Social Constructivism in Education

According to the theory of social constructivism, social worlds develop out of individuals’ interactions with their culture and society. Knowledge evolves through the process of social negotiation and evaluation of the viability of individual understanding. Basically, every conversation or encounter between two or more people presents an opportunity for new knowledge to be obtained, or present knowledge expanded. The exchange of ideas that goes along with human contact is at play here.
In order to apply social constructivism theories in the education arena, teachers and school leaders need to shift and reshape their perspectives. Both must move from being “people who teach” to being “facilitators of learning.” A good constructivist teacher is one who questions students’ answers, without regard to whether they are right or wrong, to make sure the student has a good grasp of the concept. Additionally, instructors should have their students explain the answers they give and not allow students to use words or equations without explanations. They should also encourage students to reflect on their answers.
Social constructivism teaches that all knowledge develops as a result of social interaction and language use, and is therefore a shared, rather than an individual, experience. Knowledge is additionally not a result of observing the world, it results from many social processes and interactions. We therefore find that constructivist learning attaches as much meaning to the process of learning as it does to the acquisition of new knowledge. In other words, the journey is just as important as the destination.
The process of learning requires that the learner actively participate in creative activities and self-organization. Teachers should allow their students to come up with their own questions, make their own theories, and test them for viability. Moreover, those who practice constructivist theory find that imbalance facilitates learning, in the sense that contradictions between the learner’s current understanding and experiences create an imbalance, which leads the learner to inquire into his or her own beliefs and then try out new ideas. Instructors should therefore encourage errors resulting from the learners’ ideas, instead of minimizing or avoiding them.
Students should also be challenged by their instructors to perform open-ended investigations, working to solve problems with realistic and meaningful contexts. This activity enables the learner to explore, and come up with either supporting or conflicting possibilities. Contradictions need to be investigated, clarified, and discussed.
Through the process of reflecting on the collected data,, learning is given a push. A good example of allowing reflection is through journal writing, which usually facilitates reflective thoughts.
Dialogue within a community stimulates new ideas. All school stakeholders should view the classroom as a community for discussion and exchange of ideas. Students in the classroom are responsible for the defense, proof, justification, and communication of their ideas to the community. These ideas can only be accepted as truth if they can make sense to the community. If they do, they become shared knowledge. In summary, learning occurs not through hearing or seeing, but primarily through interpretation. Interpretation is shaped by what’s already known, and is further develop through discussion.
[…] In order to apply social constructivism theories in the education arena, teachers and school leaders need to shift and reshape their perspectives. Both must move from being “people who teach” to being “facilitators of learning.” A good constructivist teacher is one who questions students’ answers, without regard to whether they are right or wrong, to make sure the student has a good grasp of the concept. Additionally, instructors should have their students explain the answers they give and not allow students to use words or equations without explanations. […]
[…] Classroom learning is just as much about behavioral and social learning as academics. How can teachers best use social constructivism to benefit students? […]
[…] Lynch, M. (2016, November 19). Social Constructivism in Education. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from The Edvocate: https://www.theedadvocate.org/social-constructivism-in-education/ […]
[…] Read more here: https://www.theedadvocate.org/social-constructivism-in-education/ […]
[…] This week, Gabby, Mallory, and I created the hyperdoc for chapter 3. I actually really learned a lot through this experience about science teaching practices and about teaching practices in general. One of my biggest takeaways was the visual of constructivism that the book provided and that I reconstructed. This visual showed that contructivism is building from students’ prior knowledge and experiences and adding more knowledge that the students can make connections to from this prior knowledge. The visual was of a construction site and the bricks being the elements of prior knowledge and how they are built and stacked on top of each other as new experiences link to prior experiences. I also liked the visual that at a construction site, there are multiple construction workers and this showed the theory of social constructivism, in that students learn best when they are collaborating, discussing, and working together with their peers. For more information on social constructivism, check out this link: Link […]
[…] Lynch, M. (2016, November 19). Social Constructivism in Education. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.theedadvocate.org/social-constructivism-in-education/ […]
[…] As teachers, we tend to mostly focus on the New Zealand National Curriculum as our guide for programme development and implementation. This document is grounded in Social Constructivist theory. This means that there is an underlying assumption that human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. If you want to find out more about Social Constructivism, here’s a useful link that gives you a broad overview. https://www.theedadvocate.org/social-constructivism-in-education/ […]
[…] Lynch, M. (2016). Social constructivism in education. The Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.theedadvocate.org/social-constructivism-in-education/ […]
[…] with an overview of its philosophy, which is based on the principle of social constructivism, Women’s Center Assistant Director Angela Gay took attendees through a guided tour with support […]
I think social constructivism allows countries to indigenize their education policy and system. We need to appreciate it indeed. The idea that western education is the best should be questioned? Particularly, if the non-developed countries want true prosperity and avoid corruption at grassroot levels.
[…] ‘active learning’ is key when it comes to constructivism, rather than ‘passive learning.’ Social constructivist theory allows students to focus on real-life scenarios, not only giving them live context, but also […]
[…] The Edvocate: Social Constructivism in Education […]