One section of the Learning from Speculation to Science article, had me thinking about 50 years of learning and how many changes in the learning process I have gone through.  In the 1980’s – 2000’s I have been in classrooms, with computers only being used for research and term papers.  Now, learning is all virtual and meeting classmates and the professors and engaging in dialogue is now done with Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Zoom and Slack channels, and on and on……

This course taught me about a new concept in Instructional Design: Constructivism. Which brings me to this new word “Constructivism”.  This is a new term for me and as I am reading the definition, I have researched the following.

 Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their own understanding. Rather than passively receiving information, learners reflect on their experiences, create mental representations, and incorporate new knowledge into their schemas. This promotes deeper learning and understanding.

The outcome of Constructivism is that everyone’s individual experiences make their learning unique to them!

Constructivism is ‘an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner’ (Elliott et al., 2000, p. 256).