FREE ESSAY ON CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING THEORY

CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING THEORY

Students need to be able to learn how to become effective problem solvers. They should be

able to identify problems, evaluate those problems and then decipher a way to transfer
their learning 
to those problems in a way that will bring about a solution. If a student is able to
perform in a problem 
solving situation a meaningful learning should then occur because he has constructed an
interpretation
of how things work using preexisting structured. This is the theory behind
Constructivism.
By creating a personal interpretation of external ideas and experiances, constructivism
allows 
students the ability to understand how ideas can relate to each other and preexisting
knowledge. A 
teacher must then recognize the importance of the cognative and social approaches for
learning and 
teaching so that she may aid the students' development in constructivist learning. Both
approaches are 
valuable because one will emphasize the role of cognative processes and the other will
emphasize 
culture and social interaction in the role of meaningful learning.
One, however, may wonder how to go about enforcing these approaches. One method is 
through scaffolding, providing a student with sufficient information to be able to
complete a task on his 
own or, to present a gradual decrease in the amount of help availible allowing the
student the 
capacity to work independantly. Situated learning will present the student with a set of
learning tasks 
placed in realistic contexts. This will include the abilities to use knowledge in a
functioning learning 
approach and acquiring inert knowledge based on the learning of isolated facts in limited
conditions. 
Lastly, students should, through the use of multiple perspectives, be able to view
problems and ideas.
These ideas presented will then be able to shed light on the nature of problem solving.
There are three most common types of problems, the first being well-structured problems.
Well-structured problems are ones clearly stated with known solution procedures and
evaluation standards; an example being a mathamatical process. Another type of problem
are those that are ill-structured; they are stated vaguely, have unclear solution
procedures, and vague standards of evalalution. The third type, issue problems, are
ill-structured problems that will arrouse srtong feelings in the students. The first step
in helping students become adaquate problems solvers is assuring they realize that a
problem does exist. Once a problem is identifiedm students should be expected to
understand the nature of the problem. The next logical step would then be for those
students to compile all relevant information to their problem allowing them to formulate
and carry out a solution. Lastly, the students would then be required to evaluate their
solutions working out the imperfections, clarifying the results.
Problem solving is a very necessary abilty for a student which will, in a way, garuntee
his future abilty to transfer knowledge. The student needs a firm base understanding of
the problem solving concepts to induce a positive transfer of his later ideas. He should
be able to recognize the need for different problem solving techniques and how to relate
and separate theories in his knowledge. The teacher should be able to present the
starting grounds to enable her students a method of producing the solutions to their
problems.
Bibliography
Snowman, J., & Biehler, R. (2000). Psychology Applied to Teaching (9th edition) Boston,
MA: Houghton Miflin Company.