The misuses and effective uses of constructivist teaching

Abstract

Constructivism has emerged as a very powerful model for explaining how knowledge is produced in the world as well as how students learn. Moreover, constructivist teaching practices are becoming more prevalent in teacher education programs and public schools across the nation, while demonstrating significant success in promoting student learning. In this essay, the author takes a serious look at constructivist teaching practices highlighting both the promises and potential problems of these practices. The author argues that constructivist teaching has often been misinterpreted and misused, resulting in learning practices that neither challenge students nor address their needs. He outlines some of the ways in which constructivism has been misconstrued and analyzes several ways in which constructivist teaching has been misused. The author also presents two examples that illustrate the effective use of constructivist teaching and explains what makes them successful.

Keywords:

• constructivism
• teaching
• learning
• misuse
• effective use

Notes

1. Of course, constructivist ideas have existed for a long time perhaps since the ancient Greeks. Yet a formal discourse that uses the term constructivism, presents the characteristics, and argues for the merits of this approach is a relatively new phenomenon. In this context, it is noteworthy that neither Piaget nor Vygotsky who are considered ‘constructivists’ used this term in their writings.

2. This statement was made by Joe Kincheloe about Freire in a private conversation with the author in 1999.

3. James Loewen (1996) describes these methods of teaching history and students’ reactions to them in the introduction to his famous book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.