Constructivism

INTRO!

Constructivism has emerged over the past few decades as a major instructional movement emphasizing the active role of learners engaged in meaningful, authentic and collaborative tasks. Unlike traditional objectivist instructional models, which treated knowledge as a trans-ferable commodity, constructivist models view instruction as a learner-centered process where stud-ents assume major responsibility for con-structing new knowledge through carefully guided experiences linked to real-world situations.

Constructivist Theories	Objectives
Discovery Learning	1. Define and state common principles of constructivist learning environments. 2. Discuss Dewey's notion of learning by doing as a foundation for constructivism. 3. Discuss the major contributions of Jerome Bruner to Discovery Learning theory. 4. Define Bruner's spiral curriculum and relate it to Jonassen's generative learning. 5. Discuss the roll of inductive reasoning in discovery learning. 6. Differentiate discovery learning from previous cognitive learning principles.
Situated Learning	1. Explain Deweyan pragmatism as a foundation for situated learning theory. 2. Define and state the significance of situated learning. 3. Define anchored instruction and cite a famous example. 4. Distinguish problem-based learning from anchored instruction. 5. Identify the major principles of functional context theory and differentiate it from situativity theory. 6. Discuss cognitive apprenticeship as a model derived from situated learning theory.