Constructivism

The basic concept of constructivism is that knowledge is built upon and within a student.

An older or maybe even behaviouralist view of teachibg is that children are empty vessles into which a teacher is meant to simply pour in facts and information.

Constructivism says that this is not the case at all. It is a teachers job to give the information and facts to students yes, but not just for them to memorise or learn by rote. They must create ways in which the student absorbs and understand this information to have it as knowlegde.

Constuvtivist teachers aim to incease good behaviour and learning rather then decrease bad behaviour and increase teaching.

Personally I find constructivism to be very relevant in teaching today. Children are often strving for independance and od not want to be taught as one class entity which learns and understands at the same rate. They react better to a more personalised style of teaching which is what constuctivism promotes.

Children all have different learning styles, learning rates and behaviour patterns and for this reason I beleive constructivism is very valuable as it allows for and nutures this.