Constructivist Approaches to Acquiring Knowledge

The process of learning and acquiring knowledge is a very interesting and complex task. The constructivist approach of learning was first expressed by Dewey (1936) in the early 20th century. Dewey has identified a progressive model based on philosophy Rousseau’s writing and on psychological knowledge. Piaget, J. (1973) study in early adolescent’s psychological development of discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, Bruner’s (1973) theory of indicating learning as a social process which comprised of various interactions to knowledge gain and many researchers (Montessori (1946); Kolb & Fry (1975); etc) have seen embarked on Dewey’s initial constructivism and discover it as one of the best teaching to be used in education. Physical educators have a long history of using constructivist approaches in their application in movement education (Rovegno & Kirk, 1995; Bilborough & Jones, 1963; Mauldon & Redfern, 1969).

Many studies emphasize the importance of the process in learning, which in itself has to be active, creative and allow learners to interact with one another together with the surrounding. Rink (1996) supported the notion to emphasize that physical educators should adopt the approach of teaching sports and games for understanding. He mentioned that game-play decisions and skill development are enhanced by game appreciation and tactical awareness of the learners. Mclnerny and Mclnerny (2002) study have also shown that learners learn best through situations that allow better understanding of information as well as activity involvement which promote collaborative inquiry. This study supports Rink (2001) which states the importance of how knowledge is to be learned and the contribution of social constructivism to new learning. Rin...

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...ued that the only constructivist principle was when the students chose their topic after speaking with the teacher and group activities do not means constructivist (Richardson ,2003).

In addition, Klionsky (1998) improvised his teaching techniques to incorporate constructivism in his teachings through minimising reading through lecture notes instead of the traditional textbook. Practical sessions like quizzes and group solving activities were held to promote interaction and a constructivist setting. Baviskar et al (2009) mentioned that the methods did not totally fit on the concept of constructivism as there was no attempt to understand the students’ prior knowledge as well as discovering any cognitive dissonance among the students. There was not a clear indication that the students would be able to apply their new found knowledge or reflection, if any in the study.