Constructivist Learning Environments (CLE)

• Modern constructivist learning environments are technology-based in which learners are engaged in meaningful interactions

• Emphasis is on learners who interpret and construct meaning based on their own experiences and interactions.

Therefore, if educators are to adopt a constructivist approach they are now challenged to adapt and change instructional design strategies to actively engage learners in meaningful projects and activities that promote ---

•exploration

• experimentation

• construction

• collaboration

and reflection of what these learners are studying.

• The concept of constructivism emphasizes the student as being the active learner, playing a central role in mediating and controlling learning.  

(Jonassen, 1999).

• The Internet, World Wide Web, and hypermedia application programs, all hypertext based environments, are very quickly transforming how information is stored and retrieved and how learners collectively communicate, access, contribute, and create information and resources.

• The growing demand and use of cognitive tools in education is placing students and technology, rather than instructors and curriculum at the center of educational practice, and that learners will increasingly demand that the technology relate to their real world needs

Design

•Constructivist learning environments support project-based curriculum as an alternative to traditional teaching practices. 

• There is a need  for those educators involved with the design and implementation of hypertext learning programs and applications to be philosophically aware and appropriately trained in their effective use

Real World Problems

• Jonassen (1998) believes that learners should be presented with interesting, relevant, and meaningful problems to solve.

• These real world problems should not be overly defined, but rather ill-structured, in order to allow students to seek out a solution to the problem

• There is no single right answer or single solution for a problem using this approach. Constructivist learning environments must be designed to engage the learner in complex thinking exercises that require reasoning and investigation of the problem to be undertaken.

• Student must construct their own ideas to make sense out of the situation.  Suchman (1987) refers to this as knowledge being constructed and understood by the learner. 

Presenting The Task

• Presenting the task or activity to the student in a meaningful context is an important design consideration.  The initial presentation of the problem must be appealing, interesting, and engaging for the learner to buy into the problem. 

• When presenting complex problems, several tools may seem useful to aid the learner to see the problem in a different light.  This allows the learner to see the complex relationships that exists with the problem.

•  Interactive multimedia, simulations, demonstrations and hypermedia programs can assist and help the student to better understand the problem in its complexity. 

• Learners can manipulate, investigate, and make connections to better understand the topic being studied.

The Environment

• Learning environments require manipulation space that provides learners a sufficient area to research, experiment, and pose hypotheses with the problem (Jonassen, 1999). • Active engagement with the problem 

gives ownership of the problem to the learner. 

• Some complex problems require related cases to be made available for the learner to have access to so that students can make comparisons with the current problem.

• The Internet, for example, provides quick immediate access to a multitude of resources.  Jonassen refers to this as gaining multiple perspectives that allow learners different approaches to the problem, especially if the learner has inadequate prior knowledge.

Resources

• When designing learning environments, educators must also know what resources and information the learner will require in their endeavor to solve the problem they are studying. 

• Jonassen(1999) refers to information banks that includes resources like text documents, computers, World Wide Web access, hypermedia applications, animation, sound devices, and other technological devices that are accessible to the learner to solve the problem or project.

• The World Wide Web and hypermedia are fast becoming powerful tools and resources for information storage and retrieving.  Hypermedia, for example, offers learners flexibility in their pursuit of information.

• Applications such as computer conferencing, chat lines, newsgroups, and bulletin boards promote conversation and collaboration and assist meaningful learning.  The use of these tools helps facilitate discussion and sharing of ideas amongst learners when they are addressing the same goals.

• “Successful student to student communication in the constructivist sense results in peers being identified as resources rather than competitors”

• - Strommen and Lincoln, 1992

• end