Reflection on constructivist tool.

    

Constructivist tools are teaching materials, strategies, or digital/physical resources that allow children to construct their own knowledge by engaging with tasks, exploring ideas, solving problems, and making meaning themselves instead of just receiving information directly from the teacher. Examples of constructivist tools: block building material, mind maps, concept maps, digital apps for creating something, open-ended manipulative and real-life objects for investigation. The tool supports children to think, discover, explore and build understanding.

From my understanding, constructivist tools do not give answers. They help children find answers through their own experience. Children learn better when they are involved. So, constructivist tools allow children to connect learning with real life, not memorizing only. They get confidence because they experience, try, make mistakes, test ideas, and build their own meaning.

To apply constructivist tools in my class, I can use a C-Map (concept map) activity. For example, when teaching the water cycle, I will give children small concept words like “Sea,” “Evaporation,” “Clouds,” “Condensation,” and “Rain.” Each child will arrange these words on their chart in the order they believe is correct. Then they will draw arrows to show the flow of how water moves from the sea, goes up to the clouds, and then falls back as rain. During this process, I will not directly tell them the sequence. Instead, I will ask guiding questions such as, “Where does the water go first?” and “What happens when the sun heats the water?”

This activity is meaningful because children build their own understanding by creating connections themselves. 

I can use this in my classroom whenever I want children to understand relationships between ideas. The C-map helps them to visualize, organize thoughts, link ideas, and explain thinking. The teacher becomes a facilitator, and children become active learners.

The main key takeaway from this session is that learning becomes more powerful when children are actively involved in constructing their own knowledge. Constructivist tools are not about giving children the “ready-made answers,” but about creating opportunities for them to think, explore, discuss, question, and discover meaning by themselves. Teacher becomes a facilitator who guides through questioning, not a “giver of information.” When students build understanding through hands-on tasks, sharing ideas, and reflecting with peers, their learning becomes deeper, meaningful, relevant, and long-lasting.

https://youtu.be/83zUc_L8yFg?si=lJULJpdvGmgTqxOD