Constructivism is a theory about how people learn. The basic idea behind this theory is that humans construct their own knowledge and understanding through actively engaging with the subject matter. In terms of our four-quadrant model above, constructivist teaching practices aim to shift learners into quadrants 3 and 4.
While there may be some teacher-controlled activities (i.e. quadrants 1 and 2), the process does not stop there. A constructivist teacher would not consider her job done if learners had only sat and listened to lectures or answered True/False questions. If you want to be sure that learning has taken place, you need to know that your learners have looked for answers to their own questions, thought critically about the subject matter, and solved some real problems – all activities that are much more suited to quadrants 3 and 4.
Some constructivists would also argue that quadrant 4 is more powerful than quadrant 3, in other words, that constructing knowledge collaboratively is more effective than doing so individually. Whether you agree with this or not, distance education still relies to a great extent on learners working as individuals, and so our aim as educators must be to find the best possible balance between quadrants 3 and 4, while at the same time reducing the amount of activity taking place in quadrants 1 and 2.
In order to help learners take more control of their learning, one of the most important roles a teacher can play is to provide the 'scaffolding' that learners need to help them construct their own knowledge. If you look at the pictures below, you will see that both of them show different kinds of physical scaffolding.
Different types of scaffolding
Picture A
Picture A shows a typical industrial scaffolding on the side of a massive water tank.
Picture by Wayne Yoshizawa at Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/17753346@N00/2471928490/
Picture B
In Picture B you see someone making his way up a climbing wall. The climber is wearing a harness which is attached by a rope to the wall, so that he will not fall if he loses his footing.
Photo from 'mnadi' at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22965089@N00/21982078/
Reflection
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Which picture do you think represents the kind of scaffolding that is normally associated with quadrants 1 and 2 of the model we discussed earlier? Which one represents quadrants 3 and 4?
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Do you think the kind of scaffolding you provide for learners should be different at different stages in the learning process? In the next section, we will explore the five stages that learners typically go through in a fully online course. You might want to return to this question after you have read that section.
Additional resources
For a more in-depth look at the implications of learning theories for teaching, you might want to take a little detour from this resource and dip into the SAIDE learning guide 'Learners and Learning' and accompanied readings by Ian Moll, Jill Bradbury, and Gisela Winkler. The learning guide provides a very clear introduction to learning theory, and a very helpful overview of the main principles of constructivism. It also gives a good explanation of the implications of approaching teaching from a constructivist point of view.The materials are available as OER on the Teacher Education Space on OER Africa.