Constructivist Approaches to Student Motivation

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Constructivist Approaches to Student Motivation

MaryAnn Butcher

November 2010

University College of The Cayman Islands

Post Graduate Diploma in Education

EDU 520

Dr L. Malcolm

Constructivists Approaches To Student Motivation1

INTRODUCTION

“Given your understanding of the constructivist approach to

learning, outline 3-4 of the approaches and discuss how they can

either be used to meet individual needs of students or motivate

students to learn”

In this paper I will attempt to define the Constructivist

Learning Theory and describe the key concepts, ideas and

principles which are used in approaches based on that theory.

After outlining 3 of those approaches with reference to specific

classroom application, I will then draw links between them and

the already established motivational strategies.


Constructivist Learning Theory

Slavin (2009) describes the constructivist theory of

learning as the idea that “learners must individually discover

and transform complex information, checking new information

against old rules and revisiting rules when they no longer work.”

This emphasis on the students as active learners indicates a lean

towards the student-centered classroom environment where students

work towards discovering their own meanings rather than one in

which the teacher is constantly lecturing and controlling all

classroom activities. The role of the teacher here is to focus on

making connections between facts and fostering new understanding

in students. They tailor their teaching strategies to student

responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and

predict information. They also rely heavily on open-ended

questions and promote extensive dialogue among students.

("Constructivism,")

A constructivist teacher at the beginning of a science

lesson on the topic of Magnetism may start by having students

discuss what they think the term means, carry out their own

experiments to discover which types of materials are magnetic and


make their own conclusions as to the reasons why. Contrast this

with a more ‘traditional’ approach where the teacher may only

have the students take notes on the topic and perhaps allow them

only to watch a demonstration of the experiments. The difference

between the two approaches is often quite evident in the level of

student participation during the lesson. The tradition teacher

may be happiest when students sit quietly and listen attentively

but the constructivist classroom is often bustling with student

activities and discussions.

Historically, Constructivist theory draws heavily on the

work of Piaget and Vygotsky, both of whom emphasized that

cognitive change takes place only when previous conceptions go

through a process of disequilibration in light of new information

which would lead to adaptation of some sort. This means that a

student learns new skills or topics by relating them to the

knowledge and skills they might have mastered already. If the old

cannot be directly applied to the new, he then learns to adapt

these old skills or develop new ones.

Vygotsky also emphasized the social nature of learning, and

both suggested the use of mixed-ability learning groups to


promote conceptual change. Four key principles derived from

Vygotsky's ideas have played an important role: the Zone of

Proximal Development, Social Learning, Cognitive Apprenticeship,

and Mediated Learning.

Zone of Proximal Development

The concept known as the zone of proximal development refers

to the gap between what a student has already mastered (the

actual level of development) and what he or she can achieve when

provided with educational support (potential development). Tasks

within the zone of proximal development are ones that the student

cannot yet do alone but could do with the assistance of adults or

more competent peers. This is the point of readiness for further

learning. Once the student has completed a task with assistance

(perhaps completing it more than once with diminishing levels of

support) he is then likely to be ready to complete the task on

his own.

This can be well illustrated by the process a child usually

goes through when learning to ride a bicycle for the first time.

This is usually done with the support of a parent or older child


who already knows how to ride and at a time when the child has

already mastered the operation of the bicycle with training

wheels. The zone of proximal development in this case is what

lies between the child being able to ride with training wheels

and without the training wheels. Once the training wheels are

removed the child must be coached and assisted in order to now

learn to balance while pedaling and steering as he would have

before. The parent usually assists at first by holding the

bicycle up with both hands and then with one, verbally reminding

the child to “sit up straight” or “hold the handles steadily”.

Eventually the adult is able to fully remove his support by

letting go. The child is then able to practice on their own until

they have fully mastered the ability to ride a bicycle.

The social interaction is implicit in Vygotsky’s theory. The

parent in this case must be well aware of the not only child’s

ability level, but also the way in which they think. The parent

or teacher who is sensitively attuned to the child's ever-

shifting abilities and motivation would continually urge that

child on to new levels of competence. The child in turn asks

questions and shows signs of progress that guide and inspire the


parent or teacher.

Social Learning, Cognitive Apprenticeship and Mediated Learning

As previously stated, the social aspect of learning is

central to Vygotsky’s theory. Vygotsky proposed that children

learn through joint interactions with adults and more capable

peers. When the thought processes of successful problem solvers

are verbalized during cooperative projects, other students are

able to learn these processes and apply them to their own

approach. (Slavin, 2009)

Similarly, cognitive apprenticeship is the process by which

a student would gradually acquires expertise through interaction

with an expert, such as the teacher or more advanced peer.

(Slavin, 2009) Much like traditional forms of apprenticeship

where a person learns complex skills such as carpentry or auto-

repair, the cognitive apprenticeship is facilitated by a person

who is fully competent and involves such processes as modeling

and coaching.

A student would usually start out by observing his teacher

in action, identifying the specific behaviors needed to


accomplish the task. At the next stage the student, with the

support of the teacher, tries to imitate the behaviors he has

observed. The teacher provides coaching in the form of corrective

feedback, hints and reminders or even once again modeling the

task for the student. As with the bicycle riding scenario from

before, the student is never asked to do anything beyond what he

can accomplish with the teacher’s help and eventually, as the

student becomes more proficient, the teacher gradually removes

their support.

Another related concept is Mediated Learning (also known as

Assisted Learning). Vygotsky conceptualized this constructivist

concept. This is the idea in which the teacher guides instruction

by means of scaffolding to help students to master and

internalize the skills that permit higher cognitive functioning.

(Slavin, 2009) According to Vygotsky, higher cognitive functions,

such as the ability to focus attention or memory, or to think in

terms of symbols is unique to humans and is passed down by

teaching. Furthermore, the development of these functions is tied

to social context and culture. Once these functions are acquired,

the student will have the tools necessary for self-guided


learning.

Along with these key principles from Vygotsky,

constructivist approaches to teaching include such concepts as:

top-down processing, cooperative learning, discovery learning,

self-regulated learning, scaffolding and APA's Learner-Centered

Psychological Principles.

Scaffolding

This key idea, taken from Vygotsky’s Social Learning theory,

suggest that support for learning and problem solving be provided

to the student in the initial stages in the form of clues,

reminders, simplifying or giving examples. Soon thereafter that

support is to be diminished so that the student’s responsibility

and independence can be increased progressively. Vygotsky defined

scaffolding instruction as the “role of teachers and others in

supporting the learner’s development and providing support

structures to get to that next stage or level” (Raymond, 2000, p.

176).

Scaffolding is an essential component in many, if not all of

the constructivist approaches and ideas such as Mediated Learning


and Cognitive Apprenticeship and others to follow. As a teaching

strategy on its own, scaffolding provides individualized support

based on the student’s zone of proximal development. The teacher

begins to plan a lesson by taking into account the actual level

of development for each of her students and then structures

activities which are within their potential level of development.

For example, in a music lesson where a student is learning

to play a new piano piece, the teacher might tackle the student’s

problem with left-hand to right-hand co-ordination as follows.

The student is allowed to first master the parts separately (one

hand at a time) and then the teacher plays the accompanying part

while the student is practicing the other. At times she may place

her hand over his to help guide him in the correct finger-

movements or rhythms. They may alternate between the parts at

times. This allows the student to hear how the other part fits

with what they are playing. Eventually, when he is confident on

the separate parts, the student begins to attempt playing them

together on his own. At this point, he has fully mastered

(engaging tactile memory) the movement in each hand and is

aurally aware of how they should sound together. The teacher can


remove all the supports which were in place at the beginning of

the lesson.

One of the primary benefits of scaffolding instruction is

that it engages the learner. The learner does not passively

listen to information presented. Instead, through the teacher’s

prompting, the learner builds on prior knowledge and forms new

knowledge. In working with students who have low self-esteem and

learning disabilities, it provides an opportunity to give

positive feedback to the students by saying things like “…look

what you have just figured out!” This gives them more of a can

do versus a “this is too hard” attitude. This leads into another

advantage of scaffolding in that if done properly, scaffolding

instruction motivates the student so that they want to learn

more.

Another benefit of this type of instruction is that it can

minimize the level of frustration of the learner. For the piano

student mentioned above a lesson which was not scaffold in such a

way would have been quite frustrating because attempting to learn

the piece of music would become a slow and arduous task because

of the obstacle of having to think about the movements of each


hand. They would have to break the piece down bar by bar and

perhaps never really gain an appreciation of the musicality of

the piece.

Discovery Learning

One of the most important components of constructivist

approaches is Discovery Learning. In discovery learning, the

student 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. As a result, students may be more

likely to remember concepts and knowledge discovered on their

own.

Discovery learning fits easily within the teaching of

science but is applicable to a wide variety of subject areas. In

any subject area, students engaged in discovery learning are

given activities where they learn to recognize a problem,

characterize what a solution would look like, search for relevant

information, develop a solution strategy, and execute the chosen


strategy and evaluate its effectiveness. In a science lesson

students might be asked to figure out how to make the highest

flying kite. They might start by discussing what the most

suitable materials, dimensions or environmental conditions. Even

the student who has never flown a kite might be able to suggest

light materials or the windiest spot on the island. The students

might then carryout research using the internet or other sources

to find a suitable design or confer with a Design and Technology

teacher about the best techniques for handling and putting

together their materials. They would then test their designs by

attempting to fly them, all the while making adjustment such as

the length of the tail or the type of string as they see fit. In

the end they would present their evaluations and conclusions on

what works best or what doesn’t work.

Discovery learning has several advantages: it actively

engages students in the learning process, it motivates students

to participate, it encourages autonomy and independence, promotes

the development of creativity and problem-solving skills and

provides a individualized learning experience. However, discovery

learning also means the risk of time wasted if errors are made by


the student and also possibility of overwhelming or demotivating

student who might need more structure.

Self-Regulated Learning

Another one of the most important components of the

constructivist approaches is Self-Regulated Learning. This is

learning that is guided by metacognition (thinking about one's

thinking), strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating

personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn

(Wikipedia, 2010). Self-regulated learners are those who are

cognizant of their academic strengths and weaknesses, have

knowledge of effective learning strategies and know how and when

to use them. (Slavin, 2009) These learners hold incremental

beliefs about intelligence (as opposed to fixed views of

intelligence) and attribute their successes or failures to

factors (e.g., effort expended on a task, effective use of

strategies) within their control. Self-regulated learners are not

concerned with performance goals

It is often assumed that high-ability students are

automatically self-regulated learners. This is not so. Gifted and


talented students may have done very well in school without using

good self-regulation strategies because of a combination of their

high abilities and/or an unchallenging curriculum. These self-

regulation skills can be taught, learned, and controlled.

Students who are self-regulated learners believe that

opportunities to take on challenging tasks, practice their

learning, develop a deep understanding of subject matter, and

exert effort will give rise to academic success. In part, these

characteristics may help to explain why self-regulated learners

usually exhibit a high sense of self-efficacy. In the educational

psychology literature, researchers have linked these

characteristics to success in and beyond school (Wikipedia,

2010).

Top-Down Processing

Constructivist approaches use top-down processing in which

students begin with sophisticated problems and ascertain the

basic knowledge and skills needed to solve those problems.

Related instructional methods include: Discovery and Assisted

learning. These instructional techniques stimulate students’


curiosity and motivation. Also, they facilitate the development

of independent problem-solving and critical-thinking skills

because students must analyze and manipulate information.

In the classroom setting, the teacher would begin with a

problem, sometimes presented by the students themselves. The

students work to discover how to solve the problem. If actively

involved in discovery, students will develop problem-solving

skills and engage in socio-cultural learning experiences. This

was the point Vygotsky called cognitive scaffolding, which

reflected the cultural process of assistance through cooperation

and collaboration.

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning or Peer-Assisted learning is an

instructional approach in which students work in small groups to

achieve team success while emphasizing the student’s

responsibility for their own learning and that of their team

mates. This instructional technique emphasizes group dynamics

where thinking processes are shared, modeled and challenged until

all participants have gain better understanding. Many quite


different approaches to cooperative learning exist. Most involve

students in four-member, mixed-ability groups, but some methods

use dyads and some use varying group sizes.

APA’s Learner Centered Psychological Principles

This set of 14 principles of learning and motivation, laid

out by the APA’s Task Force on Psychology in Education, paint a

picture of the learner as actively seeking knowledge by:

reinterpreting information and experiences for themselves; being

intrinsically self-motivated; working with others to socially

construct meaning; and being aware of and capable of effectively

applying their own learning strategies. Many, if not all, of the

principles echo those found within the constructivist approach.

For the purpose of later discussions on motivation however, I’ll

draw attention to a few in particular.

Principle #7, in addressing the motivational and emotional

influences on learning, states: “What and how much is learned is

influenced by the learner's motivation. Motivation to learn, in

turn, is influenced by the individual's emotional states,

beliefs, interests, and goals, and habits of thinking.” One can


infer from this that learner-centered lessons must be include or

be in some way geared towards the learner’s interests, points of

view or mood. The task of accomplishing this in every lesson

seems daunting, but then one must think of the number of times

teachers are faced with the questions: “Why do we need to know

this?”

Principle #8, in addressing intrinsic motivation to learn

states: “The learner's creativity, higher order thinking, and

natural curiosity all contribute to motivation to learn.

Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty

and difficulty, relevant to personal interests, and providing for

personal choice and control.” It may be hard to imagine, but it

is easy to demotivate a good student if the lessons are too

simple. Even with continued success, students may lose interest

in tasks that they once loved to do. For many students it is the

challenges that are presented and conquered that drives them

forward in their learning.

Principle #9, in addressing effects of motivation on effort

states: “Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires

extended learner effort and guided practice. Without learners'


motivation to learn, the willingness to exert this effort is

unlikely without coercion.”

Constructivist Approaches Outlined

For the purpose of clarifying my direction in the next part of

this paper, I feel it necessary to explain my understanding of

what a constructivist approach is. Above, I have defined and

described the prevailing theory of constructivism and several of

the concepts, ideas and principles that characterize its

application to the classroom environment. While some core

concepts such as Discovery learning and Self-regulated Learning

may be utilized as full approaches in some subjects such as

science, it is not my intention to present then as such. Going

forward, I now hope to illustrate how the constructivist theory

and combinations of the various concepts, ideas and principles

are specifically and practically applied to curricular subject

areas.

Constructivism in Reading: Reciprocal Teaching

According to Slavin (2009), this constructivist approach is


designed primarily to help low achievers in elementary and middle

schools learn reading comprehension. Reciprocal teaching can be

used to teach students how to coordinate the use of four

comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, generating

questions, and summarizing. (Pilonieta, P., & Medina, A. 2009)

While working in small groups, with the teacher as a facilitator,

the students use these strategies to engage in a discussion

thereby jointly constructing and enhancing one another’s

understanding of the text. The teacher initially models the

questions students might ask as they read and then passes the

role of group leader to individual students so that they can then

generate questions for each other.

It should be easy to note the several constructivist

elements within this approach. The use of small groups with

active discussion resembles the cooperative and social learning

concepts described above. The teacher must employ the idea of

scaffolding and even while encouraging greater student

responsibility, the teacher continues monitoring and scaffolding.

Questioning the Author


Another constructivist approach to reading described by

Slavin (2009), is one called Questioning the Author. In this

method questioning can help students to see that texts are

written by real people for a range of different purposes, and

that some are more successful than others in achieving this

purpose. As students read the text, the teacher stops them from

time to time in order to prompt questions about the author’s

intent and meaning or the story’s development.

Wilson (2003) also proposes the following exercise within

this approach: “An interesting exercise with advanced students

is to compare two reports of the same news item from different

sources: how reliable are they? What sources have been used? What

has been picked out as the key point? What verbs have been used

and to what effect? Which one concords most with their own

perceptions of the situation?” She notes that the benefits of

this approach can be found in the students being more motivated

and developing their critical stance rather than simply

paraphrase the article.

Constructivism in Music


After reading the articles by real practicing teachers such

as Wilson, Freer and Myers on their own ideas for constructivist

approaches, I began to examine my own classroom practices. Could

I also be a constructivist? I’ll admit that in the past, I only

associated the term ‘discovery learning’ with the science

subject. I thought that my music curriculum had too many facts

and concepts to be learnt, memorized and practices in preparation

for exams. Having studied the theory and its accompanying ideas

I’m now able to recognize some constructivist approaches in my

own schemes of work.

With the aid of ICT resources such as music notation

software my students’ composition classes have definitely become

more student-centered as they can type in their ideas and have

the computer accurately play it back for them. Initially, I do

provide them with support in the form of an overview of the

particular concepts and or listening and performance examples on

the genre that we are modeling. In creating their compositions

they are expected to draw on their own interpretation of those

concepts. Throughout the process they frequently evaluate each

other’s work and discuss (and sometimes defend) the choices


they’ve made.

In the study of western music history and world music with

younger students my approach involves allowing them to make

connections between the music they know and the new music in as

many ways as possible. This may mean aurally comparing the

timbres of western and world musical instruments or going further

to invent their own new musical instruments and performing their

own compositions on them. I encourage open discussion on their

perceptions of the music they encounter and try wherever possible

to help them draw connection between how the music makes them

feel and their knowledge of the core musical elements such as

pitch, dynamics and tempo.

Motivation and the Constructivist Approaches

Motivation can be defined as an internal state that

activates, guides, and maintains learning behavior. (Palmer, D.

2005) For the context of the classroom, further distinction

should be made between the intrinsic and extrinsic forms of

motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to those tasks or topics

(hobbies) which are inherently enjoyable and interesting to a


person. Extrinsic motivation refers to external extra or external

factors which persons are taught to value. (Rewards) In its

simplest forms, the student’s motivation to learn can be treat as

“the student’s reason” to want to learn.

I believe that many if not all of the concepts, ideas and

principles contained in the constructivist approaches are

intended to impact positively on student motivation. If a child

is interested in or curious about what is happening in the

classroom then they are more likely continue learning. Quite

often in schools, extrinsic motivators such as grades or rewards

are the driving force behind students’ performance. The

successful accomplishment learning goals which is supported by

key concepts such as scaffolding and discovery learning appeals

to both types of motivated student.

Motivation can ebb or be completed removed if a student

looses interest due to failure or boredom. For this reason, it is

the teacher job to closely monitor and maintain the students’

interest and efficacy but tailoring the levels of difficulty and

the relevance to the topics to their individual need. This is

primarily seen in the practice of scaffolding and the teacher’s


awareness of the of the student’s Zone of Proximal Development.

Teachers should also be aware that the cooperative learning

or peer-assisted group dynamics achieves this while also shifting

some of the burden from their own shoulders.


REFERENCES

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Freer, P. (2009). A Constructivist Approach with Choruses. Music Educators Journal, 95(4), 57.

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Myers, D. (2009). Constructivist Approaches in the Band Class. Music Educators Journal, 95(4), 58.

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http://www.funderstanding.com/content/constructivism


Raymond, E. (2000). Cognitive Characteristics. Learners with Mild Disabilities (pp. 169-201). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, APearson Education Company.

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