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Four Characteristics of Constructivism

Constructivism is the twelfth principle presented in the book Best Practices: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools. According to constructivism, children do not simply receive information but actively recreate and reinvent meanings. Teachers should provide structured activities and interactions to help students build understanding incrementally. Constructivist teaching requires students to use higher-order thinking, show depth of knowledge rather than superficial coverage, make real-world connections, and engage in substantive discussions. Assessment is interwoven with teaching through observation, exhibitions, and portfolios rather than traditional testing.

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846 views

Four Characteristics of Constructivism

Constructivism is the twelfth principle presented in the book Best Practices: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools. According to constructivism, children do not simply receive information but actively recreate and reinvent meanings. Teachers should provide structured activities and interactions to help students build understanding incrementally. Constructivist teaching requires students to use higher-order thinking, show depth of knowledge rather than superficial coverage, make real-world connections, and engage in substantive discussions. Assessment is interwoven with teaching through observation, exhibitions, and portfolios rather than traditional testing.

Uploaded by

Wibiya Wilson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Learning Processes & Lesson Design • Perpich Center for Arts Education

Four Characteristics of Constructivism

12. CONSTRUCTIVIST: Children do not just receive content; in a very real sense they re-
create and reinvent meaning for every system they encounter including language and
mathematics. Teachers need to provide activities and interactions that structure or scaffold
learning so students can create meaning in incremental segments.

From Best Practices: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's
Schools by Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde (Heinemann, 1998). The authors present
thirteen principles in total. Constructivism is the twelfth principle.

Constructivist teaching and learning requires that students make meaning by:

1. using higher order thinking skills

2. showing depth of knowledge (not covering the curriculum)

3. understanding and making connections to the world beyond the classroom

4. engaging in substantive conversation and discussion

Constructivism also requires a network of social support for student learning and
achievement that includes more than the teacher's response and feedback.

Constructivism places emphasis on big ideas and concepts and requires students to engage
in a meaning-making process with these ideas and concepts. In classroom practice
constructivist teachers begin with WHOLE concepts and work toward the parts, unlike textbook
curriculums that usually begin from parts and work toward the whole.

The constructivist practices are a direct challenge to traditional forms of assessments. In the
constructivist classroom assessment of student learning is interwoven with teaching and occurs
through teacher observation and student exhibitions and portfolios as well as other collections of
student work.

Adapted from Designing Alternative Assessments for Interdisciplinary Curriculum in


Middle and Secondary Schools by Richard E. Maurer; Allyn and Bacon, 1996

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