Cognitive and Social Constructivism: Developing Tools for an Effective Classroom.

Introduction Constructivism is a vague concept, but is currently discussed in many schools as the best method for teaching and learning. For many educators or teachers, it has a variety of meanings. In order for teachers to use it effectively, they have to know where the student is at a given learning point or the current stage in their knowledge of a subject so that students can create personal meaning when new information is given to them. When in the classroom, teachers have the potential to teach constructively, if they understand constructivism. Constructivist teaching strategies and practices are the next important step in educational reform. Constructivist teaching strategies have a great effect in the classroom both cognitively and socially for the student. A teacher must understand and use methods of both cognitive and social constructivism, if he or she is to run an effective constructivist classroom. In cognitive constructivism, ideas are constructed in individuals through a personal process, as opposed to social constructivism where ideas are constructed through interaction with the teacher and other students. While they are fundamentally different both types will ultimately form overall constructivism or constructed learning elements for students to easily grasp; the main concept being that ideas are constructed from experience to have a personal meaning for the student. To be effective, both theories of constructivism need to be explicit in communicating concepts so that students can connect to them. Teachers need to understand these theories, as well as, know how to incorporate constructivist teaching methods, strategies, tools and practices to develop an effective learning environment. Cognitive Constructivism Many educators in schools throughout America are required to teach constructively in their classrooms. The term cognitive constructivism can connote ambiguous or puzzled reactions from teachers who are told that they should be using teaching strategies to promote this form of learning approach for their students. Substantial individual thought needs to be acquired in content or subject areas for students to actually understand the material instead of just being able to recite it. Providing classroom situations and activities that promote individual learning is required. Jean Piaget, a well-known French Swiss developmental psychologist, who wrote many books and articles on learning, construed this process. Piaget was originally a biologist and theorists state that he thought in terms of students becoming "little scientists," who learn voraciously as individuals who build conceptual structures in memory to store information. Initially, he built his theories observing his own children as they learned and played together. Piaget's main focus of constructivism has to do with the individual and how the individual constructs knowledge. Cognitive constructivism came directly from Piaget's work. Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes that humans cannot be given information, which they immediately understand and use; instead, humans must construct their own knowledge (Piaget, 1953). He stated that children's schemas are constructed through the process of assimilation and accommodation, when going through four different stages of development (Wadsworth, 2004). Piaget's (1953) four stages of development are: Sensorimotor stage, which a child goes through from ages zero to two; preoperational stage (two to seven years old), concrete operational stage (seven to eleven years old), and the formal operational stage (eleven years old to adulthood). In Piaget's sensorimotor stage children begin to discover their environment around them through their own senses and physical activity and then language, as they get older within this stage. Children in his next stage of preoperational develop their own language skills but still cannot grasp the thoughts of others. …