A thesis in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in

Pedagogy and Constructivism

Due to the vagueness in the definition of constructivism, many teachers often hold on to their own understanding or model of constructivism-based learning. There is often the misguided belief among teachers that constructivism means that all learning can only be entirely by discovery and that the teacher and curriculum

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materials are not important to the learner. In an effort to remedy the misconception, Perkins (1992:26) proposes two constructivist positions on teaching/learning paradigms as „without the information given constructivism and beyond the information given constructivism‟. It is advocated that a blend of both approaches is employed in the use of ICT in education. Drawing the middle line here will enable teachers to have a good grasp of using the effective constructivism model of learning in their classroom, especially when they use ICT in their teaching. DeCorte (1990:74) discusses this balance of approaches in the context of using computers in schools where he describes this as
a powerful computer learning environment is characterized by a good balance between discovery learning and personal exploration on one hand, and systematic instruction and guidance on the other, always taking into account the individual differences in abilities, needs, and motivation between students.
Here, the teacher must be flexible enough to allow students to learn at their own suitable pace while maintaining a hold on the overall speed of learning for the class as a whole. Under such circumstances, the must function both as a facilitator and teacher for a class of students with a myriad of differences in their abilities, skills and knowledge about ICT and the target subject.
However, it is important for the teacher to not equate particular sets of teaching strategies with constructivism. This is because each teacher has her/his own preconceived notion of teaching strategies. One teacher may choose to employ certain strategies in a manner consistent with her constructivist notions, while another may employ quite different strategies in a manner that is equally consistent with his constructivist notions. In other words there is no single notion

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to the use of teaching strategies based on the constructivists‟ perceptions. What is important here is that the educator who believes in constructivism should be concerned with personal conceptual frameworks, prior knowledge, students‟ understandings, the relationship of formal knowledge to spontaneous frameworks, and the attitude of the learner to formal knowledge (Osborne & Wittrock, 1985; von Glasersfeld, 1991).

On the far side, Vosniadou (1994) argues that a belief in constructivism will determine the type of computer software to be used in classrooms and the manner in which computer-use is integrated with the curriculum and implemented in the classroom. However, this may be a little overstated, as the fundamental focus for a constructivist starts with the individual student within the context of the environment in which that student is placed. Here the teacher should focus on the student rather than the instruction. This is typically referred to as student-centered learning and this should determine the role and tasks of the teacher. On the contrary, a learner-centered approach does not imply a particular set of strategies for a teacher and therefore does not imply a particular set of applications of ICT to the learning environment.

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