Social Constructivist Approach to Learning

1. Social Constructivist Approach to Learning Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

2. Discussion • What were your early explanations for thunder? • Where did your ideas of thunder come from? • Compare these to other people’s explanations. • Can you think of other examples of ‘wrong’ explanations you gave to things? (E.g. babies, rainbows..)Where did these ideas come from? • You will have come to these conclusions through your previous experiences and your interaction with others – your ideas were socially constructed. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

3. Social Constructionist Approach • Constructivist theorists believe that learning is an active, constructive process. • They emphasize the interaction between biology (what you are born with) and the environment • Through this interaction people actively construct or create their own representations of reality. New information is linked to prior knowledge, and so each person’s representations are subjective. E.g. how you explained thunder as a child. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

4. Piaget 1896 - 1980 • Piaget is recognised as having influenced the way young children are studied and observed. • He believed that children were active in their learning • Piaget believed that babies are born with the ability to adapt to and learn from the environment. E.g. they don’t have to be taught to crawl or walk (Oates, 1994) • He was interested in the way children gave the same ‘wrong’ answer • He discovered that they used a logical pattern based on their experiences. He called their conclusions schemas Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

5. Observations Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

6. Assimilation and accommodation • Assimilation occurs when children find that an existing schema fits another situation. E.g. If you are familiar with databases, you can think of it this way: your mind has its database already built, with its fields and categories already defined. If it comes across new information which fits into those fields, it can assimilate it without any trouble • Accommodation happens when children realise that their schema does not ‘fit’ and they are forced to develop a new schema. E.g.In the database analogy, it is like what happens when you try to put in information which does not fit the pre-existent fields and categories. You have to develop new ones to accommodate the new information. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

7. Piaget’s stages • Piaget believed that the mental processes we are born with are primitive, basic patterns of actions he called Sensorimotor schemes. (Oates, 1994) • Sensory motor: 0 - 18 months/2years • Pre-operational: 2 – 6/7years • Concrete operations: 7 – 11 years • Formal operations: 11-18+ years Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

8. Critics of Piaget • His suggested ages and stages underestimate children’s abilities. Children have often been able to conserve and decentre at much younger ages than he suggested • Some psychologists disagree with the idea of stages and feel that children learn as more of an ongoing process • Piaget’s work was culturally biased as he used only white European children Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

9. Social Constructivist Approach • Social constructivisttheorists like constructivist believe in the importance of both biological and environmental influences. • ‘They argue that the same biological and environmental factors may have different effects depending on the people among whom the child grows up’ (Oates, 1994, p33) • They place more emphasis on social interactions such as culture and characteristics of individuals. • Therefore social constructivist theories are based on the idea that we are active in our learning and that we create our own ideas and conclusions about the world through our experiences and interactions with the environment and people around us. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

10. Key People • Social constructivism brings together the works of people such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. • They feel that children learn through interaction with their environment; they are active in their learning • Experiences and environment shape our learning. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

11. Vygotsky • Shared Piaget’s view that children were active in their learning • Placed more emphasis on the role of language in the cognitive process • Social development and interaction with people is also an important part of cognitive development; particularly the role of sensitive adult Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

12. Zone of Proximal Development • Vygotsky believe that children had unlocked potential that adults had to discover • This is referred to as ZPD • The ZPD is the gap between what the child can currently do and what they have the potential to do Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

13. ZPD Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

14. Bruner • Influenced by Vygotsky • Did not agree that children passed through stages but rather they developed different ways of thinking – modes of representation • Enactive - approx 0-1years • Iconic – approx 1-7 years • Symbolic – approx 7 years onwards Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

15. Language and thought • Bruner felt that there was a link between language and thought. • The appearance of language allows children to think in symbolic ways (language is symbolic) • Language allows us to categorise things • Category learning occurs when people come to understand that certain objects or entities belong together in particular categories. This is still a popular theory among many psychologists Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

16. Bruner’s scaffolding • To Bruner the role of the adult was important in children’s learning • Scaffolding was his idea that adults can help children find their way to the top of a problem • Adults scaffold by providing elements of a problem, maintaining children’s interest and point out information or giving support that will allow them to increase their knowledge and reasoning. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

17. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

18. Activity • In pairs make a note of the key ideas of each social constructivist theorist looked at. • Consider the influence of this approach to current practice. Give examples of how the key ideas have been put into practise. Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

19. Activity • Interactive activities e.g. ICT – Active learning • Group work - ZPD • Discussion – Scaffolding & ZPD • Student led activities; projects • Experimentation e.g. science activities – active learning • Exploration; natural environment, sand/water- active learning • Field trips/outings - active learning Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)

20. Reference List • Learning-Theories (2008) available art • http://www.learning-theories.com/category/social-learning-theories accessed 05/04/08 • Miell,D., Pheonix,A., Thomas.K., (2002) Mapping Psychology 1, Milton Keynes: The Open University Y Letson 2007 (Miell et al 2002)