Components of Constructivism

There are many components to constructivism and the constructivist classroom. As Clements and Battista state in their article “Research into Practice: Constructivist Learning and Teaching.” These five items are:

1.) “Knowledge is actively created or invented by the child, not passively received from the environment.

2.) Children create new mathematical knowledge by reflecting on their physical and mental actions.

3.) No one true reality exists, only individual interpretations of the world. These interpretations are shaped by experience and social interactions.

4.) Learning is a social process in which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them (Bruner, 1986).

5.) When a teacher demands that students use set mathematical methods, the sense-making activity of students is seriously curtailed.”


All the above information can be found at http://investigations.terc.edu/relevant/ConstructivistLearning.html


Two Major Goals of Constructivism:

According to Douglas H. Clements and Michael T. Battista there are two main goals of constructivism and they are:

1.) “ Students should develop mathematical structures that are more complex, abstract, and powerful than the ones that currently possess so that they are increasingly capable of solving a wide variety of meaningful problems”.

2.) “Students should become autonomous and self motivated in their mathematical
activity. Such Students believe that mathematics is a way of thinking about problems.”

Clements and Battista’s article "Research into Practice: Constructivist Learning and Teaching" can be found at http://investigations.terc.edu/relevant/ConstructivistLearning.html