On Constructivism

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

Most people would agree that schools have dual responsibility: to make people smart and make them good. If the teachers accept the second function, they are grappling with an axiological issue. In fact, teachers are intimately involved with questions of moral values. Young people are seeking ways to live lives that are worthwhile, and the teachers have traditionally been expected to help students establish moral values both as individuals and as contributing members of society.

The challenge therefore to teachers like me is how can we make our students a balanced individual?

After reviewing different philosophies of education, I realized that I am more of a constructivist mentor. Constructivism emerges from the view that people, beginning when they are infants, are meaning makers. They use their senses to collect impressions about the world around them. People “construct” or “reconstruct” their meanings and understandings rather than simply taking them in. In classroom, the constructivist teacher does four things: (1) actively involves students in real situations; (2) focuses on students’ perception and point of view; (3) uses question to provoke students’ thoughts and; (4) places major value on the process of thought rather than on the answer or product.

As a mentor is tertiary level, our students are more after with how you will equip them or prepare them in the performance of their chosen profession in the future. You have to bring them to that level of understanding of “what is it in the real world outside the university?” In fact, you don’t simply prepare them for work but you prepare them for life. Learning situations should be designed based on actual or real situations. Problem-solving technique or case studies would be very beneficial to them.

A constructivist teacher should focus on student perceptions and points of view. You listen to them most of the time. It’s not anymore “You”, monopolizing the discussion but rather pay attention on what they observe and believe in. From these, discussions are lifted. In a constructivist set-up, the teacher is primarily interested in helping the students to construct his own meaning.

In this light, process is more important than the product itself. Schools, being the training ground, should look into the process at arriving on learning more than the output.

In the larger scale, is this philosophy of constructivism applicable to our collegiate students? To give you a backgrounder, the following data were collected by the writer to map out the educational set-up here in the Philippines:

• The Philippines is the 13th most populated country in the world

• Filipinos are the strongest assets of the country

• 95 percent literary rate

• Provides a large pool of English-speaking, well-educated, and highly trainable workforce

• Filipino skilled-workers ranked first in a survey of 46 countries (Asia week 1996)

• Analyst maintained that it will take other emerging countries of Southeast Asia, a generation to reach the educational advantage of the Filipinos specially for the production of highly technological products.

What an enormous achievement to consider! Yet, why are we still faced with tremendous economic and political chaos?

We educators have a big role to take. If we believe that our greatest asset is our people, then we have to take care of them. Filipinos have natural love and desire for learning. Their innate love for knowledge has been reinforced by the hope that good education can provide economic mobility. A step for the realization of this hope has been codified into the Constitution of the Philippines, which categorically states that the highest budgetary priority shall be given to education. However, our political leaders continually fail us.

Faced with challenge liked this, the more I realized that my services is most needed in here. If I cannot do practically everything to everybody, maybe, I can just do something for somebody. My humble contribution to this generation may not be very huge, but I just hope I will make an impact to a few. We may never know, they might multiply.

To sum it up, my share of being a constructivist educator may not be very significant, but to my end, I hope to make a difference.

ERLINDA A. CAYAO teaches at the College of Liberal Arts, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and college secretary of PLM’s Graduate School of Arts, Sciences and Education.