At CDSM, we draw on a range of theories – from the past and the present – to form the method and practice behind our award-winning e-learning. This is known as our ‘pedagogy’. In our first two posts in this series, we gave you an insight into how we use some of the essential aspects of ‘behaviourism’ in our digital learning solutions. Now, we’re going to introduce you to a theory which plays an even bigger part in our thinking: Constructivism.
When we encounter something new, we process it by measuring it against our existing ideas and experiences. When we meet a dog in the street, for example, we very quickly recognise it as belonging to the class of objects that we identify as ‘animals’, and then further classify it as being a ‘dog’.
Constructivists believe that this is how we learn, by being an active participant in the learning process, and constructing our own understanding and knowledge of the subject matter through experience and reflection.
For something as simple as adding a new breed of dog to an existing class of objects, all we need to do is to tap into our existing understanding of the concept of ‘dogs’. For most people, the association between an object (the dog) and such a simple concept (‘dogs’) happens within milliseconds – but constructivists believe that the same process of using experience to construct meaning applies to all concepts, even though some more difficult concepts may take longer for the learner to evaluate and assess.
However, although constructivism places an emphasis on learner autonomy, this doesn’t mean that learners should be simply left to their own devices. The theory also identifies the need for support in learning, something which is known as ‘scaffolding’.
To continue with the theme of classifying animals, when early European settlers – who had no prior experience of marsupials – first saw koalas in Australia, they incorrectly classified the tree-climbing animals as bears, a misnomer which is still widely used to this day. Making sure that scaffolding is in place for constructivist learning prevents incorrect conclusions from becoming accepted classifications for the learner, whilst still allowing the learner the freedom to find things out for themselves.
As we’ve already mentioned, the constructivist method of learning encourages students to use their existing experience and ideas to create new knowledge. This might be through experimenting, thinking about what they already know and/or applying real-world skills. The key is to then have students reflect upon what they have done and how their understanding of a subject has changed.
At CDSM, our subscription to constructivist learning theory is reflected in the tools and techniques we use to create e-learning content. We particularly like activities that ask the user to contribute their own ideas – ‘starter activities’ at the beginning of a unit of study, for example, enable the user to consider an idea before being told more about it. ‘Suggested response’ activities are very useful in this context too, getting users to respond to a question or idea with the opportunity to see some of our suggestions if they wish (i.e. offering scaffolding when required). Open-ended questions are also a useful device, enabling users to reflect upon what they have just learnt.
Our learning platform technology enables users to actively engage in their learning. We have features that facilitate inquiry and discovery, such as shared spaces and a content repository. These features allow users to be active curators of their own knowledge, by letting them explore existing user-created resources, and even create and add their own.
We want our users to have access to a community of learners, and this is something we achieve by providing them with communication tools – such as forums and chat facilities – that promote discussion and critical thinking. These are actually innovations that lean towards a more ‘social constructivist’ way of thinking, a branch of constructivism that we’ll be covering in Part 4 of this series.