On a constructivist view of learning as a college student

【Abstract】：Constructivism is a branch of cognitive approach. It influences us in many different aspects， especially on our process of learning. It emphasizes that individuals are actively involved right from birth in constructing personal meaning， which mainly decides how learners see the physical world and how they learn knowledge. As a new learning theory， constructivism brought significant benefits to reform in education， according to learners’ cognition. Many learning methods are produced by constructivism， and those methods contrasts to traditional views which always considered learning as simple accumulation of facts or the development of skill. College students should know more about using constructivism to make their more effective study.

【Key words】： constructivism " personal meaning " learning method

I.INTRODUCTION

In this context， basic outlines of constructivism will be introduced. Different schools of constructivism form various theories. I will compare different schools of constructivism on their differences and their common features. My focus is learning process and attitude of constructivism， not includes every part of constructivism. Since 1990， the University of Georgia has conducted serial seminars， and has invited many respectful professors in the field of constructivism， such as Von Glasersfeld， Steffe， Driver， Cobb， and Spiro（Chen Qi， Zhang Jianwei， 1994， p.61）. And according to present study， constructivism can be divided into six categories; they are radical constructivism， social constructivism， social cultural cognition， information-processing constructivism， social constructionism， cybernetic system. One by one， I will make further explanations.

1.1 Definition of Mediation

Constructivist theory is defined as a theory about knowledge and learning. It stresses learning is a positive， initiative process of construction. Learners should construct present knowledge with what they have learned before， help of environment and other people and learners’ unique way of processing information and also try to pick up or select useful knowledge from all the information. Some of famous representatives are J.Piaget， Jerome Bruner， George Kelly and Lev Vygotsky.

1.2 Researches At Home and Abroad

Piaget’s theory is divided into some stages， which begun at the infant period. It is the foundation of the racial constructivism. Several stages are mentioned here. First stage is called sensorimotor stage of learning. That means at very beginning we totally relied on our physical sense to learn. “Fire” in our mind is something hot with orange color and flickers and sugar is just a sweet food in beautiful coat. We don’t think too much or too deep of anything， but it is already a way to learn. Then according to Piaget， we come to the second stage， that is initiative or pre-operational stage， we become more flexible and has imagination. We will ask more questions， some are hard to answer with logical thinking. It is a sign of our imagination. In this period， fairy tales may be our best friends and attract children’s attention. After this stage， children will enter the concrete-operational stage when the realization begins to dawn that operations can be reversed. As ice melted into water then it can be frozen into ice again， candles， iron are all the same. They can understand and acquire the knowledge from concrete facts， or to put it as they can’t do abstract thinking now. But children in this period have already elevated a lot， they can find out something beyond the knowledge are given although still depend on concrete examples. Finally， we come to the formal operational thinking， which means we can do abstract thinking. But this will not happen until adulthood， for we need former accumulation to reach this higher level. Piaget’s theory show a process， from concrete to abstract， which doesn’t change is the way to construct.

What we did is add new things to our previous concept to improve our understanding of things. As a pioneer of constructivism， he gave us basic cognition of constructivism. If we see Piaget’s theory as a course of individual development rule， then we will come to realize constructivism can’t develop without social interaction. It is an essential part about learning methods. Many learning progress are made because of communication. Teachers work as mediation in teaching. However， “traditional learning and teaching values didn’t change， and teachers’ functions are not proper used.”（Yang Cuirong， Zhou Chengjun， 2004， p.31） But， except in classroom， parents and friends can also be the helper of our learning. Here I want to mention one more important person in this field and that is Lev Vygotsky. He emphasized the importance of language interacting with people， not just speech， but signs and symbols as well. This is exact the basic theory of social constructivism. He holds that knowledge is constructed in human society. What all human’s constructions has common purpose is that we all try to be closer to original face and truth of the world， though we can never complete consistent to them. Researchers of the social constructivism also believe in learning is a process of constructing knowledge， but give more concern about social aspect. Knowledge are not all constructed by mutual effects between individual and physical environment， social interactions are of more importance. People’s development of higher mental level is result of internalization of social mutual communication. During that progress， language is one and only effective mediation. Learners acquire some knowledge or learn certain skill， from large amount of personal experience， then it springs from concrete to abstract， finally can be summarize by language， this can be called “knowledge from bottom to top” " Children acquire or learn some knowledge from adults knowledge system， from abstract to concrete， it is called “knowledge from top to bottom” （Lev Vygotsky， 1994， p.189—304）.

It is this two famous people and their scientific theories that formed fundamental base of learning attitudes and values of constructivist learning together. Social cultural cognition holds that learning should take social interaction， social regulations， and social cultural products as background. And we learn for purpose， as we do things in society with purpose. Learners are initiative leaners no matter they are questioning or solving. Learning by doing is their point. Next， the information-processing constructivism is a deeper level of information-processing. It accepts the principle of Von Glasersfeld that knowledge is constructed by individual. But knowledge is constructed in a bilateral， repeated way. New experiences rely on former experiences， and then pass over them， after this we came back to modify former experiences or totally change them. Their novelty is that they consider both new knowledge learning and old knowledge using as construction. Then we omit the social construction theory， because it has little to do with learning. Finally we come to the cybernetics， it stresses on self-reflection， which is also the reason for people can never recognize themselves. When people as observers to observe this physical world， we are part of this world， too. Observers are participants， vise verse. And observers are in society， so among them will produce complicated effect between each other. That pays more attention to interactive teaching and cooperating learning. In China， we have some professors advocate themselves to this field， but we still have a long way to go.

II. MY Understanding on a Constructivist View of Learning as a College Student

In fact， constructivism is not just six types of them all and “we should have an objective view on those theories.”（Ye Zeng，2006，p.65 ） Each learner is not only belongs to one of them， many are still at very beginning of the theory. But we can come to a conclusion till now. What they valued in study is following opinions：

2.1 All Schools of Constructivism have in Common

First， learning is constructivist， what you have learnt will have effect on your construction of new knowledge. Try to associate what you have known to new concept. From my personal experience and understanding， it means that it is easy to know something if you have make relations between it and your pre-existing knowledge. As when we try to express something that others don’t know， like to explain what a pizza is to our grandma， we are almost like to say， “It is just a pie with its stuffing outside.” Our grandma can understand what it is through the concept of pie in her mind. Likely， in our study， we may get confused about terms like “dry ice”， but ice is familiar with us， then we can further understand it as a kind of substance seems like ice yet isn’t made by water but by solid carbon dioxide. This lead we back to my opinion is that constructing is a course of addition， which adds more information to our primitive knowledge to form new concept or to deepen our understanding of the same thing. In fact， I take it as a process of creativity， because you need to use your own unique way to form your system and link everything related together. That is also the reason for constructivism holds that， basically，there is never any one right way to teach， because teacher as a mediator cannot construct knowledge instead learners their own. Since the Second point is information and knowledge are not designed by external environment， for things do not have meanings of themselves. A table is a table， because language defined it as we call it a table. But as learners grow older， table can become no longer merely an object as somewhere we have lunch or dinner， it can be given more meanings from every individual’s unique understanding. A round wooden and an oblong irony table are both tables. Whatever appearance it has， is just what we add to its original concept in our knowledge. Not only concrete and concise meaning， also abstract meaning can be added in former definition. If your families always sit at a table to have dinner together， you will link family reunion with table. Similarly， in our daily study as an autonomous learner， when we meet a new word or a new concept， we first will try to use something we already knew to comprehend it. Then in our following learning process， the deeper we learn about the word， more information can be added in it. So things in our minds are not isolated any more. This method can help us to form permanent memory， and then guide us to take shape into system. In this sense， constructivists believe meaning is checked repeatedly by leaners both old knowledge and new gaining， bilateral sides effect the comprehension of one meaning. Revising play an essential role in our study because of it is a way to connect old knowledge and new. And our knowledge can not only reflect what is here， we also can use them to “predict future world before things happen.”（Zhangqi， 1999.p.160）

2.2 Learning Constructive Skills as College Students

“The purpose of learning is to construct personal meaning.”（Yang Weidong，2011，p.79） We college students are not passive containers of knowledge， but are positive constructors of our own minds in our study. However we do not always have old information to construct new information， so what should we do under this situation？ Some teachers will take this kind of student assumption or guess as nonsense without any support， in fact， these guess from students are their hypothesis based on learned knowledge and experience background， which deduct assumptions. That is the reason for even when our guess are wrong we can always find evidence to prove our ideas. A qualified teacher shouldn’t ignore these assumption or hypothesis that comes from students' abundant daily experience， they are not empty containers. Those precious experiences perform as root of their future knowledge. In condition that teacher abandon students’ root of knowledge， he/she will meet much hardship in teaching process， while students desert their special way to construct knowledge， knowledge is just pieces that can never be put together. College students must pay more attention to how to learn rather than what they can learn. Methods are of much more great importance than content. We may know nothing about constructivism before， but we know construct and –ism， then we can have a rough outline about what type of “constructivism” belongs to. At the beginning of learning， trying to categorize knowledge into various types can have great benefit on future learning. It is the first step before you have a clear system of your knowledge. Our knowledge should be a system， not “single and isolate storerooms” （Zhang jianwei， 1999， p.56-60） in our minds. Next point is about reaction between teachers and students. Teachers should discuss with students on the same issue and make effort to find out answer together. There will be query and communication to intensify understanding between each other and can deepen comprehension of that issue. Those discussions can help you to adjust your thoughts and have more fluent and effective way to absorb new concept. The fourth point is discrepancy always exists， in a positive way; differences are good way to improve thinking， “differences themselves are good resources for learners.”（Ganlu， 2002， p.153） Constructivism used to say “individual learning is a learning of low risk” （William Marion， Robert L. Burden， 2000， p. 40.）. But， in fact， it is a process of communication， and it is also a feature of constructivism as communication is a basic step for individual meaning profound to collective meaning. From this point， we can get that active participation of students is one of the most essential key factors in constructivism.

2.3 Different methods in constructing while learning

Brunner said our recognition of world is not only reflection of order or structure of “there”， （1993）. For learning is a self-construction process， so various ways to construct. At first， we students can use our previous experience to construct， this is called self-construction. This construction is between old knowledge and new knowledge， depending on our present knowledge system. Students construct knowledge initiatively in learning process， which can promote student-centered teaching. Under this circumstance， teachers mainly work as a mediator to organize， guide， assist， promote. Through ways like asking questions， do some revising， students can enter deeper thinking and get rid of disadvantages， do away with wrong opinions， to reform old knowledge system and regroup it， then arrive a destination of problem solving. Then second method of construction is by theoretical practice called meaning construction. This generates from the zone of proximal development. We students try to create situation of knowledge;”i+1” is the rule of it. When we learn something， just a little higher than our existing knowledge， by this can improve our knowledge level. The third point is constructing by help of others， or to say by interpersonal relationship. Constructivism has four elements for learning， consists of circumstance， cooperation， dialogue and meaning construction. One view about those elements that can influence learning result called “procedural variables”. （Chen Ying， 2006， p.1）. Interpersonal relationship has two sides， including teachers and learning partners. Learning needs interaction， for knowledge is meaningful and clear in situations， find an example is a proper way to set a context. It was defined as “the whole situation background or environment relevant to a particular event. ”（Webster Dictionary， 1972， p.307）Learning is not just for exams. Teaching ambition is to cultivate a problem solver， not a test machine. And group learning in classroom is a version of social interaction to verify that learning does need communication. Fourth method is from expressive aspect， which means expect from knowledge in books， there are some kind of knowledge cannot be taught by language. We say it is not words but meanings. This is called tacit knowledge （Personal Knowledge， 1958）， which we use a lot but cannot define clearly by language， though” language is the psychological tool that has pivotal role.”（Zhu Zhixian， 19 8 6， p.7 4） This is first put forward by an English philosopher named Michael Polanyi. Those types of knowledge always come from certain situation; we form a fixed way to do certain thing under some condition. That cannot be taught. As how we remember a word， how we write a composition， how we solve problem is all intricate progress as tacit knowledge.

III. CONCLUSION

“Constructivism is taken as breakthrough and development of present learning of epistemology （Chen Qi， 1997， p.253）.” It makes new explanation of knowledge， teaching， and learning. Learning attitude changes and lead to new time of teaching， these are innovation based on J.Piaget， Jerome Bruner， George Kelly and Lev Vygotsky‘s theory. Scholars inherit and develop their principle and make more progress. Though we cannot deny some ideas of constructivism are subjective and relative， cannot solve all the problems as panacea， cannot absolute replace previous teaching and learning method， we still respect its contribution in reflecting the “initiative of man and its courageous trial”. （Chenwei，2007（3），p.177）

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