User:Shrinathhadimani/Sandbox

What is Constructivist Learning ?

The constructivist view primarily concerns a particular way of conceptualizing knowledge and knowledge acquisition (i.e. learning). It is a view of the nature of knowledge and its development.

The notion that learning is influenced by prior experiences and ideas has led to the development of what has become the dominant view of learning in science education today : constructivism.

A constructivist view holds that people construct their own meanings from what they experience, rather than acquiring knowledge form other sources. Constructivism is a view of human knowledge as a process of personal cognitive construction, or invention, undertaken by the individual who is trying, for whatever purpose, to make sense of her social or natural environment."

In other words: knowledge is not viewed as some sort of a true copy of features of the world outside but as construction of the individual. Knowledge acquisition (i.e. learning) is not the transfer of "nuggets of truth" (as Kelly, 1955, put it) to the individual but a personal construction by the individual. The learner is not seen as a passive receiver but as an active constructor of knowledge.