V-+Piaget's+Constructivism

John Power ITEC 800 Mid Term

1. The Piaget Constructivism is a theory that describes the different ways that children react and think about certain things and how it has evolved over time. In addition, it describes under which circumstance children are more likely to let go of or hold onto their currently held views. Piaget’s thought was that children would not change their worldviews just because a teacher or another expert tells them that they are wrong (Ackermann).

2. The way the theory operates is that children instead of taking in information to interpret it use their own knowledge and experience as a way to understand what is being taught. Piaget believed that you learn through experience, meaning that students needed to have real world encounters in order to truly understand a subject. (Ackermann)

3. An example of Piaget’s constructivism in action is this diagram of different classes separated in a brain storm diagram using Piaget's constructivism. (http://constructivist-education.blogspot.com/)



4. Piaget’s constructivism is important to learning theory because before this theory most educators thought that children and adults learned the same way, but Piaget’s studies proved that the way children and adults see the world is quite different. He brought to the forefront different questions like what are the differences between an adult and a child’s brain. How do children show what they have learned? The strengths of the theory is that it calls for students to take a active part in their learning, which is important because if students are not motivated to learn than it makes your job as a teacher virtually impossible. An example of constructivism that is used today is different interactive educational programs that call for students to be active participants in their acquisition of knowledge. The weaknesses of the theory are that it severely limits the role of teacher, for essence Piaget believed the teacher’s role was to analyze the strengths and roles of each student and to provide them with guidance and resources if they needed it. This way of thinking does not work in the classroom because it has been proven that students need direction when it comes to learning and if you leave them to their own devices they lack the focus or knowledge to completely learn on their own. Using different parts of constructivism along with the traditional method of teaching like lectures would probably work well in a classroom, but solely relying on Piaget's constructivism will not work. (Driscoll Chapter 6 and Ginn).

5. Piaget’s constructivism to me is a theory about the benefits of individualized learning, meaning that students learn best when they are in an environment that encourages them to interact with the world around them and to use those experiences to teach themselves. The reason why I choose this theory was that I wanted to know how it was used in educational software programs. Now that I know it is used, this means that if I were to create one of these programs I would know how to create an educational outline for it.

References: Ackermann, Edith. "Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the difference?" PDF. Constructivist Education. (http://constructivist-education.blogspot.com/) Driscoll, Marcy P. (2000). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Allyn & Bacon. page 200. Ginn, Wanda Y. "JEAN PIAGET - INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT" (http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html).