Constructivism has been a leading approach in science education research since the 1980s, treating learning as a personal process of making sense of new material in light of what a learner already knows and understands. The approach draws heavily on psychology, especially the work of Jean Piaget, David Ausubel, Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky, and it holds that students arrive at a science lesson already carrying ideas about the topic, sometimes called alternative conceptions or misconceptions, which shape how they take in anything new they are taught. Research groups at institutions including the University of Waikato and the University of Leeds studied how far students existing ideas shape what they go on to learn. Constructivism has faced philosophical criticism, but it remains highly influential and is now built into standard guidance for science teaching, which expects teachers to draw out and take account of what students already think before teaching new material. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Origin YearWikipedia dates this paradigm only to since the 1980s, not a specific year; 1980 marks the start of that decade as the earliest defensible reading, not a precise founding date. Core ClaimConstructivism in science education treats learning as an active process of personal sense-making in which new understanding is shaped by what a learner already knows, so teaching must draw out and build on students' existing ideas. 1 FAQs
What are alternative conceptions and why do science teachers need to know about them?
They are the ideas learners bring to science lessons; teachers are guided to elicit them first.
Alternative conceptions are the ideas learners already hold about science topics. They have also been called alternative conceptual frameworks, preconceptions, scientific misconceptions and naive theories, and scholars have no consensual usage among these terms. Some are very common and others quite idiosyncratic. Some are readily overcome in teaching, while others have proved tenacious and a challenge to effective instruction. Research has shown that learners at all levels hold alternative ways of thinking about just about all science topics, so a key feature of guidance to teachers is to elicit students' ideas as part of the teaching process.
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Source Constructivism in science education (Wikipedia)
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1. Constructivism in science education (Wikipedia)
Description section
These papers presented learning as process of personal sense making, and an iterative matter such that what is learnt was channelled by existing knowledge and understanding.
Lead section
Constructivism has been considered as a dominant paradigm, or research programme, in the field of science education since the 1980s.
In Approach: Constructivism, Lead paragraph
Constructivism has been considered as a dominant paradigm, or research programme, in the field of science education since the 1980s.
In Group: Constructivist Theories and Teaching Methods, Lead
Constructivism has been considered as a dominant paradigm, or research programme, in the field of science education since the 1980s.
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