Constructivism as a Theory

Constructivism is one of the theories of education that ascertains that people acquire knowledge and meaning from the activities that involve their interaction with the experiences and ideas of others is different environmental setting. The onset of the theory is a masterpiece work of Jean Paget. He developed the baselines of the theory from a succinct study and analysis of the methods the learners use to synthesize the concepts taught. The theory was then based on the process of accommodation and assimilation to describe how humans discover new knowledge from experiences and interactions (Gan & Lodder, 2013).

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The theory explains how individuals initiate the process of gaining new knowledge through assimilation. The learners must incorporate the acquired experiences in the real phenomenon without welcoming any changes. The student then allows the activities to create an enabling environment for the understanding of the world representations. When individual fail to change the misconceptions they have on a particular matter witnessed from the experiences, then they are subjected to faulty judgments. Such scenarios arise when the learner is unable to depict events taking place, misunderstand the perception of others or prejudice thoughts. The process of finding meaning from the experiences varies from one individual to another; however, the fault interpretations can be eliminated when learners create room for the views of other students (Riordan-Karlsson, 2000).

When students have assimilated the experiences, then they are ready for the process of accommodation. At this stage, the learner modifies the mental frameworks and to accept the experience lessons emanating from the external environment. The process of accommodation allows students to create space that will enable the fitting-in of the new knowledge from the experiences. The new concepts may change the faulty interpretations and perceptions the learner previously had. Therefore, the accommodation phase of constructivism affirms that failure will lead to more learning. Students with particular understanding find it difficult to accept realities when they unfold leading to failure. However, this is the best moment for the students to embrace the new concepts by reframing the mind and learn from the failures. Constructivism offers a description of the learning process and an assimilation and accommodation cycle of events within environmental experiences (Fosnot, 2014).

Constructivism as a theory is concerned with the how learners acquire knowledge from their environment experiences. Nevertheless, the use of the information is not the concern of the theory. Some students may use the knowledge to understand further the concepts that they are taught or will be taught while other may use the model to help them unravel the paradox in their lives and the creation of sophisticated models. Therefore, constructivism is not pedagogy (Lodder, 1983). Moreover, it is necessary to note that the pedagogy approaches and techniques are used in Constructivism when explaining the learning processes through practice. The complexity of the interchangeability has made scholars to argue that the process of learning through experience should be considered as a philosophy rather than a theory to allow the use of precise descriptions or the attribute of design strategies (Glaserfeld, 1987).

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fosnot, C. T. (2014). Constructivism. Teachers College Press.

Gan, A., & Lodder, C. (2013). Constructivism. Barcelona: Editorial Tenov.

Glaserfeld, E. v. (1987). Constructivism. Edmonton: University of Toronto Press.

Lodder, C. (1983). Russian constructivism. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Riordan-Karlsson, M. (2000). Constructivism. Carlifornia: Westminister, CA.