Pros Of Constructivist Theory

Key ideas of Constructivist Theory: According to Drewery and Claiborne (2014),
Piaget held that an individual learner had agency in learning and developing, who actively constructed his/her own knowledge out of the need of adaption to the immediate environment for survival.

In Piaget's view, children's cognitive development comes from both biological growth (e.g. brain development) and the response to the stimulation from their environment. Children's cognition goes through four discontinuous stages and the ultimate cognitive ability is logically abstract thinking. These stages are universal, which can apply to all children over the world no matter what culture or place they live in. The stages and their characteristics are listed as

Generally speaking, it took a big leap in the developmental theory field although the succeeding social constructivist theorists criticized that it downplayed the role that diverse social and cultural contexts played in individual's development. The education background as a biologist makes Piaget tend to seeking universal principles and link cognitive development to physical growth with age. According to Hill (2011), constructivism were popular in New Zealand from 1950s and 1970s, during which period, educators in playcentres and kindergartens dedicated to creating optimal learning environments with 'equipment' and 'areas of play' to support children's learning. Also, dividing children into different age groups and specifying learning resources for each age group reflect the implication of constructivist theory in New Zealand. The theory focuses on learner and learning process and emphasises the importance of learning environment without giving teacher and teaching much credit. Its implication can still be seen in the early childhood settings in New Zealand although 'The way in which teachers often respond to the technicalities of the environment at the expense of interacting with children and communicating with them about their thinking, their learning and their unique cultural perspectives' (Hill, 2011, p. 9) is not enough and satisfying in the light of the theory development made by social-cultural constructivist