What is constructivism in education?

He constructivism It is a shared position for different trends in psychological and educational research. Among them are the theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, Ausubel, Bruner. Although none of them were called as constructivist, their ideas and proposals illustrate this current.

Main characteristics of constructivism

Constructivism It is a theory that aims to explain what the nature of human knowledge is. Learning is essentially active. A person who learns something new, incorporates it into their previous experiences and their own mental structures. Each new information is assimilated and deposited in a network of knowledge and experiences that exist previously. The process is subjective, since each person modifies according to their experiences. Experience leads to the creation of mental schemes that we store in our minds and that are growing and becoming more complementary through two complementary processes: assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1955). Constructivism also has a strong social component, cultural development appears doubly, first at a social level and then at the individual level (Vygotsky, 1978).

Constructivist learning has 8 differential characteristics:

1. The constructivist environment in learning provides people with contact with multiple representations of reality.
2. The multiple representations of reality evade simplifications and represent the complexity of the real world.
3. Constructivist learning emphasizes knowledge within its reproduction.
4. Constructivist learning highlights authentic tasks in a significant way in the context, instead of abstract instructions out of context.
5. Provides learning environments such as daily life environments instead of a predetermined instructions sequence.
6. Constructivist learning environments encourage reflection in experience.
7. They allow context and content depending on the construction of knowledge.
8. They support the collaborative construction of learning through social negotiation.

Representative authors and researchers

· Jean Piaget (Neuchâtel, 1896-Ginebra, 1980)

Bicinence in Biology obtained the doctorate in 1918 from the study of mollusks. He was interested in the way organisms adapt to their environment began in psychology in Zurich and Paris. From the growth of his three children, he developed a sensoriomotor intelligence theory that subsequently complemented, with different studies that explained the development of intelligence. In 1955 he founded and presided over the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva. From there elaborate your THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY.

· Lev s. Vigotsky (Orsha, Belarus, 1896 - Moscow, 1934)

Humanistic Training accesses the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Moscow in 1913, but changes the university law studies and ends them in 1917. He studied philosophy, psychology and literature at Shayavsky University. He began working on matters of literature and art and publishes his works under the title "Psychology of Art". In 1924 he makes his way to the world of psychology with a communication entitled "The method of reflexological and psychological research" ". Vigotsky from the Moscow Psychology Institute opened new perspectives in the field of development psychology, psycholinguistics and education. In this last field he made great contributions with his Social Constructivism Theory.

· Jerome Bruner (New York, 1919 - 2016)

He graduated at the University of Duke in 1937 and in 1941 he did the doctorate in Psychology at Harvard University. In 1960 he founded the Cognitive Studies Center of Harvard University and was one of the promoters of cognitive psychology. His cognitive theory of Learning by discovery, that develops, among others, the idea of ​​"scaffolding"Taked from Vigotsky's social constructivism theory.

David Paul Ausubel (New York, 1918 - 2008)

Son of an emigrant Jewish family in Europe, he worried about the way he was educated in his time and especially in his culture. Studied at the University of New York and created and disseminate the Meaningful learning theory. Share many ideas by Vigotsky (the construction of knowledge according to the reality of the apprentice) and Novak (the most important is to know the previous ideas of the students. Instead Discrep from Bruner in the validity of learning by discovery as valid for science.

· Joyce Setzinger

In 2006 he published the work "Be constructive: blogs, podcasts and wikis as constructivist learning tools. In this way, with your Online Learning Theory It contributes to constructivism from a new aspect, given the collaborative tools offered by information and communication technologies as fundamental and basic tools in a constructivist learning.

The objectives set out for construction theory

• Learning is an internal constructive process, self -structuring.
• The degree of learning depends on the level of cognitive development.
• Previous knowledge is the starting point of all learning.
• Learning is a process of re-constructing cultural knowledge.
• Learning is facilitated thanks to mediation or interaction with others.
• Learning implies an internal reorganization process of schemes.
• Learning occurs when what the student already knows with what he should know.

Constructivist conception is characterized by having a hierarchical structure in which the explanatory principles that make up the backbone of this conception are registered.

What is constructivism and how it is used in therapy?