This was initially used for EDUC 203 class (Facilitating Learning). References include: Aquino, Avelina. (2009) Facilitating Human Learning. Manila: Rex Bookstore Inc. Corpuz, Brenda B. et al., (2014) Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process. Metro Manila: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

1. CONSTRUCTIVISM:
KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION /
CONCEPT LEARNING

2. “Teaching is not about filling up the pail;
it is about lighting a fire.”
- Williams Butler Yeats treats

3. CONSTRUCTIVISM
- One of the most influential educational theories, it focuses on students’
knowledge construction.
- Based on observation and scientific study about how people learn ,
rooted in the psychology-based traditions of Dewey, Bruner, Piaget and
Vygotsky.
- Neuroscience: it is a result of complex sets of connections being formed
between neurons, these connections being called dendrites.

4. CONSTRUCTIVISM
- “teaching that emphasizes the active role of the learner in building
understanding and making sense of information ” (Woolfolk, 2006)
- “a theory of how learning occurs “ (Henson, 1996 as cited by Parsons et al.
2000)
- People construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world
through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.
- The learner is much more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the
teacher in creating (constructing) new meaning; learning is an active
contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it
(lighting a fire, rather than filling up the pail)

5. PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• to enable students to acquire information in ways that make that
information most readily understood and usable.

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Active learning is preferable to passive learning.
• Learning takes place best in communities of learners, that is a group or social situations.
• Learners should engage in “authentic and situated” activities, that is, the tasks they face
should be concrete rather than abstract: real problems versus hypothetical ones.
• Learners should relate new information to that which they already have through
bridging.
• Learners should reflect or think about what is being learned.
• Rather than present information to learners, teachers facilitate its acquisition.
• Teachers must provide learners with scaffolding assistance needed for them to progress.
• Students are expected to resolve what they thought they knew with new
understandings.

7. TWO VIEWS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
1.Individual (or Cognitive) Constructivism
2.Social Constructivism

8. INDIVIDUAL / COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Emphasizes on an individual’s internal construction of knowledge, largely based on
Piaget’s theory
• More on child-centered and discovery learning
• Learners should be allowed to discover principles through their own exploration
rather than direct instruction by the teacher
• Each learner interprets experiences and information in the light of their extant
knowledge, their stage of cognitive development, their cultural background, their
personal history etc.
• Teacher’s role: to facilitate discovery by providing the necessary resources and by
guiding learners as they attempt to assimilate new knowledge to old and to modify
the old to accommodate the new.

9. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Emphasizes that knowledge exists in a social context and is initially
shared with others instead of being represented solely in the mind of
the individual, based on Vygotsky’s theory.
• Construction of knowledge is shared by two or more people; knowledge
construction becomes social, not individual
• Teacher’s role: to recognize the level of cognitive development of
his/her learner and to consider what a learner can do at a particular
time as well as the “zone” within which they can master new material
and to appropriate the scaffolding necessary for the child’s
development

10. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO VIEWS OF CONSTRUCTION
According to Eggen and Kauchak:
1. Learners construct understanding.
2. New learning depends on current understanding.
3. Learning is facilitated by social interaction.
4. Meaningful learning occurs within authentic learning tasks.

11. ORGANIZING KNOWLEDGE : CONCEPTS
CONCEPT – a way of grouping or categorizing objects or events in our
mind. They may be simple or complicated, and may be revised as you
learn and experience more.

12. CONCEPT AS FEATURE LISTS
• Defining Feature – characteristic/s present in ALL instances.
• Correlational Feature – characteristic/s that may be present in
many positive instances but not essential for concept
membership.

13. CONCEPT AS PROTOTYPE
Prototype – an idea or a visual image of a typical example. It is
usually formed based on the positive instances that learners
encounter most often.

14. CONCEPT AS EXEMPLARS
Exemplars – represent a variety of examples. It allows learners
to know that an example under a concept may have variability.

15. MAKING CONCEPT-LEARNING EFFECTIVE
• Provide a clear definition of the concept
• Make a defining features very concrete and prominent
• Give a variety of positive instances
• Give negative instances
• Cite a “best example” or a prototype
• Provide opportunity for learners to identify positive and negative instances
• Ask learners to think of their own example of the concept
• Point out how concepts can be related to each other

16. SCHEMAS AND SCRIPTS
• Schema – an organized body of knowledge about something. It is like a
file of information you hold in your mind about something.
• Script - is a schema that includes a series of predictable events about a
specific activity.

17. APPLYING CONSTRUCTIVISM IN FACILITATING LEARNING
• Aim to make learners understand a few key ideas in an in-depth manner,
rather than taking up so many topics superficially.
• Give varied examples.
• Provide opportunities for experimentation.
• Provide lots of opportunities for quality interaction.
• Have lots of hands-on activities.
• Relate your topic to real life situations.
• Do not depend on the explanation method all the time.