working memory. This view emerged in 1980 and 1990s, and was based largely on the study of human learning in increasingly realistic settings. The shift of instructional
design from behaviorism to cognitivism was not as dramatic as the move into constructivism appears to be, since behaviorism and cognitivism are both objective in
nature. Behaviorism and cognitivism both support the practice of analyzing a task and breaking it down into manageable chunks, establishing objectives, and measuring
performance based on those objectives. Constructivism, on the other hand, promotes a more open-ended learning experience where the methods and results of learning are not
easily measured and may not be the same for each learner. Educational curricula and teaching methods are changing. One component of
the current development of all subject area curricula is the change in focus of instruction from the transmission curriculum to a transactional curriculum. In a traditional
curriculum, a teacher transmits information to students who passively listen and acquire facts. In a transactional curriculum, students are actively involved in their learning to
reach new understandings.
a. The Meaning of Constructivism
There are so many definitions given by experts about constructivism. Constructivism is a view of learning based on the belief that knowledge is not a thing
that can be simply given by the teacher at the front of the room to students in their desks. Rather, knowledge is constructed by learners through an active, mental process
of development; learners are the builders and creators of meaning and knowledge. It is stated by Jonassen 1999: 217 that constructivist conceptions of learning assume that
knowledge is individually constructed and socially co-constructed by learners based on their interpretations of experience in the world. Since the knowledge cannot be
transmitted, instruction should consist of experiences that facilitate knowledge construction. Experience includes both the physical context in which a person works
and the tasks both cognitive and physical that a person engages in while in that environment. That is, both the physical context for learning and the activities of the
learner determine how something is understood. Mayer 1999: 143 says constructivist learning occurs when learners actively
create their own knowledge by trying to make sense out of material that is presented to them. According to this view, the learner is a sense maker, whereas the teacher is
cognitive guide who provides guidance and modeling on authentic academic tasks. The instructional designer’s role is to create environment in which the learner interacts
meaningfully with academic material, including fostering the learner’s processes of selecting, organizing, and integrating information.
Honebein, Duffy, and Fishman 1993: 88 state basically, constructivism
proposes that knowledge or meaning is not fixed for an object, but rather is constructed by individuals through their experience of that object in a particular context.
Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking and creates active and motivated learners. Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde 1993 tell that learning in all subject areas
involves inventing and constructing new ideas. They suggest that constructivist theory be incorporated into the curriculum, and advocate that teachers create environments in
which children can construct their own understandings.
b. Values Underlying Constructivism
