The Many Forms of Constructivism

Bodner, George M.; Klobuchar, Michael; Geelan, David

doi:10.1021/ed078p1107.4

Cited by 136 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Much of the current research in science education is centered around constructivist learning theory, which proposes that knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner and requires that the learner be actively engaged in the process of building his/her own knowledge [15]. In keeping with constructivist learning theory, students can engage in the process of developing their personalized keywords and annotations within the Zotero environment, which helps them to construct a better understanding of the literature being considered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building student proficiency with scientific literature using the Zotero reference manager platform

Kim

2011

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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While mastery of the scientific literature is a strongly desirable trait for undergraduate students, the sheer volume of the current literature has complicated the challenge of teaching scientific literacy. Part of the response to this ever‐increasing volume of resources includes formal instruction in the use of reference manager software while engaging students with the primary literature. This article describes the incorporation of the reference manager program Zotero into a chemical literature course to facilitate the use of digital resources and to better enable them to use proper citation skills in their technical writing. BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 412–415, 2011

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building student proficiency with scientific literature using the Zotero reference manager platform

Kim

2011

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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“…We wanted to acquire knowledge through a constructive process where we endeavoured to organise and reorganise our practices in the light of prevailing structures that exist in our institution (Bodner, Klobuchar, & Geelan, 2001). In organising and reorganising we created our understanding of how we need to develop as early academics (Richardson, 1997).…”

Section: Theoretical Stance Of the Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Hear our voices": a collective arts-based self-study of early-career academics on our learning and growth in a research-intensive university

Masinga

Myende

Marais

et al. 2016

Educ. res. soc. change.

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Early-career academics (ECAs) experience challenges with their integration into higher education institutions due to what is considered inadequate (or lack of) provision for effective professional development. In this article, we present our journey through a collective arts-based self-study project as ECAs guided by three seasoned academics: Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, Daisy Pillay, and Inbanathan Naicker. We share our personal experiences and challenges faced as ECAs at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; to achieve this, we used a social constructivist lens to collectively engage in conversations as we constructed new understandings of ourselves and experiences as ECAs. We show how, through the research, we learned to form and position our learning and growth within the changing university setting. We adopted a collective arts-based, self-study approach to explore our experiences and what we felt needed to happen to provide meaningful development for the newly appointed as we journey through the unclear grounds of university life. We make visible how we as ECAs feel overwhelmed when entering higher education institutions because of the need to balance research, teaching, and other demands of academic life. We find a strong need for collaborative engagement between ECAs and experienced academics. In addition, establishment of a healthy working environment and policy specific to addressing the needs of ECAs would assist in providing clear support as ECAs transition into experienced academics. Finally, we demonstrate how we took our findings forward, and describe both the resistance and support we experienced.

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“…The theoretical framework known as constructivism can be summarized as follows: "Knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner" (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47). This theoretical framework assumes that we don't discover knowledge; we actively construct it.…”

Section: Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In that paper, he traced the evolution of constructivism back to the work of Jean Piaget and introduced the idea of radical constructivism. A second paper described an alternative form of personal constructivism that arose from the work of the clinical psychologist George Kelly and introduced another form of constructivism known as social constructivism, which focuses on social interactions that explain how members of a group come to share an understanding of specific life circumstances (43).…”

Section: Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Twenty Years of Learning: How To Do Research in Chemical Education. 2003 George C. Pimentel Award

Bodner

2004

J. Chem. Educ.

Self Cite

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It is twenty years since the first symposium on research in chemical education was held at the American Chemical Society meeting in St. Louis in 1984. Over the course of two decades, the number of people who have devoted their careers to doing research on the teaching and learning of chemistry has increased significantly. There have also been significant developments in the methodology for doing research in this area and in the sophistication of the questions being investigated. This paper tries to summarize some of what the author has learned while working with graduate students pursuing research-based M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees in chemical education over the last 20 years. It describes the three fundamental elements of a good research study-the theoretical framework, the methodological framework, and the guiding research questions-and examines the process by which the choice of theoretical framework is made. Fundamental Assertion about Research DesignThere is general agreement among individuals who teach graduate courses on educational research that a good Ph.D. dissertation proposal contains three fundamental components: A theoretical framework upon which the research will be built; a set of guiding research questions that are consistent with the theoretical framework, which the research will try to answer; and a methodology that is appropriate for probing the guiding research questions. This is the order in which these components might be described in the proposal, but it isn't the order in which the elements are generated. The first step toward a research proposal often involves the construction of a draft of the guiding research questions. Guiding Research QuestionsThe most fundamental assertion about guiding research questions is also the most obvious; it is difficult to find answers to questions you don't ask. You can't base a study on the assumption that you'll just "observe what happens."Research questions not only can but should evolve over the course of a study. Indeed, our experience suggests that when changes do not arise in the research questions during the course of a study, we've probably not asked the right question. To illustrate how research questions evolve during a study, let's look at the work of David Gardner, whose Ph.D. dissertation was entitled "Learning in Quantum Mechanics" (1). In his dissertation, Gardner notes that his original question was "How do students learn quantum mechanics?" He then points out that the simplistic answer was: "Not very well." Unfortunately, this answer provides no insight into the problems students encounter with quantum mechanics or how to correct them. The guiding research questions were, therefore, refined and narrowed as the study evolved.With time, his work became directed by three questions. The first question-What are the experiences of students learning quantum mechanics?-came from one of the theoretical frameworks for his study: phenomenography. The second question-What conceptual difficulties do students have with quantum mechanics?-came from the o...

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The Many Forms of Constructivism

Abstract: P r i n t • S o f t w a r e • O n l i n e • B o o k s J o u r n a l o f C h e m i c a l E d u c a t i o n

Cited by 136 publications

References 18 publications

Building student proficiency with scientific literature using the Zotero reference manager platform

Building student proficiency with scientific literature using the Zotero reference manager platform

"Hear our voices": a collective arts-based self-study of early-career academics on our learning and growth in a research-intensive university

Twenty Years of Learning: How To Do Research in Chemical Education. 2003 George C. Pimentel Award

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