Theme 3: Creative
Learning is Creative
Constructivist models connect closely with experiential learning theories, however constructivism holds that learning is also (at least in part) a creative process.
“Often, constructivists hold that learners need to create or recreate knowledge for themselves. It is not enough that they assume an active stance.” (Perkins, 1999, p.8).
In this respect, I see learning as something that is created, i.e. the learner has created an understanding or skill (or has created a higher level of an existing understanding or skill) that they did not have before. The skills or knowledge in question may have already been in existence, but not for that particular person. They needed to create it for themselves.
A teacher who I respect greatly, whose teaching was more about life skills than academic matters, often told his pupils ‘don’t just accept what I say – think about it, put it through yourself, understand it for yourself.’ This I believe is an example of a constructivist approach, though the teacher in question may not have necessarily seen it that way.
Examples of creative and constructivist impulses in my teaching practice:
The teacher’s role and scaffolding
To me, learning is about acquiring skills, capabilities, knowledge and understanding that we did not have before, and about improving and supplementing these. How can I go where I have never been before? How can I reach what seems to be out of reach? Someone else can help me – a teacher, tutor, mentor, friend, family member or perhaps a complete stranger.
Whatever the name for this helper, they need to know how to reach the goal that I aspire to, and they need to know how to help me along the way. Not by doing the thing for me or by giving instructions and just leaving me to it. No, the helper must know how I learn and present activities and support in bite-sized chunks that suit my learning style, my temperament and my situation. Although, at times, leaving me to just get on with it will be part of the process.
In the photo, I have been scaffolded – lifted up to a level beyond which I could have reached on my own. The concept of scaffolding relates closely to Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development (see section 4), and it is not uncommon for the terms to be used interchangeably (though he never used the term himself). Scaffolding involves helpful, structured interaction between an adult and a learner with the aim of helping the learner achieve a specific goal (http://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html).
“[Scaffolding] refers to the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring” (Bruner, 1978, p. 19). To me scaffolding seems to be a natural way to teach, in the sense that a parent might teach a child to ride a bike by attaching trainer wheels to the bike. Once the child has mastered pedalling and steering, the trainers can be removed and the additional, tricky skill of balancing can be tackled. In this sense, scaffolding may be particularly useful for learning complex procedures that involve a set of skills – they can be learnt one at a time, in a progressive way that allows for developmental stages.