So what does constructivism offer that makes it so powerful for learning? It is a philosophy that says that knowledge is given meaning through the contextualisation of each persons experience. How we experience what we learn is the key to how we understand it.
It is obvious when you think about this that it is true to education, that misconceptions arise from contextual misunderstandings and that our learning is only of value to us once we can apply it to our lives and the world around us.
Fine, we have a philosophy that makes some sense, but how do we move from this broad understanding to something that is practical and deliverable? The key to this is in how we understand what we are trying to impart as educators. Here are some examples that show how this impacts on what and how we deliver to our learners.
Example 1:
All of these pictures represent the concept of Prime. Depending on the context (for both us as educators and for the learners) this will impact on the understanding of the concept. This is true of many many concepts across education;
think of examples such as; concentrate, energy, dependence, viral, fluid, space, the list goes on!
We need to establish as educators which version of these concepts we are establishing for our students and why they are contained within the metacognitive toolkit we are developing with them. The specific concepts we are working with need to be presented in such a way that they can be understood clearly and in the context that they are intended. This is why we must establish clearly what the academic language needs to be and in what context. It is important to remember that no one speaks academic language as a native speaker! We must all learn this as a toolkit for accessing learning and we should all remember that this is a journey that is best served with a minimum of ambiguity.
Some other examples to illustrate the point;
There are many misconceptions that arise through learners contextual experience differing widely from ours as educators, this could be through age differences, geographic differences, socio economic gaps, different interests etc. The point is if we don’t explicitly seek to bridge the gaps between the contextual experiences we cannot really ascertain whether or not the learners understanding is aligned with what we intended.
So what can we do to support a more explicit understanding?
- We can be clear in our intentions when planning that we are explaining key vocabulary and core contexts fully and that these are effectively and comprehensively linked to the metacognitive toolkit we are developing for learners.
- We need to understand that no one is a native speaker of academic language, that the concepts need to be embedded and time taken to develop contextual understanding so that the learning is effectively embedded.
- When we are assessing understanding of these concepts we need to be able to see that the concept is understood. In order to do this we need to see the concept applied either in a variety of contexts (ie that weight can be applied within both fitness and baking) or that the concept can be applied with appropriate nuance (ie that ‘heavy’ can be applied literally and figuratively such as to a bag and an emotion or experience being heavy and that this understanding is demonstrated clearly by application in the right context by the learner)
Ultimately we are looking for an accurate and unambiguous set of concepts to be ably demonstrated by learners whereby they can develop a broad and contextual understanding of the world around them through their experiences. When these experiences are communicated, thought about and reflected on, the metacognitive toolkit is supported by learners having a clear method of communicating their thoughts, feelings and ideas to others in a way that can transcribe understanding clearly. This is the basis of a metacognitive toolkit and the development of a coherent process for learners to be able to express their sense making and conception of the world they inhabit.
By understanding the need to create a common understanding between people in the vocabulary and its context that they are using we can develop understanding and sense making more clearly to support learners to be able to express themselves accurately and better understand others perspectives.
Ultimately to understand and be understood is a core principle of education and we as educators need to be intentional about our support for learners in the creation of a well understood language framework. This is a metacognitive principle which underpins our ability to learn, communicate and understand.
Shevek Pring 