Tension between Objectivism and Constructivism in Organizing and Enacting Student Learning in Online STEM Education

Abstract

Tensions between constructivist learning theories and objectivist learning theories in online courses implicate a need for a theoretical balance. This article describes organizing and enacting tasks that elicit constructivist learning of mathematics in an online mathematics teacher education course. The results focus on a conceptual framework that was developed to explicate this balance and show how the learning goal, evidence of student learning, and the teaching that occurs are built on the teaching philosophy tenet.

Keywords:

• Mathematics education
• online education
• teacher education/certification