How Do We Process Information?

 How Do We Process Information? 

The Big Three

    How individuals acquire knowledge has been talked about for years, and three main concepts have been developed on how knowledge is obtained. The three concepts are behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. With each theory of learning comes different roles of the learners and instructors. The different learning theories play an important role for instructional designers, because the learning theories may require different activities, learning objectives/goals, and different assessments to be implemented. 
  

Constructivism

    Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky are the individuals responsible for constructivism. The idea of constructivism focuses on three main things...

    1. Learners are active participants in their learning. 
    2. When learners can interact with their peers, they can learn from each other. 
    3. Learners benefit and can obtain information in a purposeful way when they are in their Zone of Proximal Development. 

Constructivism believes that every learner brings different experiences into the learning environment, and as the instructor, your goal is to build on that prior knowledge, have opportunities for learners to interact with each other, provide hands-on activities, and allow for reflection (Kurt, 2021). If all of that can be accomplished, then learning has occurred. 

Constructivism in the Classroom: 

        Author Cloutier (n.d.), provides a great example of constructivism being applied. In the example, the author uses a fourth-grade classroom as the setting; in this classroom, students are learning about pressure. Students go to a station, four at a time, and at the station, the following occurs according to Cloutier (n.d.)...

    - Students are presented with the following guided question, "Why do the water bubbles expand when they come to the surface?" (Learning Theories (#1-5) — Andréanne Cloutier, n.d.). 
- Students use the guiding question to infer what they think and justify their responses based on prior knowledge. 
- Students collaborate with their team members and interact with the manipulatives available at the stations to hypothesize. 
- The teacher acts as a facilitator and supports students. 

The scenario provided above is an example of constructivism because it incorporates the key components. Students are collaborating with their peers, prior knowledge is being activated, the lesson is engaging and hands-on, and finally, the zone of proximal development is initiated. 

 Constructivism and E-learning:

    Constructivism is not limited to in-person learning, it can also be applied in an E-learning environment. Even though the setting is different for E-learning, it is still crucial to ensure components such as activating prior knowledge, providing collaboration, incorporating ways for learners to be active participants in their learning, and having the role of the teacher be the facilitator present. The following strategies can be implemented in an E-learning course to achieve a constructive learning environment (Constructivism – Instructional Coaches Corner, n.d.)...

 - Solving problems 
- Group projects 
- Collaborative discussions 
- The facilitator is a mentor for the learners. 

 

Resources: 

Constructivism – Instructional Coaches Corner. (n.d.). https://www.instructionalcoaches.com/portfolio/constructivism/

Kurt, S. (2021, February 21). Constructivist Learning Theory - Educational Technology. Educational Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/constructivist-learning-theory/

Learning Theories (#1-5) — Andréanne Cloutier. (n.d.). Andréanne Cloutier. https://www.francofunclass.com/learning-theories 

Pngtree. (n.d.). Flat wind brain line illustration PNG and PSD. https://pngtree.com/so/brain-clipart 












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