chapter 8: constructing knowledge

Paul Eggen and Don KauchakEducational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms, Eighth Edition

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.All Rights Reserved

CHAPTER 8: CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE



PowerPoint 8.1 Some Conclusions From Kids

Some Conclusions From Kids

1. The general direction of the Alps is straight up.

2. Most of the houses in France are made of Plaster of Paris.

3. Iron was discovered because someone smelt it.

4. You can listen to thunder and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don’t hear it, you got hit, so never mind.

5. Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if you don’t, why you should.

6. Blood circulates through the body by flowing down one leg and up the other.



Andrew, a seventh grader is talking to Suzanne, his mom, about movie ratings, and she comments that X-rated movies are rarely seen anymore.

“They’re just for old people anyway,” Andrew comments.

“Where did you come up with that idea?” Suzanne asked.

“Well,” Andrew responded, “‘G’ movies are for little kids, ‘PG-13' movies are for older kids, ‘R’ rated movies are for adults, so ‘X’ rated movies must be for old people.”

PowerPoint 8.2 Constructing Understanding About Movie Ratings



PowerPoint 8.3 Characteristics of Constructivism

• New learning depends on current understanding.

• Learners construct knowledge that makes sense to them.

• Social interaction facilitates learning.

• The most meaningful learning takes place in real-world tasks.



Principles of Cognitive Learning Theory• Learning and development depend on learners’ experiences.

• Learners are mentally active in their attempts to make sense of those experiences.

• Learners construct—they do not record—knowledge in the process of developing an understanding of their experiences.

• Knowledge that is constructed depends on knowledge that learners already possess.

• Learning is enhanced in a social environment.

PowerPoint 8. 4 Principles of Cognitive Learning Theory



PowerPoint 8.5 Misconceptions in Teaching and Learning

Decide whether or not each of the statements below is true or false:

1. The most effective way of helping students understand a topic is to explain it to them.

2. Knowledge of content, such as math, English, or history is all that is necessary to an effective teacher.

3. The concept of negative reinforcement means a decrease in behavior.

4. Middle school and high school students can be taught in the abstract since their chronological age suggests they are formal operational in their thinking.

Feedback:All 4 statements are widely held misconceptions about teaching and learning.



PowerPoint 8.6 Factors that Contribute to Misconceptions

Factors That Contribute to Misconceptions

Prior experience-People tend to use attributes from a prior experience when evaluating a new experience that may not be applicable.

Appearances-People tend to infer cause and effect relationships between two objects or two events because they occur together.

Society-Commonly held societal beliefs can be adopted that have no basis in fact.

Language-Misuse of language can contribute to misconceptions.



PowerPoint 8.7 Questions about Wildlife and Health: Misconception Exercise

Are the following statements generally true or generally false?

1. People who sleep fewer than six hours a night-or more than nine-are more likely to be obese than those who sleep 7 or 8 hours.

2. Tanning beds can damage internal organs.

3. The best way to lessen a jellyfish sting is to urinate on it.

4. Running in a zigzag pattern is the best way to avoid being attacked by an alligator.

5. Wearing perfume, cologne and bright clothing attracts bees and wasps.

6. Alcoholic beverages have less effect on hot days because the alcohol leaves the body during the process of sweating.



PowerPoint 8.8 Feedback for Wildlife and Health Misconceptions Exercise

Feedback:1. True: People who sleep fewer than six hours a night—or more than nine—are more

likely to be obese than those who get seven or eight hours of sleep a night. 2. False: Tanning beds do not damage internal organs. They do contribute to skin cancer

and eye damage.3. False: While a Friends episode contributed to this misconception, the best way to

lessen a jellyfish sting is to use rubbing alcohol, hot sea water, plain vinegar or baking soda. (Urine won’t hurt but also won’t help).

4. False: You can run any way you want. Alligators will lunge out of the water and perhaps lunge again, but they do not chase prey.

5. True: Wearing perfume, cologne and bright clothing attracts bees and wasps. Clothing shades of yellow and blue are particularly attractive.

6. False: Alcoholic beverages exit via the breath or are excreted. But, if a person is dehydrated, alcohol can have an increased effect.



1. What was Jenny’s goal in the lesson?

2. Describe the examples that Jenny used.

3. How “good” was her example? Explain what made it “good” or not “good.”

4. Why did Suzanne and Tad “get it” in the interview but not in the lesson? Explain.

5. Jenny probably didn’t fully realize that Suzanne and Tad didn’t “get it” in the lesson. What implications does this have for teaching?

6. If Suzanne and Tad were given another problem to solve the next day, would they “get it?” Explain.

7. What was the most significant aspect of the lesson (before the interview)? Explain.

PowerPoint 8.9 Constructing Understanding of Balance Beams: Video Case Exercise



1. What was Jenny’s goal in the lesson?Jenny wanted the students to understand theprinciple that makes beams balance.

2. Describe the example that Jenny used. Her example was the solved balance problem on the board.

3. How “good” was her example? Explain what made it “good” or not “good.” The example (the balance problem) wasn’t initially “good” since it didn’t include all the information the students needed to construct an understanding of the principle. (It became a high-quality example when the students put the number sentence together with balanced tiles. [Suzanne and Tad continued to have a misconception about what made the beam balance.])

4. Why did Suzanne and Tad “get it” in the interview but not in the lesson? Explain. Suzanne and Tad were more directly involved in social interaction in the interview than they were in the lesson. In spite of the fact that Suzanne and Tad were sitting in the group, they remained cognitively passive during the explanations that Molly, Mavrin, and Jenny offered during the lesson.

PowerPoint 8..10 Constructing Understanding of Balance Beams Exercise Feedback (slide 1 of 2)



PowerPoint 8.10 Constructing Understanding of Balance Beams Video Case Exercise Feedback (slide 2 of 2)

5. Jenny probably didn’t fully realize that Suzanne and Tad didn’t “get it” in the lesson. What implications does this have for teaching?

This suggests that formal assessment must be an integral part of the teaching-learning process. It is the way teachers determine the extent to which learners’ constructions are valid.

6. If Suzanne and Tad were given another problem to solve the next day, would they “get it?” Explain.

It is impossible to know without a formal assessment. They might revert back to their original thinking, which frequently happens in classrooms.

7. What was the most significant aspect of the lesson (before the interview)? Explain.

A number of factors are significant, but one is particularly important. It is this: Suzanne heard three correct explanations for the problem—Molly’s, Mavrin’s, and Jenny’s—yet her thinking at the beginning of the interview hadn’t changed at all, as evidenced by her solution to the interviewer’s first problem. This demonstrates that explanations don’t work very well for many students and is the source of the expression, “Wisdom can’t be told.”



PowerPoint 8.11 Suzanne’s Thinking About Balance Beams



PowerPoint 8.12 The Persistence of Suzanne’s Thinking About Balance Beams



PowerPoint 8.13 Assessing Understanding of Balance Beams



PowerPoint 8.14 Suggestions for Classroom Practice

• Provide learners with a variety of examples and representations of content.

• Connect content to the real world.

• Treat verbal explanations skeptically.

• Promote high levels of interaction.

• Make assessment an integral part of the teaching-learning process.



Working with Elementary Students• Young children have a tendency to center on perceptually obvious aspectx of objects or

events, and explanations in the abstract are lost on them.• High quality examples are important for all students, but they are essential for younger

learners.• Interaction is needed to check ideas students currently hold as they add new

information.Working with Middle School Students

• Middle School students begin to overcome the tendency to interpret events literally but fail to recognize relationships among objects and ideas. Cognitive apprenticeships that encourage talking about new ideas are helpful.

• Scaffolding student’s efforts and encouraging verbalization is very important. • To integrate social interaction and social problem solving, students should be in

structured and closely monitored groups so that learning is maximized. Objects or events and explanations in the abstract are lost on them.

• High quality examples continue to be important especially when teaching new information.

PowerPoint 8.15 Constructivist Learning: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (slide 1 of 2)



PowerPoint 8.15 Constructivist Learning: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (slide 2 of 2)

Working with High School Students

• High school students continue to construct misconceptions, particularly when working with symbols and abstract ideas, so high levels of interaction are needed.

• More class discussions are needed to allow comparisons of their thinking with others while the teacher’s role is to continue to monitor as they add new information.

• High quality examples continue to be important especially for new material being presented.

• Real world tasks are of particular significance. High school students want to know how their classroom learning applies to the real world outside of school.



Feedback for Classroom Exercises

1. The model of human memory better explains this assertion. The memorized facts are automatic, so they don't use working memory space. Constructivism doesn’t address this issue.

2. It does not imply that you are not constructing understanding. However, constructing understanding on the basis of a lecture is more difficult than constructing understanding based on effective representations of content and social interaction.

3. The characteristics “Learners construct understanding that makes sense to them” and “New learning depends on current understanding” are both illustrated in Tim’s thinking. To him, it made sense that we’re closer to the sun in summer, since he got warmer when he got closer to the fireplace. And, his experience with fireplaces was the background knowledge he used to construct his conclusion.

PowerPoint 8.16 Feedback for Classroom Exercises (slide 1 of 4)



4. The primary reason guided discovery is viewed as more nearly grounded in constructivist views of learning is the emphasis on social interaction. The importance of social interaction is a characteristic of constructivism, and “Promote high levels of interaction” is one of the instructional principles that guide teachers in their attempts to base instruction on constructivism. In addition, as students describe their thinking during guided discovery lessons, teachers can informally assess their current levels of understanding, and assessment is an essential part of instruction based on constructivism.

5. Choice d least illustrates a learning activity based on constructivist views of learning. It is the least “real world” of the tasks. It could be more nearly based on constructivism if the grammatical errors were first embedded in the real-world context of a written passage instead of isolated sentences. Then, students could discuss the parts of the passage that were punctuated correctly and other parts that were not, so social interaction would be incorporated, and finally students should again write passages rather than isolated sentences.




6. Javier Sanchez most nearly based his learning activity on the principles of instruction that guide teachers as they plan and conduct instruction based on constructivist views of learning.

First, Javier presented the rules in the context of a paragraph, which is more nearly connected to the real world than presenting the rules in isolated sentences.

Second, he capitalized on social interaction by having the class discuss the common features of the underlined and italicized clauses, and, he further capitalized on social interaction by guiding the students to the rule for punctuating essential and non-essential clauses.

Finally, he further connected his content to the real world by having the students write a paragraph containing at least three examples of essential clauses and three other examples of non-essential clauses, all punctuated correctly. Having the students write a paragraph was also a form of assessment.




7. Janet Reeve least nearly based her learning activity on the principles of instruction that guide teachers as they plan and conduct instruction based on constructivist views of learning.

First, Janet illustrated the rule in the form of sentences which is less connected to the real world than embedding the rule in the context of a passage would have been.

Second, she did not capitalize on social interaction when she pointed out the clauses, correctly punctuated them, and explained why they were punctuated in this way.

Finally, she again failed to connect her content to the real world by giving the students sentences for practice.


chapter 8: constructing knowledge

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