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Constructivism and Education
EDEP 6224 @ Virginia Tech
Course Information Instructor Information
EDEP 6224: Constructivism & Education Peter Doolittle
1750 Kraft Drive (Rm 2013) 1750 Kraft Drive (Rm 2039)
Thursdays, 7:00 pm - 9:50 pm pdoo@vt.edu
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Course Information
EDEP 6224: Constructivism and Education
1750 Kraft Drive (Rm 2013)
Thursdays 7:00-9:50 pm
Instructor Information
Peter Doolittle
1750 Kraft Drive (Rm 2039)
pdoo@vt.edu
Course Purpose
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Knowledge.
Meaning.
Truth.

(Oh My!)
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How do we come to know?

Experience? Thought?
Interaction? Revelation?
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What is common knowledge?
How does it change?
Why?
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Why are your
voices, actions, and experiences essential?
Course Description
Learning
Constructivism involves the active creation and modification of thoughts, ideas, actions, and understandings as the result of experiences that occur within individual and socio-cultural contexts.
Knowledge
Constructivism emphasizes the active role played by the individual learner in the construction of knowledge, the primacy of social and individual experience in the process of learning, and the realization that the knowledge attained by the learner varies in its accuracy as a representation of an external reality.
Application
This course will explore these issues as they pertain to teaching, learning, technology, society, research, and education—broadly applied.
Course Goals
Goal 1

Students will be able to understand and apply the concepts of reality (ontology), knowledge (epistemology), and value (axiology) as related to the realm of education and life, broadly.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to explain the essential concepts and terms associated with reality, knowledge, and value as they related to education and life.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to apply the essential concepts and terms associated with reality, knowledge, and value to educational and life issues.

Goal 2

Students will be able to understand and apply the concepts of knowledge, meaning, and truth as related to the realm of education and life.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to differentiate the core similarities and differences within and across various types of constructivism related to knowledge, meaning, and truth.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to apply the core similarities and differences within and across various types of constructivism to educational and life issues (e.g., learning, teaching, technology, science, history).

Goal 3

Students will understand the relationship between constructivist tenets and educational approaches in the development of constructivist pedagogy across domains (e.g., education, science, history).

Outcome 5: Students will be able to create instructional strategies based on the application of constructivist tenets.

Outcome 6: Students will be able to demonstrate a questioning perspective on the nature, function, and investigation of knowledge within education and life.

Course Pedagogy
Course Readings
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The course, in pursuit of its three primary questions, is structured in multiple sections. There are typically two articles or one book to read each week. Readings vary from short articles to longer chapters to whole books, and cover both seminal readings and modern theorizing and applications.

  1. The Course, Students, & Instructors
  2. Postmodernism, Truth, & Knowledge
  3. Radical Constructivism
  4. Sociocultural Constructivism
  5. Social Constructionism
  6. Symbolic Interactionism
  7. Constructivist Methods
  8. Constructivist Pedagogy
  9. Constructivist Conclusions
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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