Constructivism (learning psychology)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The constructivism in learning psychology respects postulated that human experience and learning is subject to design processes that are influenced by organoleptic, neural, cognitive and social processes. His core thesis is that learners create an individual representation of the world in the learning process . What someone learns under certain conditions depends to a large extent, but not exclusively, on the learner himself and his experience.

Definition of terms

Constructivism in the psychological sense of learning examines sub-areas of a phenomenon, which are also examined by epistemological and ontological theories. However, while epistemological and ontological theories attempt to clarify the existence of an empirical level (ontology) or the relationships between the empirical level and the theoretical level, constructivism in learning psychology tries to understand cognitive construction processes in order to make them usable for learning processes and the design of learning environments.

Because of the close conceptual proximity between learning psychological constructivism and ontological or epistemological constructivism , the erroneous assertion that learning psychological constructivism is necessarily derived from epistemological constructivism is very often made. However, this can be viewed as untenable, since, for example, an epistemological realism does not contradict the findings of cognitive construction processes. For example, a physicist can represent an epistemological realism (there is a real existing empirical level and we are able to make reliable statements about this, since there are valid relationships between the empirical level and our (cognitive) models) and at the same time agree that all of our perceptions are constructions. This pseudo-contradiction is resolved on the part of epistemology and the theory of science , but also in natural science didactics as an application field of learning psychology, among other things by the model-based view and the corresponding semantic view and the theoretical theoretical concepts of Ronald Giere on which it is based .

Interactionist constructivism

Kersten Reich , who advocates an interactionist constructivism, describes this in his approach as:

  • Reconstruct (discovering the world),
  • Constructing (inventing the world) and
  • Deconstructing (criticizing the world).

The interactionist constructivism advocates the thesis that this re-construction, de-construction and construction is always linked to the actions of the learner. Here, the subjective self-contribution of the learner interacts with the social-cultural learning environment . In terms of the constructive side, learning is most effective when the learners can control their learning process comprehensively . According to this theory, everyone knows best for themselves how to learn effectively. However, this knowledge presupposes methodological competence that must first be acquired in longer learning processes. For this purpose, the phenomenographic approach according to Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson is particularly suitable, which can make these learning processes transparent and thus understandable and applicable even in nursery and kindergarten age.

The constructivist learning theory of interactionist constructivism particularly advocates forms of learning in which the teacher is not just a mediator of knowledge, but a "learning process advisor". When it comes to constructive methods, the teacher should rather stay in the background, create learning opportunities, provide sources of knowledge, such as the Internet , and observe the learning process. Pupils should consolidate “ cultural techniques ” in open teaching situations and also constructed knowledge in order to be able to abstract them. The aim is to achieve higher knowledge.

There are now countless examples of an interactionist-constructivist teaching and learning theory, especially in the English-speaking world. In the German-speaking area, the interactionist-constructivist learning theory is broadly developed in addition to schools, especially in adult and further education . Relevant introductions can be found with Kersten Reich, Rolf Arnold and Horst Siebert .

Other learning theories are for example:

Entrance into the teaching methodology

Maria Montessori has established a new teaching method ( Montessori method ) through her own teaching activities and publications . But it is more than doubtful whether such reform-pedagogical methods, such as those developed by Petersen or Freinet , correspond to constructivism. Reform pedagogy does not have such a differentiated picture of learning processes with regard to the construction of knowledge as constructivist approaches. Jean Piaget , John Dewey and Lew Semjonowitsch Wygotski already go well beyond the reform pedagogical approaches.

Constructivism has been widely used in methodological discussions since the end of the twentieth century. In Germany, there is a process of transition away from instructional to constructivist procedures in all school types and subjects.

A modern constructivist method that is receiving special attention in Germany in the course of school reform is learning through the teachings of Jean-Pol Martin . With this method, the learner group is transformed into a " neural network " with the task of constructing knowledge collectively .

The more moderate constructivist approaches are now well known, although the term is misleading. Are meant approaches faster than the radical constructivism to the socio-cultural contexts are related, so tend to elements of the Erlanger Constructivism have. In the German-speaking area, this includes, above all, Kersten Reich with his constructivist didactics , in which learning theories are also presented very broadly. Constructivism is also used in the e-learning context. Here, E-Learning Systems ( ELS ) is often used to give the students the opportunity to research the many different sources of information and to solve problems with the help of various tools. The theory behind this is also called situated learning .

See also

literature

  • Frank Berzbach: The ethics trap. Pedagogical theory reception using the example of constructivism. Doctoral thesis University of Frankfurt 2004. wbv, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-7639-1905-8 .
  • Clemens Diesbergen: Radical-constructivist pedagogy as a problematic construction. A study on radical constructivism and its application in education (= explorations. Studies on educational science. Volume 22). 2nd, unchanged edition. Lang, Bern a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-906764-28-1 .
  • Martin Kurthen: Hermeneutic Cognitive Science. The crisis of orthodoxy. Djre, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-928981-01-3 .
  • Gerd Mietzel : Educational psychology of learning and teaching. 6th, corrected edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen u. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8017-1436-5 .
  • Ludwig A. Pongratz : Shallows in the mainstream. To the criticism of constructivist-systems-theoretical pedagogy. 2nd Edition. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76742-4 .
  • Kersten Reich : Constructivist Didactics. Textbook and study book including a pool of methods. 3rd, completely revised edition. Beltz, Weinheim u. a. 2006, ISBN 3-407-25410-5 (with CD-ROM and online method pool ).
  • Horst Siebert (Ed.): Constructivism: Consequences for Education Management and Seminar Design (= DIE - materials for adult education. Volume 14). German Institute for Adult Education (DIE), Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-933222-09-5 ( PDF: 507 kB, 120 pages on die-bonn.de).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ model based view
  2. ↑ A comprehensive description and justification of constructive and systemic methods can be found in the pool of methods of Kersten Reich.