constructivist L2

• Constructivism - a learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their own understanding.
• Jerome Brunner is an american psychologist. In 1967, he focuses on developmental psychology and studied how students learn based upon study of cognition and piaget development research.
• As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas).
• Learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge.
• Bruner (1966) states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects:

  1. predisposition towards learning (READINESS)
  2. the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner (IMPART)
  3. the most effective sequences in which to present material (COMPLEX TO SIMPLE)
  4. the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments (REINFORCEMENTS)
• Bruner's principles of instruction:

  1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
  2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).
  3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)
• Gestalt came from a German term that means pattern or form.
• Gestalt Psychology introduced in 1912 by Max Wertheimer
• Max Wertheimer a German psychologist who believed that a whole is more than just the totality of its parts. The focus of this theory was on grouping.
• the laws of grouping (Wertheimer, 1938

  1. Similarity elements that have the same or nearly similar features are grouped together
  2. Proximity elements that are near to each other are grouped together (DISTANCE)
  3. Continuity elements that define smooth lines or even curves are also grouped together (IMAGES)
  4. Closure-elements that fill up missing parts to complete an entity are grouped together (FORMULA)
• Major Principles

  1.The learner should be encouraged to discover the underlying nature of a topic or a problem.

  2. Gaps, incongruities, disturbances are an essential stimulus for learning.

  3. Instruction should be based upon the laws of organization: similarity, proximity, continuity, closure.
• Subsumption Theory of David Ausubel (1918-2008) American psychologist
• David Ausubel emphasizes how individuals learn large amounts of meaningful material from both verbal and textual presentations in a school setting
• Cooperative Learning: 


  develop learners’ interpersonal skills interact with the others and at the same time listen and learn from their groupmates allows the creation and innovation of knowledge through group interaction and active participation of each member
• features of Cooperative Learning

  1. Students are actively engaged, thus, developing in each member, a cooperative spirit
  2. . Each member is challenged to give his or her best because it can create a healthy and competitive spirit.
  3. It allows learners creativity and innovation because they interact with people their age,peers, or classmates.
  4. It develops positivity like open mindedness, humility, and give-and take attitude, as well as listening skills.
  5. It reduces pressure from work and creates a positive classroom atmosphere.
• Experiental Learning

  its origin in the works of Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget, focuses on the central role that experience plays in the learning process
• Actual hands-on activities are still the most effective means of learning
• Direct and purposeful experiences -rich experiences that the senses bring, from which ideas, concepts, generalizations are constructed (Dale, 1969)
• EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CYCLE:

  Experiencing, reflecting, acting, thinking