Introducing Pragmatism To Radically Enhance Knowledge Construction In A Student’s Mind

Radical Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that provides a pragmatic approach to the questions related to reality, truth, and human understanding. The term was coined by Ernst von Glasersfeld in 1974. This theory places individuals or learners as the central element in making sense of the world and in the construction of knowledge. According to this theory, learners do not receive knowledge passively through their senses. Instead, knowledge is actively constructed by learners through the assimilation of new information and making connections with existing knowledge.

Radical Constructivism puts the emphasis on an individual’s interactions, interpretations, and equilibrations with their environment and other individuals in the construction of their knowledge. This implies every child is the creator of their own knowledge. However, it doesn’t mean there is no objective reality. The theory just states that there is no way of knowing what that objective reality might be.

Constructivism is a learning philosophy that states that teaching facts as pre-existing entities will not help students understand knowledge. Rather, each learner must not only arrive at knowledge on his or her own terms but must also create knowledge from scratch. Every learner creates a knowledge base which he or she then expands as they progress through life.

The main purpose of Radical Constructivism is to encourage students to construct knowledge and build a conceptual understanding of problems. Students learn by building on their prior knowledge and experiences and actively participating in the learning process rather than passively receiving knowledge through lectures and memorisation. Constructivist teaching employs guided discovery, discussions of thoughts and ideas, and activities to assist students in learning. 

When a person encounters a new experience or idea, they must reconcile it with previous experiences and ideas. This act of reconciliation will either result in a change in the original belief or in the rejection of the new information. As a result, we, as humans, construct our own knowledge by asking questions, exploring, and evaluating what we know. Thus, it helps us to explore our thinking in all directions.

Constructivist teachers emphasise learning through activity rather than learning from textbooks. The teacher makes an effort to understand their students’ pre-existing conceptions and uses active techniques, such as real-world problem solving and experiments to address and build on those conceptions. Teachers in a Constructivist classroom encourage students to question themselves, their strategies, and how the various activities are enriching their understanding. Students become expert learners in actively constructing knowledge rather than simply repeating a series of facts.

This method of teaching is effective for students who learn best in a hands-on environment and it allows students to better apply what they learn in the classroom to their daily lives. The Constructivism curriculum also considers students’ prior knowledge, encourages teachers to devote more time to students’ favourite topics, and allows teachers to concentrate on important and relevant information. This enables students to develop social skills, support one another’s learning, and value one another’s opinions and input.

Constructivism is also frequently misunderstood as a learning theory that requires students to reinvent the wheel. Constructivism, in fact, taps into and stimulates the student’s natural curiosity about the world and how things work. Students do not try to reinvent the wheel but rather try to understand how it turns and functions. They become engaged by applying their prior knowledge and real-world experience, learning to hypothesise, testing their theories, and eventually drawing conclusions based on their findings.

Embibe Product/Features: Do It Yourself, Practice

Embibe uses Artificial Intelligence to provide students with personalised education. It assists them in learning concepts through videos, practising questions from the best books, taking mock tests to determine their learning outcome, and improving their score using in-depth analytics. 

As we already know, the main purpose of Radical Constructivism is to encourage students to acquire a conceptual understanding of problems. The ‘Do It Yourself’ videos on the Embibe ‘Learn’ module help the students to engage in Radical Constructivism. These videos are effective for students who learn best in a hands-on environment and it allows students to better apply what they learn in the classroom to their daily lives.

Embibe also uses Radical Constructivism in the ‘Practice’ module. ‘Practice’ consists of the world’s most comprehensive granularisation of questions with each question being broken down into 63+ taggable elements to drive micro personalisations at every stage of solving a question. The module provides students with more than adequate questions to practice as per their requirements on topics and concepts in their curriculum. The detailed solutions are created by expert faculties at Embibe and curated from prescribed textbooks and popular reference books for a particular grade or exam.