4. Learners are blank slates ready to be filled with knowledge.
5. Skills and knowledge are best acquired independent of context.
4. Learners bring their own needs and experiences to learning situations.
5. Skills and knowledge are best acquired within realistic contexts.
6. Assessment must take more realistic and holistic forms.
Constructivist learning environments encompass many different applications of media and technology in education, including:
1) computer microworlds such as LEGO / Logo( Resnick & Ocko, 1994;
Rieber, 1992), 2) classroom-based learning environments such as the Jasper Woodbury problem-solving programs( Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992), and 3) open, virtual environments such as the CoVis project( Edelson, Pea, & Gomez, 1996).
For the cognitive scientists, learning theorists, instructional designers, and teachers involved in creating constructivist learning environments, learning refers to the development of mental states and abilities of all types including conceptual knowledge, technical skills, automatic rules, mental models, and problem-solving. Forms of higher-order outcomes such as motivation, intellectual curiosity, and the habits of lifelong learning are especially relevant because these are the most challenging types of learning to teach and learn. According to Honebein( 1996), to meet these ambitious learning outcomes, developers of constructivist learning environments adhere to seven goals: 1. Provide students with experience with the knowledge construction process. 2. Provide experience in and appreciation for multiple perspectives. 3. Embed learning in realistic and relevant contexts. 4. Encourage ownership and voice in the learning process. 5. Embed learning in social experience. 6. Encourage the use of multiple modes of representation. 7. Encourage self-awareness of the knowledge construction process.
The next three subsections of this report present the research findings associated with different types of constructivist learning environments, specifically, a microworld called LEGO / Logo, a classroom-based learning environment called Jasper Woodbury, and an open, virtual environment called CoVis.
LEGO / Logo
Logo was created by Seymour Papert( 1980, 1993). Early investigations of Logo as a programming language that would enable students to develop generalizable problem-solving skills were not as successful as Papert and others predicted( Pea & Kurland, 1987). More recently, new versions of Logo have been developed that involve real objects that children can program with Logo instructions. The best known of these is LEGO / Logo, which integrates a popular building block toy set
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