Chapter 2, page 56
own individualized ideas. It is important that teachers recognize and acknowledge these differences among
students in their teaching. In recognition of student differences, most constructivists emphasize that
teachers cannot transmit knowledge just by presenting it; they urge teachers to deemphasize methods of
instruction such as lectures (e.g., Gonzales, 2004). Instead, constructivists believe that teachers should
encourage students to construct knowledge by actively seeking it out, sifting through it, and reorganizing it
rather than passively receiving new information.
Instead of revisiting Rachel and the single sentence she was learning, we are going to venture into
her fourth-grade class where the teacher’s is practicing constructivist instruction. To learn more about
lobsters, Rachel’s teacher encourages the class to find out as much as they can about coastal ecosystems.
To do this, the class goes on a field trip to a beach so that the students can investigate lobsters’
environment and resources. This allows Rachel and her classmates to processes and integrate many
sources of information. After the field trip, the teacher suggests that Rachel and her classmates work in
groups to develop presentations for class that will require her to integrate ideas based on what she has
read, what she learned on her field trip, and what she has learned from pooling ideas with her classmates.
This vast array of resources allows Rachel to develop a more complex understanding of coast ecosystems
and of lobsters’ environments.
Knowledge construction is driven forward by problems and challenges. Many constructivist
learning environments are designed to encourage learning through different sorts of challenges (e.g.,
Taber, 2000). One kind of challenge is information that contradicts students’ current conceptions (Chinn
& Brewer, 1993). For instance, students trying to construct an understanding of how electrical circuits
work will be impelled to change their ideas when they find that their predictions about how bright a light
bulb in a circuit will be are mistaken. Students’ stereotypes about an ethnic group can be challenged by
participation in a discussion in which students of different ethnic groups share their experiences.
Students’ interpretation of a poem can be challenged by an alternative interpretation.
In all of these examples, challenges motivate students to construct new ideas. To encourage students
to exchange and challenge ideas, constructivist teachers often place students in groups to investigate
meaningful problems (Chin & Chia, 2004; T. Wood & Sellers, 1996). As students discuss their ideas and
perspectives, they may encounter new ideas, and as a result, evaluate their own.
In addition, when solving problems, students identify knowledge gaps that they must address in
order to reach a solution (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). Students identify knowledge gaps when they realize that
they lack knowledge that they need to address a problem. Knowledge gaps present another kind of
challenge—a challenge that arises when students realize that they need to build up their own knowledge
base in order to solve the problem.
If Rachel’s teacher asks students to tackle a complex problem such as why the lobster population in
Chesapeake Bay is decreasing, it is likely that different students will have some different ideas. Rachel
will construct new ideas about ecosystems as she finds that she should refine some of the ideas in light of
her peers’ ideas. Similarly, if the unit involves examining evidence related to the decline of populations in
coastal ecosystems, this data may challenge Rachel’s ideas about how humans can affect ecosystems.
Students learn most when engaged in inquiry. Many constructivists emphasize learning through
inquiry (Barton, McCully, & Marks, 2004; Hammer, 1997; L. M. Taylor, Casto, & Walls, 2004; Wu &
Krajcik, 2006). With instructional methods that emphasize inquiry, students typically analyze and
evaluate an array of information in order to reach decisions or conclusions; students typically gather or
locate some of the information on their own. For instance, students in science class might engage in
inquiry to find out why algae is growing in a pond on the school grounds. This might involve students’
performing simple chemical tests of the water as well as looking for relevant research on the Internet or in
the library. Likewise, history students might do an extensive internet search in order to find research that
will help them prepare a presentation on how people lived during the Revolutionary War, or they might
analyze original source data to determine the role of the U.S. in promoting the Panamanian Revolution