The learning theory of constructivism best describes my beliefs as a teacher and what I focus on whenever possible when I am working directly with students and planning lessons. A text that I found useful to place my understanding of constructivism in the field of online teaching was a chapter called Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning by Ally, in the larger book The Theory and Practice of Online Learning by Anderson in 2008. Ally writes about the benefits of online learning, how to design online learning materials, and an overview of the different schools of learning, including constructivism. Constructivists are described as seeing “learners as active rather than passive. Knowledge is not received from the outside or from someone else; rather, the individual learner interprets and processes what is received through the senses to create knowledge” (Anderson, 2008).

There is a list of the implications for online learning when taking a constructivist approach in design, which include:

• Learning should be an active process.
• Learners should construct their own knowledge, rather than accepting that given by the instructor.
• Collaborative and cooperative learning should be encouraged to facilitate constructivist learning.
• Learners should be given control of the learning process.
• Learners should be given time and the opportunity to reflect.
• Learning should be made meaningful. Learning materials should include examples that relate to the learners so that they can make sense of the information.
• Learning should be interactive to promote higher-level learning and social presence, and to help develop personal meaning.

Ally also includes a “Levels of Interaction in Online Learning” diagram that shows an overview of different interactive strategies to promote higher-level learning (Anderson, 2008). The diagram helped show that there are many considerations when planning for learning designs in the online setting, and the default is a lower level of learning.

Levels of Interaction in Online Learning (Anderson, 2008).

In the online setting, teachers need to plan intentional designs to go beyond the learner-interface and the learner-content interaction where many students could stay in perpetuity. The nature of the online courses that I teach at an online K-12 school do not automatically encourage interactive strategies to promote higher-level learning, as students can work independently without much teacher involvement.

The list of the implications for online learning when taking a constructivist approach in design is important to remember as an online teacher when designing learning experiences to add value to the existing online courses. Examples to encourage a constructivist approach include having a physical classroom where students can engage with each other and their teacher, having regular online sessions where students can check in if they are working entirely online, meeting with students individually when they start to design their course, and being open and flexible to making unique courses for students when possible. These are all designed to move beyond the learner-interface and learner-content interaction towards the learner-instructor, learner-learner level, and ultimately, the learner-context interaction through deeper understanding students have about their learning experiences.

References

Anderson, T. (Ed.). (2008). The theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed). AU Press.

Photo by Maya Maceka on Unsplash.