“So, what is Constructivism?”

The librarian and staff at our theological library have been inviting professors to lunch and conversations. My turn came last week. They are a very intelligent, nice, and helpful group of folks, as librarians tend to be. It was good to be with folks who help make my job in education and research much easier and more pleasant. During the lunch conversation I talked about the educational theory that informs my approach to teaching the education courses at the seminary, Constructivism. Which prompted the question, “So, what is Constructivism?” That’s a good question worth revisiting.

Constructivism finds its origin in the works of Dewey and others, and in the study of cognition. Today’s most recognized proponent of Constructivism is Jerome Bruner. A major theme in the theoretical framework of Constructivism is that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge. Through the experience of learning, the learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (conceptual schemas, mental models, etc.) help create meaning and organization to experiences and allows the learner to “go beyond the information given.”

When it comes to teaching, then, the instructor should try and encourage students to uncover concepts and discover principles themselves. The instructor and student should engage in an active dialog (i.e., Socratic learning). The task of the instructor is to translate information to be learned into a format appropriate to the learner’s current state of understanding. A common practice in curriculum design therefore, is its organization in a spiral manner. In this way the students continually builds upon what they have already learned.

Bruner (1966) stated that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of reinforcements. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying; generating new propositions and knowledge, and increasing the ability to manipulate (apply) information and knowledge.

Bruner’s recent works (1986, 1990, 1996) have increased relevance to Christian education in that he has expanded the theoretical framework of the constructivist approach to encompass the social and cultural aspects of learning.

Three Basic Principles

1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness, no “pretend learning,” application in context, the creation of products).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization, manageable chunks, integration, etc.).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given; using intuition, hunches, imagination, etc.).

Basic References:
Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1973). Going Beyond the Information Given. New York: Norton.
Bruner, J. (1983). Child’s Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: Norton.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J., Goodnow, J., & Austin, A. (1956). A Study of Thinking. New York: Wiley.