The International Journal of Indian Psychology
ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p)
Volume 4, Issue 1, No. 79, DIP: 18.01.086/20160401
ISBN: 978-1-365-56745-2
http://www.ijip.in | October-December, 2016
© 2016 M Alam; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Constructivism: Paradigm Shift from Teacher Centered To Student
Centered Approach
Dr. Md. Mahmood Alam
1
*
ABSTRACT
Constructivism is a departure in thought about the nature of knowing, hence of learning and thus
of teaching. Constructivists believe that knowledge and truth are constructed by people and
therefore do not exist outside the human mind. Von Glaserfeld (1984) has written: “...learners
construct understanding. They do not simply mirror and reflect what they are told or what they
read. Learners look for meaning and will try to find regularity and order in the events of the
world even in the absence of full or complete information.” Constructivism requires a teacher to
act as a facilitator whose main function is to help students become active participants in their
learning and make meaningful connections between prior knowledge, new knowledge, and the
processes involved in learning. Teachers, thus, need to have a sound understanding of what
constructivism means to evaluate its promise and to use it knowledgeably and effectively. Hence,
from a constructivist perspective, the primary responsibility of the teacher is to create and
maintain a collaborative problem-solving environment, where students are allowed to construct
their own knowledge, and the teacher acts as a facilitator and guide. In the constructivist model,
students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning, on the assumption
that individuals construct knowledge instead of receiving it from others. The way in which
knowledge is conceived and acquired, the types of knowledge, skills, and activities emphasized,
the role of the learner and the teacher, how goals are established: All of these factors are
expressed differently from the constructivist perspective (Christie & Stone, 1999). This paper
explicates some of the theoretical background of Constructivism and then presents.
Keywords: Constructivism, Collaborative, Paradigm, Approach
Constructivism “is the philosophy, or belief, that learners create their own knowledge based on
interactions with their environment including their interactions with other people” (Draper, 2002,
p. 522). It is based on the idea that learners must construct and reconstruct knowledge, in order
to learn effectively. Indeed, this is the assertion in constructionist theories -We take a view of
learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge(and) … extend the idea
1
Assistant Professor, MANUU College of Teacher Education, Sambhal, U.P., India
*Responding Author