Constructivism and Instructional Design

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Constructivism and Instructional Design

Constructivism is currently enjoying popularity as a "new theory" in education. In reality, the theory traces its roots through Piaget and Dewey to Kant. Constructivists align their beliefs with Kant’s writings on the interaction of the innate mind structures with the world. The individual can never know the "world-in-itself," only the world as it is constructed in the individual’s experience. Piaget traced his constructivist roots to Kant but Piaget sought to identify the structures of the mind behind the cognitive behaviors characteristic of each stage of human development. (Noddings, 1995) While Piaget wrote primarily on genetic development, Dewey stressed a student’s knowledge grew and developed from the experiences of the individual student. (Julyan, 1996) Space does not permit a detailed discussion of the various influences on the development of constructivism. Instead, the focus will be on the contrast of constructivism with the more traditional objectivist position, the central tenants of constructivist belief, and on the impact of constructivism on instructional design.

Constructivism and objectivism

The key contrast of constructivism and objectivism deals with the view of each position on reality. Objectivism believes there is one shared reality and only one way to structure the world. By contrast, constructivism says there are many perspectives or ways to structure reality since reality is the outcome of the construction process. Objectivists seek to find order while constructivists work to construct order. Objectivists believe meaning exists separately or independently from the individual while constructivists believe meaning is imposed by the individual. Objec...

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...: New Implications for Instructional Technology. Educational Technology, 31(5).

Jonassen, D. H. (1991). Evaluating Constructivist Learning. Educational Technology, 31(9).

Julyan, C. a. E. D. (1996). A Constructivist Perspective on Teaching and Learning Scient. New York: Teachers College Press.

Merrill, M. D. (1991). Constructivism and Instructional Design. Educatonal Technology, 31(5).

Noddings, N. (1995). Philosophy of Education. Boulder: Westview Press, Inc.

Perkins, D. N. (1991). Technology Meets Constructivism: Do They Make a Marriage ? Educational Technology, 31(5).

Spiro, R. J., Paul L. Feltovich, Michael J. Jacobson, and Richard L. Coulson. (1991). Cognitive Flexibility, Constructivism, and Hypertext: Random Access Instruction for Advance Knowledge Acquisition in Ill-Structured Domains. Educational Technology, 31(5).

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