1.
Education Studies
Session Three
Key Learning Theories 2:
•Constructivism
•Social-Constructivism
How do
children learn?

2.
Today we are thinking
about…..
Key theories of learning
Last time:
Behaviourism
Social Learning Theory
This time:
 Constructivism
 Social constructivism
How theories of learning relate to
practice

3.
Reading Feedback
Focus: Key Learning Theories 2: Constructivist and
Social Constructivist perspectives
Questions:
1. “Piaget believed that infants are born predisposed
to adapt and learn from their environment” (Rodd, 1996,
p.31). What does this mean?
2. What is the zone of proximal development?
3. How do the constructivist (Piaget) and social
constructivist (Vygotsky/Bruner) perspectives differ?

4.
Your answer to the
question
Additional
information
Additional
information from
larger group
How might this
impact on my
teaching

5.
Theories of learning
Constructivism
Social constructivism
Big questions:
How do children acquire knowledge?
What is the adult‟s role?
What is the child‟s role?

6.
Children as co-constructors of
knowledge
Children as competent and confident learners
with their own theories about the world and
how it works
 Children and adults will bring their own ideas,
theories and experience and knowledge and
seek to make meaning as they explore and
investigate together
 Adult needs to acknowledge children‟s skills
and knowledge and realise that they do not
have control over the final outcome of the
experience.


7.
Constructivism
Key Ideas
•
The child constructs meaning of the world through
exploration and experimentation. Learning is active
•
The child evolves & refines schemas with experience
and practice.
•
Child as scientist
Key Individuals
Jean Piaget
Key Concepts
Schema, Stages of Development
Implications
Individual experiences
Age appropriate curriculum

8.
Piaget‟s stages of
development

9.
Constructivism (Piaget)
How do children acquire
knowledge?
What is the adult‟s role?
What is the child‟s role?

10.
Social
Constructivism
Key Ideas
Learning is a social process
Learning is dependent upon social
relationships
themselves situated within a cultural context
Key Individuals
Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner
Key Concepts
Zone of Proximal Development, Scaffolding
Implications
Organisation of opportunities for collaborative
work
Learning = interpersonal then intrapersonal

11.
Vygotsky video/or activity
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal
Development

12.
Zone of Proximal
Development

13.
How do we support
learning?
Learning happens as the child
adapts to the environment. The
‟little scientist‟.
Learning happens as a more able
other supports the child in
understanding their environment
through social interaction.

14.
Piagetian
perspective
assessme
nt
Vygotskian
perspective
Students assessed against
norms; summative and
diagnostic testing
Individual assessments,
student in consultation with
teacher; emphasis on
formative assessment
organisatio Setting by ability levels
n
Establishment of whole
planning
No clear reason to set
Individual target-setting
class targets with some
individual targeting
teaching
Whole-class teaching with
individual tuition-not
necessarily transmissive
Individual and small-group
work;
Whole class teaching not
excluded

15.
Jerome Bruner (1915- )
Key Ideas
• „Readiness‟ for learning
• The spiral curriculum
• The learning context –social/cultural
implications
• The role of language in thinking &
reasoning: a „tool of thought‟

16.
Bruner; Key ideas
Scaffolding
• Creating a supportive environment
• Importance of social interaction
(scaffolding occurs all the time –
parents, other children...)
• Challenge
Development:
• Enactive representation – doing
• Iconic representation – pictures and patterns
• Symbolic representation – language

17.
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005)

18.
Social Constructivism
How do children acquire
knowledge?
What is the adult‟s role?
What is the child‟s role?

19.
For Next Time….
Parker-Rees, R. (2010) „Active playing and learning‟ in
Parker-Rees, R. and Leeson, C. (eds) Early Childhood
Studies: An introduction to the study of children’s worlds
and children’s lives (3rdEd), Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd
Consider the questions:
What does play look like?
Why is play considered to
be important for learning?