Social Constructivism

"Social constructivism has been a populary adopted approach to learning by teachers and educational researchers." (Howell p.23)

Social constructivism is a learning theory in which students either individually or collaboratively expand their knowledge on relative subject matters.  Constructivism promotes an active involvement by students in the classroom experience, and is a needed teaching technique in any circumstance. According to a youtube video by BlueSofaMedia,

"Constructivism utilizes the interactive teaching strategies to create meaningful contexts that help student construct knowledge based on their own experiences."

Social constructivism can be worked out when a teacher feels that his/her students are being passive in their learning experience. Social constructivism promotes communication and collaboration between peers, allowing students to increase their knowledge by providing and receiving knowledge from other students in a group exercise.

Social constructivism also promotes higher order thinking encouraging students to gather their own thoughts and relative information in order to create their own interpretation of the subject matter.

By giving the students a more active role in the learning experience it allows the students to interact with the specific problems and the students are teaching themselves the knowledge they need. BlueSofaMedia lists different possible class exercises to incorporate social constructivism into a teachers classroom environment.

1. Role play, or reenacting moments from history.
2. Debating topics relative to where society is at.
3. Using collaborating learning groups to teach multiple opinions.
4. Allowing the students to engage in real world activities such as class excursions or internships.

All of the above exercises encourage social constructivism as they all allow the student to form his/her own opinion on the topic being covered.

The amount of teacher input in an exercise is gauged by the students capabilities to come to the correct conclusion by themselves  Teacher monitoring is needed at all times while social constructivism is being outworked as students forming wrong opinions or ideas can be detrimental to their learning experience, lowering confidence and simply implying the wrong answer.

I feel that Social constructivism can bring some fantastic benefits to the modern classroom. Encouraging students to work together and build off each others knowledge in a fun relaxed classroom environment. Allowing the students to have a 'hands on' approach in their own education gives the student control as to how much they get out of their education, and takes the teacher from a person out the front defining what is right and wrong to a helping hand working along side the students. I believe that social constructivism should be outworked in every classroom, due to its tremendous positive attributes to a students learning.

References

          Bluesofamedia. "Use a Learning Theory: Constructivism." YouTube. (30 December 2012) Accessed 22nd May 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa59prZC5gA

         Bush, Mike. "Camino Gold Rush." California's Oldest Newspaper. (21st May 2012) Accessed 22nd May 2013 http://www.mtdemocrat.com/news/students-bring-back-gold-rush-era-for-living-history-day/

          Howell, Jennifer. Teaching with ITC. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2012

    

          "Social Constructivism and the Classroom." Koonji Taplur. (7th of April 2011) Accessed 22nd May http://koonjtalpur.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/social-construction/