Constructivism holds that the major influence on children's learning is their prior experience which results in their developing constructs that govern how they interpret and relate to the world around them. These constructs are formed from a very early age. We also called them misconceptions if these ideas are scientifically incorrect and yet sensible.
When we are attempting to change children's misconceptions, the key point to note is that simply telling the children the correct answer is most unlikely to work. If children are to modify their ideas, they must themselves accept that their initial ideas were incorrect and build an alternative, scientifically correct, construct to explain the phenomena they are encountering.
To do this, we need to plan the children's learning as shown below:
A learning cycle for Primary Science
In class, we need to get used to " helping pupils to learn" rather than " telling" the pupils. Often many of the activities we present the children with end up being only to reinforce what we are already "telling" the children.
Pupils need to be aware of what they are thinking and why. Their ideas must be properly challenged in a targeted manner. Then , it is easier to consolidate the appropriate ideas.
Open-ended and discovery learning
There are serious potential pitfalls if the approach to learning is too unstructured.
Effective Learning Contexts
It is important to realise that the context of our pupils' learning has a major influence on how effectively they learn.
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