A Detailed Lesson Plan in Facilitating Learning:

Constructivism: Knowledge Construction/Concept Learning

I. OBJECTIVES
At the end of 45 minutes, the student should be able to:
A. Analyze the concept of Constructivism theory;
B. Construct ideas in a creative platform; and
C. Demonstrate constructivist-based practices.

II. SUBJECT MATTER

TOPIC: Constructivism: Knowledge Construction/Concept Learning

A. REFERENCES:
• Concept of Constructivism, www.thirteen.org
• Constructivism, www.learning-theories.com
• Constructivist Art and Design: An Imaginary excursion to Eastern-Europe,
Craig Berry, www.medium.com
• Constructivist Learning Theory, www.exploratorium.edu
• Constructivist Views of theTeaching and Learning of Mathematics. Washington, D.C. National
Council ofTeachersof Mathematics, 1991
• International Encyclopediaof Education. "Constructivism In Education," 1987 J. Dewey.
Experience and Education. Kappa DeltaPi, 1938.
• J. Dewey. Democracyand Education. MacMillan, 1916
• L.B. Resnick. Learning to Think.Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press

B. VALUES: The principles of constructivism, increasingly influential in the organization of classrooms,

can be applied in real life. The principles appeal to our modern views of learning and knowledge.
We need to reflect on our practice in order to apply these ideas to our work. Constructivist theory
requires that we turn our attention by 180 degrees we must turn our back on any idea of an all-
encompassing machine which describes nature and instead look towards all those wonderful,
individual living beings-the learners-each of whom creates his or her model to explain nature.

C. MATERIALS
The following materials will be use for the class discussion:
• Computer/laptop
• LCD projector
• Variety of art materials

Teacher’s Activity Student’s Activity

A. ROUTINARY ACTIVITY
• Prayer-Teacher will lead the prayer.
“Class, let’s vow our head and pray.”
• All students shall pray silently.
• Attendance-Teacher will check the
attendance.
• Present students shall response when their
• Greetings-Teacher will greet the students name was called.
with energy. “Good day Class!”
• Students shall greet back the teacher with
enthusiasm. “Good day Teacher!”
All students shall participate. Students should
B. DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES carefully listen to the instruction of the teacher.
• Motivation: “Tangrams Puzzle” Tangrams Students are encouraged to ask questions for
are ancient Chinese puzzles, great for clarifications.
building reasoning, geometry and fine motor
skills. Students will be able to construct a
specific shape as instructed by the teacher Students are encouraged to listen.
using these puzzles.
• Introduction: Short story telling.The teacher
will tell a short story about Constructivist Art Students shall listen to the teacher and must
engage with the discussion.
and Design in Russian Revolution.
• Presentation: The teacher will present the
topic by using a laptop and an LCD
projector. The presentation includes texts
and images related to the subject matter. In
a form of discussion, students can ask
questions to the teacher and vice versa.

C. ANALYSIS
The teacher will present passages and images
and will call random students to construct Students should be able to construct his/her
meaning about it. own ideas regarding the passages and
images.

D. ABSTRACTION/GENERALIZATION
The teacher will generalize the topic discussed. Students shall participate with the discussion.
The teacher will ask the students questions Students should be able to answer questions
from time to time. and construct meaning of the topic.

WHAT IS CONSTRUCTIVISM?
• It is a theory on how humans generate “Constructivism means creating your own idea
knowledge and meaning from an interaction and meaning in a certain context.”
between their experiences and their ideas
• Based on observation and scientific study “Constructivism is constructing knowledge.”
about how people learn
 It says that people construct their own “The major contributors are Lev Semyonovich
understanding and knowledge of the world, Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, John Dewey and
through experiencing things and reflecting Jerome Seymour Bruner.”
on those experiences

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896 – 1943)

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY
(VYGOTSKY)
Social Development Theory argues that social
interaction precedes development;
consciousness and cognition is the end product
of socialization and social behavior.
Vygotsky’s theory is one of the foundations of “The Social Interaction Theory of Lev Vygotsky
constructivism. It asserts three major themes means that children construct meaning through
regarding social interaction, the more socializing.”
knowledgeable other, and the zone of proximal
development.

SOCIAL INTERACTION
Social interaction plays a fundamental role in
the process of cognitive development. In
contrast to Jean Piaget’s understanding of child
development (in which development necessarily
precedes learning), Vygotsky felt social learning
precedes development. He states: “Every
function in the child’s cultural development
appears twice: first, on the social level, and
later, on the individual level; first, between
people (interpsychological) and then inside the
child (intrapsychological)”.

THE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHER

(MKO)
The MKO refers to anyone who has a better
understanding or a higher ability level than the
learner, with respect to a particular task,
process, or concept. The MKO is normally
thought of as being a teacher, coach, or older
adult, but the MKO could also be peers, a
younger person, or even computers.

THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

(ZPD)
The ZPD is the distance between a student’s
ability to perform a task under adult guidance
and/or with peer collaboration and the student’s
ability solving the problem independently.
 “Piagets’ Cognitive theory states that children
have stages in developing understanding and
Piaget (1896 – 1980) each stage has a capacity and capability to
STAGE THEORY OF COGNITIVE construct knowledge.”
DEVELOPMENT (PIAGET)
Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive
Development is a description of cognitive
development as four distinct stages in children:
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and
formal.

KEY CONCEPTS
Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget
(1896-1980) observed his children (and their
process of making sense of the world around
them) and eventually developed a four-stage
model of how the mind processes new
information encountered. He posited that
children progress through 4 stages and that
they all do so in the same order. These four
stages are:

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
(BIRTH TO 2 YEARS OLD)
The infant builds an understanding of himself or
herself and reality (and how things work)
through interactions with the environment. It is
able to differentiate between itself and other
objects.

PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
(AGES 2 TO 4)
The child is not yet able to conceptualize
abstractly and needs concrete physical
situations. Objects are classified in simple
ways, especially by important features.

CONCRETE OPERATIONS
(AGES 7 TO 11)
As physical experience accumulates,
accommodation is increased. The child begins
to think abstractly and conceptualize, creating
logical structures that explain his or her physical
experiences.

FORMAL OPERATIONS
(BEGINNING AT AGES 11 TO 15)
Cognition reaches its final form. By this stage,
the person no longer requires concrete objects
to make rational judgements. He or she is
capable of deductive and hypothetical
reasoning. His or her ability for abstract thinking
is very similar to an adult.

John Dewey (1859 – 1952)

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION “Deweys’ theory of progressive education
Emphasis: Early childhood learning is states that children should start from simple to
childcentered; is built around the interest of the complex understanding.”
child; child learns best through play because of
social interaction.
Strategies: Allowing time for play and learning;
providing a relaxed atmosphere; informal
activities for learning.
Activities: Manipulative toys, arts, music,
story reading, free and outdoor play, snack,
rest, circle time, informal reading and writing.
Skills: Social skills, emotional and physical
development, informal reading and writing.

Jerome Seymour Bruner (1915 – 2016)

DISCOVERY LEARNING (BRUNER) “The discovery learning theory of Bruner
Discovery Learning is a method of inquirybased means students construct knowledge through
instruction; discovery learning believes that it is self discovery, through inquiry questions.”
best for learners to discover facts and
relationships for themselves.

KEY CONCEPTS
Discovery learning is an inquiry-based,
constructivist learning theory that takes place in
problem solving situations where the learner
draws on his or her own past experience and
existing knowledge to discover facts and
relationships and new truths to be learned.
Students interact with the world by exploring
and manipulating objects, wrestling with
questions and controversies, or performing
experiments.

Two Views of Constructivism

“Individual Constructivism is your personal
Individual Constructivism – this is called
understanding while Social Constructivism is
cognitive constructivism. It emphasizes
sharing the same ideals with the society.”
individual, internal construction of knowledge.
Social Constructivism – this view emphasizes
that knowledge exists in a social context and is
initially shared with others instead of being
represented solely in the mind of an individual

Principles of Learning
“Principles of learning in constructivism are
essential in order to construct meaningful
knowledge.”
Learning is an active process in which the
learner uses sensory input and constructs
meaning outof it.
• People learn to learn as they learn. “These are useful for students like us on how
• The crucial action of constructing meaning can we understand constructivism in
is mental. educational point of view.”
• Learning involves language.
• Learning is a social activity.
• Learning is contextual.
• One needs knowledge to learn.
• It takes time to learn.
• Motivation is a key component in learning.
Characteristics of Constructivism
“These are the attributes constructivism
1. Learners construct understanding
possesses in students understanding.”
-Learners as active thinkers who interpret
new information based on what they already
“Students like us should reflect on our
know.
experience understand what is being learned
2. New learning depends on current
so we can construct ideas and new
understanding
knowledge.”
3. Learning is facilitated by social
interaction
- Believes in creating a community of learners
within classrooms
4. Meaningful learning occurs within authentic
learning task
- Involves constructing knowledge and
understanding that is so kin to the knowledge
and understanding needed when applied in the
real world
“In organizing knowledge, it is important to
Organizing Knowledge know the role of each understanding. The
Concept – A concept is a way of grouping or importance of it, when is it needed, and what
categorizing objects or events in our mind.
should be neglected.”
Itincludes a group of tasks such as model,
discuss, illustrate, explain, assist, etc.
“Concepts can be group as Feature lists,
Concepts as feature lists prototypes and exemplars.”
A defining feature is a characteristic present in
ALL instances.
EX: A triangle has 3 sides. Having 3 sides is a
defining feature of a triangle since ALL
triangles have 3 sides.
A correlation feature is one that is present in
many positive instances but not essential for
concept membership
EX: A mother is loving. Being loving is a
common feature present in the concept. But a
mother may not be loving.

Concepts as prototypes
A prototype is an idea or a visual image of a
“typical” example.
EX: Thinking of a fruit that has a red color.
 “ A schema is like a storage of information
Concepts as exemplars while a script is the item being stored in the
Represents a variety of examples. It allows schema.”
learners to know that an example under a
concept may have variability.
EX: A learner’s concept of vegetable may
include a wide variety of different examples like
cauliflower, kangkong, string beans, etc. “These ways will help students like us in
knowing the right information and utilizing the
SCHEMAS AND SCRIPTS knowledge learned so we can construct better
A schema is an organized body of knowledge understanding and ideas.”
about something. It is like a file of information
you hold in your mind about something. A
script is a schema that includes a series of
predictable events about a specific activity.

MAKING CONCEPT-LEARNING EFFECTIVE

• Provide clear definitions of the concept.
• Make the defining features very concrete
and prominent.
“The three examples of concept are concrete,
• Give a variety of positive instances. semi-concrete and abstract.”
• Cite a “best example” or a prototype.
• Provide opportunity for learners to identify
positive and negative instances.
• Ask learners to think of their own example “These concepts will help us in identifying and
of the concept. grouping specific knowledge and
• Point out how concepts can be related to understanding.”
each other.

Examples of Concepts
Concrete concepts have aspects or dimension
that are easily seen, heard, or touched. Fruit
would be an example of a concrete concept due
to its tangible characteristics of being
seedassociated, fleshy, and plant-derived.
Semi-concrete concepts have some
combination of concrete and non-concrete
characteristics. Take the semi-concrete concept
of a politician, for instance. Some
characteristics of a politician could be concrete,
such as a holder or candidate for an elected
office. However, other characteristics may not
be as concrete, such as one who serves the
public.
Abstract concepts do not have many (if any)
absolute characteristics that are easy to
comprehend with the senses.Unlike concrete
and semi-concrete concepts, abstract concepts
are not explained by a list of well-defined rules
or characteristics. One example is Love as the “Constructivism is very special in knowledge
characteristics of love might differ from one construction of the students like us because it
person to the next. develops our higher order thinking skills by
constructing new knowledge and
Applying Constructivism understanding.”
in Facilitating Learning
• Aim to make learners understand a few key
ideas in an in-depth manner, rather than
taking up so many topics specifically.
• Give varied examples.
• Provide opportunities for experimentation
• Provide lots of opportunities for quality
interaction.
• Have lots of hands-on activities
• Relate your topic to real life situations
• Do not depend on the explanation method
all the time

E. APPLICATION
The teacher will instruct the students to All students will sketch, or draw using the
construct an illustration or graphic organizer provided materials. Students should finish the
about War on Drugs and what is the role of activity in 15 minutes.
teachers relating to this social issue.

All students should finish the exam in 10

F. ASSESSMENT
minutes.
The teacher will provide a five-item formative
assessment.
Students should answer the questions
correctly.
Identification: Identify what is being stated.
Write the answer in a ¼ sheet of paper.

1. Discovery Learning
1. It is a method of inquiry-based instruction.
2. Cognitive Development Theory
2. It is a description of cognitive development
3. Constructivism
as four distinct stages in children:
4. Social Development Theory
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and
5. Concept
formal.
3. It is a theory on how humans generate
knowledge and meaning from an
interaction between their experiences and
their ideas.
4. Theory that argues that social interaction
precedes development.
5. It is a way of grouping orcategorizing
objects or events in our mind.
 E. ASSIGNMENT
Think of a topic related to your field of specialization. Make a graphic organizer by showing how you can
apply Constructivism for your students to construct their own understanding of the topic.