An article by Sarah Bergsen, Erik Meester, Paul Kirschner and Anna Bosman
So-called ‘educational innovations’ in which the teacher assumes the role of ‘facilitator, mentor or coach’ do not appear to be very successful. Nevertheless, ‘constructivist’ ideas are still popular in education, as evidenced by the everlasting large number of minimally guided instructional practices. Sarah Bergsen, Erik Meester, Paul A. Kirschner and Anna Bosman say: “We could and should know better by now.”
Constructivism is not a pedagogy
Philosophers have enriched mankind with many new and meaningful insights, but as time progresses, new research might show us that some of these insights are flawed. For example, our physical world is not built from the four elements earth, air, fire and water but from atoms, and the appearance of organisms isn’t drawn from a transcendent world of Forms but from our genome. In other words: not all philosophical ideas are later confirmed by empirical evidence. This also applies to constructivism, which made its way from a theory of knowledge to a philosophy of education, and doesn’t seem to provide a sound basis for pedagogy.
Constructivism is a theory of knowledge emphasising that knowledge is the result of active construction of reality and not of passive representations of it. Proponents of this theory state that each individual maintains their own interpretation of their surrounding reality. Knowledge is thus a man-made construct in which the components of a complex idea are assembled into a concept (Bednar et al., 1991). The manner in which an individual sees and interprets reality depends on their own knowledge and personal history.
In educational settings, these concepts are then usually validated through social interactions with fellow students or the teacher; this is referred to as social constructivism (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). This results in the idea that knowledge cannot be directly transferred, leaving the value and meaning of explicit teaching of knowledge and skills within this philosophy unclear.
The rise of ‘the constructivist classroom’
Since the sixties, constructivist ideas have become more popular in education (see ‘Sputnik crisis’ below). This has led to a fertile environment for different recipes and formats of what is sometimes called ‘the constructivist classroom’ (see for Dutch examples, among others, Gerrits, 2004; Kok, 2003; Schouwenburg, 2015). At the core of the constructivist classroom, we often find project-based, problem-based or experience-based learning approaches. School concepts such as teaching via maker-spaces, open learning plazas, experiential learning, natural learning, personalised learning and learning centres are regarded as ‘educational innovations’. The common denominator is that these innovative schools (mostly) abandon classroom-based and teacher-directed learning environments and are moving more towards what they call a ‘learner centred’ approach.
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This approach to learning and ‘teaching’, can, for example, be organised in the form of projects around a complex problem or issue. In this approach each project focuses on a certain topic or ‘big idea’. A group of students will then study this topic and then work out an assignment together, which they will eventually present to others. The assumption is that this will enable them to tap into – and further develop – generic or ‘broad’ skills, such as collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. The reasoning is that you learn more from the process or ‘experience’ than from learning specific knowledge and skills (which, according to some, are supposed to ‘have become obsolete in the rapidly changing 21st century world’).
What does this process actually entail? The students must actively explore complex topics and ’authentic’ (working) environments on their own. In this way, they are expected to learn to think like an expert in a certain domain (or even worse: interdisciplinary). Learning objectives are therefore not so much of a substantive nature, but more focused on the process of ‘constructing’. It is important that the student is able to effectively monitor, evaluate and update this self-directed process. The instructor focuses on designing and offering a rich learning environment in which the student can gain the necessary authentic experiences: “The goal of instruction is not to ensure that individuals know particular facts but rather that they elaborate on and interpret information” (Ertmer & Newby, 2013).
In short, the role of the teacher changes from a knowledgeable expert to a kind of facilitator, by providing a rich learning environment. (S)he can then take on the role of coach who follows the students, interjects her-/himself into the learning process when thought necessary and is available for consultation on request. In this way, the student and her/his ability for self-management are prioritised and it is assumed that a better transfer to other (work) situations will take place.
Constructivist thinking has also influenced many other areas, including ethics, theology, art and mathematics. For higher education, it was mainly Von Glasersfeld (1984) who played a central role in the natural sciences (Matthews, 1998). Von Glasersfeld also used the work of the well-known developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, although, remarkably enough, there are no indications at all that the latter thought that reality was unknown and that any constructed view of reality was correct. Piaget once said “Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered for himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.” (Klahr & Nigam, 2004). It’s important to note that, Piaget, as a developmental psychologist, has never been concerned with learning or designing lessons or a curriculum, so the question is whether he really assumed that we could or should only learn by discovering things by ourselves. His opinion was that offering education to children who are not yet ready for it was pointless. But that doesn’t equate to not offering them anything at all.
Constructivist policies
In the Netherlands, the introduction of the ‘Second Phase’ [Tweede Fase] and the ‘Study House’ [Studiehuis] in 1998 was a forerunner of the constructivist approach to education. Ten years later, the devastating report ‘Tijd voor Onderwijs’ [Time for Education] by the parliamentary committee led by former Labour Party Member of Parliament Jeroen Dijsselbloem about the ill-considered implementation of this ‘new way of learning’ was published: “The inner circle of policymakers was insufficiently open to criticism and warnings. Experience rather than scientific research formed the basis for the pedagogical innovations that were implemented. There was a lack of proper pilots and experiments.”
The advice to the government was not to interfere with the method of instruction – the ‘how’ – but only with the content – the ‘what’. It seems that the Dutch ministry of education has since followed that advice. An important part of the educational field (i.e. the school boards) has, however, relentlessly continued to ‘innovate’ – or rather ‘change’ – the education system. Policies based on constructivist ideas are still common, although up until 2019 there is still no evidence that the teacher who takes a step back and puts the control of learning in the hands of the student is more effective and efficient than the teacher who provides explicit instruction (see, for example, Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006; Mayer, 2004). This was recently confirmed (yet again) by OECD PISA research results: “Perhaps surprisingly, in no education system do students who reported that they are frequently exposed to enquiry-based instruction score higher in science” (OESO, 2016). And: “What happens inside the classroom is crucial for students’ learning and career expectations. In almost all education systems, students score higher in science when they reported that their science teachers “explain scientific ideas,” “discuss their questions” or “demonstrate an idea” more frequently” (ibidem).
In other words, when we take empirical science into account, the constructivist philosophy of education does not appear to be a sound basis for educational design and making day-to-day educational choices. Nevertheless, minimally guided instructional practices, such as discovery learning, enquiry-based learning and problem-based learning, remain popular. It is understandable that the famous educational psychologist Jerome Bruner recommended these practices in the 1960s, as little was known about human cognitive architecture at that time. Until then, the psychology of learning was dominated by behaviourism; cognitive psychology was still in its earliest stages. But nowadays, we could and should know better.
Epistemology is not pedagogy
The term ‘constructivism’ encompasses much more than we can discuss here, but most educational professionals are familiar with constructivism as a theory of knowledge or epistemology. Epistemology explores how we can acquire ‘true’ knowledge and what it means to know something (Steup, 2005). This discussion about the nature of knowledge is a recurring phenomenon in the history of philosophy. But since the rise of cognitive psychology in particular, we have more scientific insights with an empirical basis than ever that can help point us in the right direction in this discussion. Furthermore, from the point of view of cultural anthropology, the idea that one cannot transfer knowledge directly – as constructivist philosophy implies – is actually very strange. On the contrary, it is generally accepted that the transmission of our cumulative culture to future generations is what makes man as a species (homo sapiens) unique (Haidle et al., 2015).
In 1992, Paul Kirschner explained for the first time that there was an important fallacy in the world of education. Pedagogy – the method of instruction – is about the empirical science of teaching: supporting the student in her or his learning process by applying effective and scientifically proven instructional strategies. A theory of knowledge – and this is what constructivism is – is not pedagogy. The majority of cognitive psychologists are of the opinion that learning is the active (re)construction of knowledge; we ourselves create the cognitive schemas in our long-term memory, add new information to those schemas, broaden and deepen those schemas or create new (sub)schemas, and – when necessary – actively adapt those schemas to new information and experiences. In other words, according to cognitive psychology we do construct our own knowledge! However, it is wrong to assume that the way in which people process information and acquire knowledge can be translated directly into a teaching method or educational policy.
Learning to read
Consider the way we learn to read. Learning to read in first grade is characterised by sounding out each letter (or grapheme) of a word, like in /mmmmm/…, /a/…., /t/…../mat/. After a couple of months, the same child will respond to the written word MAT almost instantaneously with /mat/, without sounding out each letter separately. This behaviour is characteristic of experienced or expert readers. In the past, reading method developers made the mistake to take the fluent reading behaviour as the way to teach children. In the so-called whole-word approach, children were told to read the entire word in one glance. Without teaching each of the letters in for example, MAT, MAP, MAL, MAN, MAR, MASS, MAST, MAD, children were asked to make the distinction between these words that are visually quite similar, but their readings are clearly distinct. To learn each word individually requires a long and laborious training. The fact that our writing system is based on a set of 26 letters and that each word can be written with these letters is an amazing parsimonious system. It is therefore that we teach children the building blocks (i.e., the letters), such that after some time they are capable of reading all words, words they haven’t seen or heard before, and even pseudowords, such as KLARP. The reading behaviour of the beginner is necessarily different from that of the expert, but develops into expert reading behaviour after practise.
This example demonstrates that the way in which experienced readers read is not a good guideline for reading instruction. However, this misleading view seems to have become commonplace in education, as evidenced by certain textbooks that have been promoted (e.g. Fry, Ketteridge & Marshall, 2009) and the one-sided emphasis on constructivism as the ideological basis of education (Kok, 2003). Educational researcher Piet van der Ploeg warned Dutch Universities about this as early as 2005. “By blindly betting on constructivism, initial teacher training is at risk of wandering around theoretically. It is more fruitful to return to developmental psychology.” (Van der Ploeg, 2005, p. 13). Does this mean that constructivism has no value at all for education?
Experts learn differently
On the basis of much empirical research, we know that novices – which most students are – benefit most from explicit, direct instruction with guided practice and relevant feedback (Becker & Gersten, 2001; Stockard et al., 2018). Experts, on the other hand, are the ones who have reached the borders of knowledge in their field of expertise. There are few who can teach them; after all, they themselves are the experts. The only route they can take to expand their knowledge is to try to find new theoretical connections or to carry out an experiment or research; they are completely self-directed. Of course, this will often include consultations with other experts in their field or in allied fields.
Scientists are in that position. They have no other option but to take a constructivist approach when it comes to discovering something new; that is their epistemology. But this differs greatly from the way a beginner learns. A biologist carries out research (she or he does science), a student in a biology class learns how to carry out research (she or he learns science). This is a crucial difference. Applying a discipline is not the same as learning that discipline: “A student, as opposed to a scientist, is still learning about the subject area in question and, therefore, possesses neither the theoretical sophistication nor the wealth of experience of the scientist. Also, the student is learning science – as opposed to doing science – and should be aided in her/his learning through the application of an effective pedagogy and good instructional design” (Kirschner, 2009).
The difference lies in both the quality and the quantity of the knowledge available to novices and experts (see Table 1). The guild system is another good example of the age-old and proven distinction between an expert (the master) and his novices (the apprentice and the somewhat more advanced, c.q. intermediate, journeyman).
Table 1: Differences between novice and expert (adapted from Didau, 2019)
Research within domains such as chess (De Groot, 1946, 1965; see frame ‘Thought and choice in chess ‘), physics (Chi, Feltovich & Glaser, 1979) and air traffic control (Van Meeuwen et al., 2014), shows that experts have other so-called schemata in their long-term memory than novices. These schemata not only contain more knowledge but the knowledge is also better-organised. The expert’s knowledge enables her or him to recognise the in-depth structure of a problem rather than being confused by the surface features.
These more extensive (that is, complicated, deep, rich) schemata that experts rely on, ensure that they have less trouble than beginners with the limitations of working memory. They do not see an incoherent collection of pieces of information, but well-organised chunks and/or related units or patterns of information. Experts can also use alternative problem-solving strategies that are more effective, more efficient, easier to apply and less cognitively demanding.
Another important argument for regarding almost all students as beginners is ironically, also based on Piaget’s work. In his stages theory of cognitive development, he initially assumed that children between the ages of twelve and fifteen pass from the concrete-operational stage to the formal-operational stage. In his limited sample of children he saw this transition in thinking, but later it turned out that the majority of capable adults did not reach the formal-operational stage. Only in the area of their expertise do they appear to think and act in a formally operational manner (Chiapetta, 1976; Tricot & Sweller, 2014). Piaget erred on this point, something he himself observed later in his career (Piaget, 1972). Maturation does not explain everything, because the transition to the latter stage requires targeted and domain-specific efforts.
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So far, we have refuted the common misconception that students are some sort of junior experts and that they can solve complex ‘real-life’ problems without intensive instruction and guidance from the teacher, as experts do. But we don’t have to go back to a ‘factory model education’, like some people frame it, as it was a century ago either. There is a very appealing alternative.
Responsive teaching
In the educational context, you can (hopefully) assume that students are beginners and teachers are experts. Students, especially at the start of their courses and studies, are still building, expanding, deepening, and strengthening their knowledge. The chance of successfully solving a complex problem depends on the amount of domain-specific (prior) knowledge at the disposal of students (Willingham, 2002). In most cases, this (prior) knowledge is not yet present or insufficiently present. In this case, the teacher has the important task of lending their knowledge to the student, so to speak, and of ensuring that this knowledge ends up in the long-term memory of the student. We call this the borrowing and reorganising principle (Bartlett, 1932; Sweller & Sweller, 2006).
However, this does not happen by itself and it requires an explicit and responsive approach to teaching. The teacher is advised to offer new information in small steps and to ask a lot of thought provoking questions at each step, in order to check the students’ understanding on the one hand and to strengthen what has been learned on the other. The teacher has to demonstrate a lot while explaining how you do something and why, preferably with supporting visuals. The ongoing interaction between teacher and students enables the teacher to give targeted and timely feedback in order to gradually phase out guidance until the students mastered the content and thereby are able to successfully fulfil the relevant problems, projects or tasks without support (Rosenshine, 2012).
Initially, it’s important for the student to pay attention to the important basic knowledge that is needed to be able to effectively understand and perform the complex tasks in the long term; in this way, you prevent students with a lot of prior knowledge from being the only ones who can understand and perform these complex tasks. The feeling of self-efficacy (c.q. competence if you will) is the result of good education and will eventually give them the confidence to start working as a junior expert after finishing their studies (Willingham, 2009).
This doesn’t mean that there is no room at all for the aforementioned minimally guided instructional practices. There are also disciplines, for example in ICT, in which developments are so rapid that even teachers (i.e., experts) may find it difficult to keep up with the latest insights and skills. In such situations, students will have to solve problems by experimenting and testing their effectiveness. This is what is called the ‘randomness as genesis’ principle (Sweller & Sweller, 2006).
However, this principle does not apply to a majority of disciplines. Therefore, these practices should not be used as the basis for the entire curriculum design but only seem fit for students whose expertise has reached the required level. Until that point, teachers should provide well-structured cumulative subtasks, in which the aforementioned instruction strategies are applied (Ericsson, 2006; Kalyuga, Rikers, & Paas, 2012). As a teacher, you should certainly not avoid complexity, but it is important to work towards it carefully. We know this since Charles Reigeluth’s (1979, 1983) elaboration theory. This idea is also long and well-known as ‘scaffolding’ and applies to various levels: within a course or subject and within a discipline or total study program.
Rely on craftsmanship
The advancement of the educational sector can be supported by the use of empirical sciences, such as cognitive psychology, in addition to philosophical and normative pedagogical views, which in essence are not verifiable. Research in cognitive psychology gives us a verifiable theory about how people learn and how we can best help students in their learning processes (the goal of education; Mayer, 2004; Weinstein, Sumeracki, & Caviglioli, 2018). ‘Without an understanding of human cognitive architecture, instruction is blind’ (Sweller, 2017). We have illustrated this by means of constructivist philosophy: it is not a pedagogy or method of instruction and, as such, should not be used as a guideline for instructional policies or practices.
Unstructured and minimally-guided instructional situations certainly do not appear to be very successful and can strongly contribute to:
(1) a lower probability of an effective learning process for – in particular – vulnerable students,
(2) a less important role for the instructor, which can potentially damage the profession, and
(3) the widening of the so-called achievement gap, because students with more prior knowledge have more opportunities than students with less prior knowledge (Christodoulou, 2014).
Quality education starts with a good teacher, not with a facilitator, guide, or coach. Apart from the learner her- or himself, the teacher is the most important factor when it comes to academic success (Hattie, 2003). In education, we should therefore continue to focus on and rely on the craftsmanship of teachers, rather than organising education in a way that bypasses them.
Sarah Bergsen
is an independent educational consultant and trainer at Mastery Learning, the Netherlands.
Erik B. J. Meester
is a teacher of Pedagogical Sciences in Primary Education at Radboud University, the Netherlands.
Paul A. Kirschner
is emeritus professor of Educational Psychology at the Open Universiteit, Guest Professor at Thomas More University of Applied Science, Belgium and Honorary Doctor (doctor honoris causa) at Oulu University, Finland.
Anna M.T. Bosman
is professor of Dynamics in Learning and Development at the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud Universiteit, the Netherlands.
This article, originally titled ‘Constructivisme is een slechte raadgever’, was first published in TH&MA (October, 2019).
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[1] For the interested reader with little time, we recommend the literature that we have marked with an *.
I suffered being left to learn as a student in the sixties, and had to make up lost ground when at Grammar school. Teaching should be a short-cut to knowledge, and if we are all left to discover for ourselves without the short-cut of learning from our forefathers, we would still be in the stone age! The thing about being a novice who learns, is that you become a novice who then learns more – At every stage through compulsory education we learn best if we are at the cusp of our knowledge – therefore being a novice at a higher level than before. An A level student may be considered a “master” by some, but may be very much a novice from their own perspective and from the perspective of the professor who interviews them for a place at university!
I have rarely encountered so much mis-interpretation of words used technically by many, and lasciviously by many more. Constructivism (with many different favours) has never said anything about teaching, except for one fact: don’t assume that because you have told someone something, or because they have read it in a text or from a board, that they now know it and have internalised it. There are thousands of years of ‘experiments’, (ie experience) which validate this doubt.
People have endeavoured to turn constructivism into a pedagogy, but always by assuming that their own preferred pedagogy is consistent with it. Others attempt to critique specific pedagogies (usually with highly generic and ill-specified labels) by misapplying what constructivism actually says. Please return to Piaget, von Glasersfeld and other early formulators, rather than more recent derivative summaries.
Constructivism simply invites the question: now that you have initiated some pedagogical action with and amongst learners, what can be said about the sense that the learners have made of their experience? Ate the very least this might encourage teachers to listen to what their learners have to say, and to observe what their learners do, both now and in the future. (Think for example of what it is like after you have marked exam papers from a large number of students … rarely are markers able to say “yes, they have really developed over the session”).
For a somewhat more nuanced view on this topic, see:
Tobias, S., & Duffy, T. M. (2009). Constructivist instruction : success or failure? New York: Routledge.
To wet your appetite, see the review at https://edrev.asu.edu/index.php/ER/article/view/1418
I’m taking two things from this article:
1. Learner centred design is not teacher centred design (shock!)
2. If you don’t feed people the answers to tests, they perform worse on those tests (shock!)
Construsctivism (IMHO) is about making sense of knowledge and applying it meaningfully. Education is (IMHO) about content dumping so you can later test recall. Of course the two are incompatible
[…] AM · Jun 5, 2020 – @neilmosley5 shares an article by Sarah Bergsen, Erik Meester, Paul Kirschner and Anna Bosman challenging the move to a Constructivism approach in education. This article started to raise […]
Ah, Anthony, the old canard that students only do well in tests because they are “fed the answers”. It’s a lie, through and through.
If you have taught students well, then just before a test you can squeak in a little extra performance by cramming. But that is consistent with Constructivism — you can only add that additional information because they have a schema in which it makes sense. Hence it sticks. Every year I have students who try to cram at the end of the year having done insufficient study during it — and they always fail. Because if they have no schema in which to place it, the information is just random noise. Good explicit teaching has never been about content dumping.
Your position appears to be that students taught by non-learner centred methods know more, but are unable to provide any proof of that when tested. If true, that’s an easy out — you get to say your method is better, but don’t have to provide any proof! Doesn’t that just seem wrong on the face of it? If you can’t reliably use a skill or technique when tested, how can you be said to understand it “meaningfully”?
In New Zealand we have more or less done away with the old fashioned exams that just tested knowledge. It’s all about processes and understanding. And the schools that teach by Constructivist methods continue to do worse than those that use explicit methods.
Likewise, PISA continues to show that countries that the less direct teaching the students have, the less well they do — including less well in the application questions, which should be where “understanding” shows out.
I have been a K-12 teacher in New York City for the past several years as well as a professor of education. In my capacity as a teacher and professor, I have tried (and studied) different types of teaching and learning strategies. I have benefitted greatly from the seasoned school leaders and teachers who I work with and who have been educational practitioners for decades. Also, I have collaborated with many educational scholars from different countries on publications on this topic and related topics. In net, my professional experience tells me that direct, explicit instruction at the primary and secondary grade levels is important.
As a rule of thumb, the lower the grade the more direction, explicit instruction is needed, for obvious reasons. In the lower grades, most students lack the requisite mental models (schemas), knowledge base, skills, experience, emotional and social maturity, etc to learn effectively totally on their own. This is why teachers should get to know their students and must listen to what their students have to say so they understand where each student is really at, academically and otherwise. This is why teachers should have a good understanding of their students’ knowledge and skill level and readiness for the course. This is why teachers, as subject matter experts, should know which approach(es) is/are most suited for their particular grade level, subject, learning objectives, and mix of students. Some classes are very homogenous, in terms of student demographics and student abilities, and some are very heterogeneous. Depending on the particular mix of students, the teacher my adjust the direct instruction in different ways. In short, a learner/learning centered approach to teaching is focused on producing real learning in students and adjusts the teaching accordingly.
As such, learning is a complex biological phenomenon and psychological/sociological construct. Therefore, we need effective and holistic ways (student assessments, assignments, projects, etc as well as teacher observations) to determine the degree and depth of learning taking place in students – we can’t just assume that students have learned what they were expected to learn just because the content was taught. Students, especially at the lower levels, need a more structured environment and they need an expert to teach them directly and explicitly on what they need to know in order to build a solid foundation of knowledge and skills as well as the proper habits and attitudes of mind. And, ideally, teachers should do this in a way that is motivating, engaging, and participatory – that is one of the great challenges for teachers.
Scaffolded instruction should take into account the students’ background knowledge and readiness. This should not be conflated with the lecture only mode of teaching or with the old factory-model or banking-model of education. For instance, a class with an introductory period of direct, scaffolded instruction of new concepts (teacher modeling and active student observation/questioning) followed by engaged students practicing/applying the concept (learning-by-doing and independent practice) can be highly effective when done in the right way by a skilled teacher. Ultimately, in order for learning to be meaningful, students should be able to apply their understanding of the knowledge to increasingly complex, real-world problems.
Teaching is one of the most challenging jobs in existence because the teacher has to deal with several variables at once – different student personalities, family backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, personal issues, academic readiness, etc as well as the different aspects of the broader school and community environment. Thus, being a content and pedagogical expert is just one aspect of being an effective teacher. This is why teaching is often viewed as a craft (part art and part science) that is developed over years of education, training, and practice. Although direct instruction is at the heart of primary and secondary school, the most effective teachers will also find ways to integrate more engaging, application-oriented, collaborative learning opportunities such as labs, projects, field learning, and independent inquiry.
As the student progresses through the grades, the student is expected to become more self-regulating because, with each grade, they are developing a larger knowledge base, larger skill set, more maturity, more independence, etc. When students become adults and enter college, constructivist-oriented approaches to learning become increasingly appropriate because students are expected to become more like experts in their fields where they are also constructing new knowledge – this is especially true at the masters and doctoral level. This is one reason why the schooling model (where the student attends classes for several hours a day and does most of his/her work in the classroom) and the university model (where the student attends class a few hours a day and does most of his/her work out of classroom) are so different. In essence, the models are flipped to a large degree.
One educational strategy or teaching pedagogy is not inherently better or worse than another across the entire educational structure – the either/or dichotomy. It would be difficult to argue that there is only one pedagogical method that is inherently superior to all others for every grade level and subject across the entire educational system, given the complexity of learning development throughout different life stages.
Rather, the appropriateness and effectiveness of any one pedagogical approach depends, in large part, on the grade level, the type of course, the learning objectives of the course, and the needs and readiness of the students. Education is, by definition, a structured system of formal learning. It is designed to develop novices into experts over a very long period of time – 12 years at the primary and secondary level and then up to another ten years (up to the doctoral) at the tertiary level. So, which approach is most appropriate and effective depends, in large part, on the specific learning objectives sought and the specific level and readiness of the student(s) to achieve those learning objectives.
Sorry David, there is a lot of empirical evidence for some constructivist methods – here’s 5 meta-analyses which come out in favour of PBL – https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bASPvttFMbFe_RBrvFo-bRaV8DN1VHOa?usp=sharing
I realise effect sizes and meta-analyses are problematic but i think this contrary evidence shows the issue is complex.
Lol. Some direct instruction needed: An article by Sarah Bergsen, Erik Meester, Paul Kirschner and Anna Bosman
[…] casually – like constructivism. What is it, and what is it not? The critical thinker in me wants to read this to get a different perspective and deepen my own […]
I have a real problem with the statements in the concluding paragraph:
“Quality education starts with a good teacher, not with a facilitator, guide, or coach.”
And,
“Apart from the learner her- or himself, the teacher is the most important factor when it comes to academic success (Hattie, 2003).” –>
>> For many, coaches, facilitators or guides were much more impactful to their academic success.
>> Teachers can be important for some, yes, but not always and for all.
>> A well meaning teacher can easily get in the way of student learning.
As a teacher, I feel this article doesn’t convey enough that you can adopt many different approaches to teaching and learning. Sometimes direct instruction is best, other times not. Similarly, sometimes project based learning is the most appropriate or well suited to the context, other times not.
Finally, nowadays, it is VERY often the case that the student is the expert in some cases making the statement “In the educational context, you can (hopefully) assume that students are beginners and teachers are experts.” untrue. This is very evident in many high school computer science classes.
I think it’s very important that teachers receive our support. This helps them cope with the stress that they may encounter at work. The teacher is really the main ally during the study of our children.You can confidently recommend the guys from paper write to your teacher which will help your teacher get ready for classes and not lose a second of extra time, because it is so expensive for all of us, have a nice day!
[…] te begeleiden. Lees bijvoorbeeld wat Erik Meester en Paul Kirschner (e.a.) schrijven: “Pedagogy – the method of instruction – is about the empirical science of teaching: […]
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[…] I think the most helpful information I’ve found about teaching at different levels is from this article (apologies if you’ve seen it before), in particular the section entitled […]