Constructivist Teaching: Now and Then

Constructivist Teaching: Now and Then

Constructivist Teaching: Now and Then
According to D’Angelo, C., Touchman, S., Clark, D., Mayer, R., Dean, D. Jr., Hmelo-Silver, C. (2012); constructivist perceptions focus on how students build their own understanding. John Dewey projected that education should work with student’s present understanding taking into account of their previous philosophies and attention. Constructivism plays a huge role in the scholastic world. (Constructivism as a…, n.d.). Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky, Dewey, and Gagne are the five major contributors to the constructivist theory whom contributed their own views and beliefs into the theory.
Jean Piaget was paramount with constructing the constructivist theory and he set the foundation. Jean Piaget’s theory called the cognitive theory. Was developed by observing children and taking interest in how they thought and reacted to people and situations (Atherton, 2011). Piaget found that children’s mental development does not happen smoothly but in stages or chunks. This means that children, no matter how intelligent, cannot understand certain things in life because they have not reached that mental development stage yet (Atherton, 2011). Jean Piaget’s theory has been studied and used around the world for many decades now, and it continues to be the most accepted theory on cognitive development.
There are five leading tenets or principles to the constructivist theory that will be addressed, and examples of each will then accompany them. The first of the five tenets is, “how student entry points might be identified?" This is talking about how the teachers look for value in the students views; that the value presented shows that there is thought (The Five Tenets…, n.d.). A teacher will take what a student has written or spoken to him or her and find the value in what that student is trying to share with the teacher and the class. The second tenet is, what is involved in structuring the experiences that will build bridges from present...

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