting the therapist. Narrative therapy seeks to be a respectful, non-blaming approach to counselling and community work, which centres people as the experts in their own lives. It views problems as separate from people and assumes people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments and abilities that will assist them to change their relationship with problems in their lives. Curiosity and a willingness to ask questions to which we genuinely don't know the answers are important principles of this work. There are many possible directions that any conversation can take (there is no single correct direction). The person consulting the therapist plays a significant part in determining the directions that are taken. It seems appropriate to begin any exploration of narrative therapy with a consideration of what is meant by the `narratives' or `stories' of our lives. 2. THE ROLE OF STORIES Narrative therapy is sometimes known as involving’re-authoring' or’re-storying' conversations. Stories are central to an understanding. Stories consist of: • events • linked in sequence • across time • according to a plot 3. LISTENING WITH AN OPEN MIND Social Constructionist Theories place an emphasis on listening to clients without judgment or blame, affirming and valuing them. Totalizing language is avoided. NP focuses on the capacity...
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...Introduction As educators we are in charge of teaching hundreds of students and ensuring that they are grasping the actual contents of the lessons we are teaching. What we need to ask ourselves is, “What defines that our students are learning?” The constructivism theory of learning changes the way we answer this question. No longer is getting the “right” answer the sole determining factor of whether a student has learned a particular lesson. In this theory learners create and drive their own learning. The role of the teacher is vastly changed as the teacher becomes an instigator of learning instead of the leader. Background The constructivist view on learning has greatly changed the way theorist think about a person’s learning process. For hundreds of years the thought of how one “processes” learning was the focus on all research regarding how a person functions during learning. The constructivist view changes all previous thoughts on learning while maintaining some compatibility with other thoughts. It is a theory with more than one perspective which gives it multiple view points while maintaining the main focus on the learner. There are many theorists who have contributed towards the constructivist theory. Two of the primary theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky had different contributions to this theory. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development provides some basis for understanding the stages a learner developmentally goes through. His theory essentially...
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...Understanding the Learning Process Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………03 2. Understanding Different Theories of Learning……………………………………..03-08 3.1 Application of learning domains to learning in health and social care…………03-06 3.2 Different ways of learning in Health and social care workplaces…………….06-07 3.3 Analysis on the relation of learning theories to the development of understanding and skills of health care…………………………………………………………….07-08 3. Understand the impact of learning styles on learning by individuals……………..08-11 4.4 Factors influencing the effectiveness of learning……………………………08-09 4.5 Concepts of learning Style…………………………………………………..09-11 4.6.1 David Kolb’s Model………………………………………………..09-10 4.6.2 Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s Model…………………………10 4.6 Assessing preferred learning style………………………………………..10 4.7 Influence of Learning Theory on own learning…………………………10-11 4. Ability to suggest strategy for delivering and assessing learning in a health and Social care workplace……………………………………………………………………12-13 4.1 Factors considered in planning a workplace learning program:……………..12 4.2 Relevant teaching strategies for learning health and social care workplaces:….12. 4.3 A strategy for delivering and assessing learning in health and Social care workplace:……………………………………………………………………………….13. 5. Understanding ways to support the individual...
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...goal of the reader is deconstruction, given that neomodern cultural theory is valid. Lacan promotes the use of predialectic appropriation to challenge capitalism. In a sense, the premise of neomodern cultural theory states that class has significance. “Society is impossible,” says Derrida. The characteristic theme of Porter’s[1] essay on Debordist situation is the role of the observer as writer. However, if predialectic appropriation holds, the works of Burroughs are postmodern. The main theme of the works of Burroughs is the futility, and eventually the paradigm, of capitalist sexual identity. The subject is contextualised into a neomodern cultural theory that includes culture as a totality. Thus, Lacan uses the term ‘constructivism’ to denote the role of the observer as artist. The characteristic theme of Cameron’s[2] analysis of neomodern cultural theory is not, in fact, theory, but posttheory. It could be said that the opening/closing distinction depicted in Eco’s The Name of the Rose is also evident in The Limits of Interpretation (Advances in Semiotics). The subject is interpolated into a pretextual constructivist theory that includes consciousness as a reality. Thus, Sontag’s model of predialectic appropriation holds that the significance of the observer is social comment. Lacan uses the term ‘neomodern cultural theory’ to denote the role of the reader as poet. But Baudrillard suggests the use of Batailleist `powerful communication’ to modify...
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...Introduction Science education encompasses a significant part of a child’s formal and informal education. In order to solve everyday problems, children consciously or unconsciously engage in scientific thinking and analysis of situations. This scientific approach to solving everyday problems needs to be encouraged and developed in a formal educational setting where teachers continuously change and organize curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of their children (Poon, Tan & Tan, 2009). The best environment that fosters and develops structured scientific analytical thinking is the school, where the child spends the major section of his/her day when he/she is away from home. It is within the school environment that formal learning takes place. Acceptable attitudes and values which the child inculcates are transmitted by the teacher who is specifically trained to teach at given levels. The training of the teacher in the use of the most effective methods of teaching is therefore the first and foremost important goal preceding the child’s education, especially since it has been established that teachers go on to teach science in the same way that they have been taught (Marshall & Dorward, 2000). Upon investigation, in private as well as public schools, we have been privy to two familiar methods of teaching science in the elementary and kindergarten classrooms. The two common methods are the inquiry and the direct instruction methods of teaching. The inquiry...
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...Learning Styles and Strategies According to VARK Holly Holl Grand Canyon University: NRS 429V September 16, 2012 Learning Styles and Strategies According to VARK Neil Fleming co-authored the Fleming VARK learning model in 1987 with Colleen Mills. The acronym stands for Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic and is a questionnaire that provides users with a profile of their learning preferences, i.e., how information is taken in and given out (Fleming, 2001). The VARK learning styles are used toassess individual learning abilities orpreferences, the theories interpret the way in which the individual processes information and their ability to recall the information obtained. Learning style information can also benefit the student directly as they learn more about themselves and acquire knowledge of general learning theory (Breckler, 2009). Visual learners receive their information via, pictures, posters, slides, books with diagrams, graphs,symbols,flowcharts along with underlining,colors and highlights. Where as the aural strategies focus on attending actual class, watching and listening to tutorials, discuss topics with others, read and summarize notes outloud “hear” the understanding of the topic. Read/write students make lists, use resources such as dictionaries, handouts, textbooks and notes. A tendency toward writing out information over and over with different text assists the read/write learners.Organizing diagrams and graphs into statements with charts...
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...1. In your answer, identify the main lines of argument and differences in points of view between the commentators and the author. Justify your own point of view regarding the importance of reflection to individual and organisational performance. In his article, “I Don't Have Time to Think!, Versus the Art of Reflective Practice”, Joseph Raelin defined the importance of reflective practice, laid down organizational strategies that encourage reflection, and called for developing the skills of reflection. Two commentators, namely Phillip DiChiara and Philip McArthur, presented contra-arguments as to the standpoint of the author on reflective practices. DiChiara's main argument evolves around the creation of a “safe space” to make reflection viable, whereas McArthur reckons the key barrier to reflection-in-action is not necessarily time but skill. Besides, he disagrees with the author on how to apply certain skills of reflection at the individual or collective levels. Philip DiChiara opines that the concept of reflective practise is essentially unknown to many practitioners. His main argument is that reflective practice can never flourish if the organization or managers do not set the stage and create an environment for reflection. He argues that managers have to facilitate the correct balance between “getting down to business” and nurturing a conducive environment for refection in order to engage their peers. In his belief, this is essentially due to the differences from group...
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...According to the article “Perspectives on Learning, Thinking, and Activity,” situative and cognitive perspectives have both made a significant impact on educational thinking and towards the improvement of education. The purpose of doing research relative to learning processes is to “inform those who are responsible for forming policy-so that our children will not be the victims of well-intentioned but ill informed educational practices.” (Anderson, Greeno, Reder, Simon 2000) Situational learning is an instructional approach that follows the work of Vygotsky where students are inclined to learn actively by participating in the learning experience. “Like Piaget, Vygotsky argued that cognitive development results from a complex interaction between heredity and environment.” (Bohlin, Durwin, Reese-Weber 2012) Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD) theory states that the purpose of education is to give children experiences that are within their zones of proximal development thereby promoting and encouraging their individual learning. ZPD is the difference between “children’s actual developmental level and their level of potential development.” (Bohlin, Durwin, Reese-Weber 2012) Skills and understandings contained within a child’s ZPD are the ones that have not yet emerged, but could emerge if the child engages in interactions with knowledgeable others (i.e. peers and adults) or in other supportive contexts (i.e. make believe play). Children shift from performing...
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...CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction Learning environment refers to the physical characteristics of the surroundings of the students when learning. These may vary depending on environmental elements such as sound, light, temperature, and design (Tenedero, 2009). Sound is the first element of the learning environment. Most students are contented with only one sound inside the classroom. This sound refers to the teacher’s voice - explaining the lesson, giving out instructions or assignments, or scolding a student or the entire class (Tenedero, 2009). Some learners prefer total silence or minimum sound because sound acts as a distraction to their effective learning (Senge, 2006). A study done by an American, named James Wallace (2008), mentioned that Filipino students prefer a quiet environment rather than having music or other sounds when studying. However, there are researches which showed that many students prefer to listen to a lecture or study on their own with some background music on because it makes them more receptive to learning (Tenedero, 2009). Light is the second element of the learning environment. Brighter lightings can reduce visual problems, fatigue, and posture problems and produce effective learning which helps improve students’ academic performance (Jensen, 2006). However, research also shows that there are many students who perform significantly better in low light environments because bright lights make them restless, fidgety, and hyperactive. Dimmed...
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...HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC SERVICE Executive Summary “Maldives has a young civil service and high number of employees is employed at lower categories. These employees require technical skills in most of the policy implementing areas. However, as technical training opportunities are less in Maldives and to train employees abroad is expensive, there is a high demand for training and retraining for employees in Public Service.” Civil Service Commission’s Final Draft, Report and Strategy, 2010, pg14. In order to improve the effectiveness and the productivity of the civil service of the Maldives, it is important to do training needs analysis and cater effective training programs that can be given in the Maldives to increase their capability. The report is based on the Human Resource Development in public / civil service of the Maldives. The report outlines the analysis of training needs of the public service employees, planning and designing of training programs and their evaluations and a research on the role of UK government in Human Resource Development. In order to effectively complete this report, I have gathered information from various internet sites and the references of those sites have been shown under the heading Bibliography and References in page: 21. To complete task 1 and 2, I have interviewed civil service employees of different levels working in the AA. Atoll Hospital, AA. Atoll Education Centre, Secretariat of the North Ari Atoll and the Ministry...
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