First, the development of constructivism and the characteristics of its learning view
The development of constructivism. Constructivism is a theory about knowledge and learning, which discusses what cognition is and how individuals know cognition. The philosophical basis of constructivism can be traced back to the Italian national philosopher and humanist Gambatista Vico in the Renaissance. In his book On the Oldest Wisdom of Italy, he put forward that "all movements are constituted" and "people can only clearly understand what they construct", which is regarded as the philosophical basis for the development of constructivism. In the 20th century, Piaget's theory on children's cognitive development made the most direct contribution to the constructivist learning view. Piaget believes that in the process of interaction with the surrounding environment, children gradually construct their understanding of the external world, thus developing their own cognitive structure. On the basis of Piaget's theory, Robert Jeffrey Sternberg and Katz emphasized the key role of individual initiative in the process of cognitive construction, and made a serious exploration on how to give full play to individual initiative in the cognitive process. Vygotsky's theory of cultural and historical development emphasizes the role of learners' social, cultural and historical background in the cognitive process. These studies have laid a foundation for the enrichment and perfection of constructivism theory, the formation of constructivism learning view and its application in teaching process.
Second, the characteristics of adult learning
A person known as an "adult" generally has five signs of psychological maturity: first, an independent self-concept; The second is the overall consistent sense of self-identity; Third, self-regulation ability; Fourth, rich, diverse and personalized experience; Fifth, pay attention to the concept of "present" time. Therefore, compared with minors, adults have richer life experience, more complicated thoughts and higher requirements and expectations for learning, thus showing the unique learning characteristics of adults:
1. Independent. Adults have an independent self-concept. They can clearly judge learning goals and learning needs, actively make learning plans with teachers, and objectively evaluate learning effects. More importantly, they need others to respect their learning autonomy, and they may have more self-esteem and "face" than minors. According to this sign of psychological maturity, adults should be given full autonomy in learning and the opportunity to make their own choices. At the same time, adult learners should get the understanding and respect they deserve. Therefore, the relationship between adult learners and teachers is a new type of cooperative relationship. "
2. Overall consistency. Adults have an overall consistent sense of self-identity. They can integrate their past, present and future into a complete social image and regard learning as an indispensable way of life. In the process of learning, if they can maintain this overall sense of self-identity, maintain a good partnership with teachers and maintain a good relationship with classmates, they can arouse adults' learning motivation, improve and promote learning activities and achieve good learning results.
3. Self-regulation. Adults only learn what they think they need to learn. Adult learning is often based on the consideration of personal career development, or on the need to enrich the spirit, change the lifestyle and escape from the unsatisfactory living conditions. Therefore, adult learning has a strong purpose. They are more willing to learn knowledge and skills that can be used immediately. This is also one of the main motivations for their study.
4. "Present". Adults' concept of time is "now". They are very sensitive to the feeling of "now" and cherish time beyond the imagination of minors. Therefore, in the process of learning, what they strive for is not to prepare for their later life, but to "apply what they have learned" and "use it after learning". Therefore, the content of adult teaching should fully consider practicality and pay attention to practicality, especially those knowledge and skills closely related to reality can attract adults' attention. Because such learning can quickly turn knowledge into the ability to solve practical problems.
5. Adult teaching should be based on its rich personalized experience. Adults have rich anthropomorphic experience. They pay more attention to the reasons, methods and effects of learning, and like to compare new knowledge with old experience and judge according to experience. Adult experience is a valuable resource in teaching, which not only helps to improve adults' ability of observation, understanding, analyzing and solving problems, but also makes it possible for adults to learn in various forms and contents.
It should be noted that the accumulated experience of adults may become the basis of learning, but it may also hinder the acceptance of new ideas. The older you get, the more cautious you are about accepting new things and ideas, and the greater your resistance to learning. The more you instill, the more you spill, just like a spring. The greater the pressure, the greater the rebound. Therefore, it is very important to help adults have an open learning mentality, which is what we often call "empty cup mentality". "
Enlightenment of Constructivism Learning View on Adult Education
1. The teaching significance of constructivist learning view. The constructivist view of learning has had a revolutionary impact on the traditional teaching mode, forming a unique teaching mode: centering on students' self-control learning, encouraging students to actively construct and cooperate with each other, and learning based on real situations and real tasks; Teachers play the role of supervisor, organizer, director and promoter in students' learning, give full play to students' initiative, enthusiasm and initiative, and finally enable students to effectively construct the meaning of knowledge and become lifelong learners who can control their own learning and correctly understand the world. Constructivist learning view emphasizes that teaching objectives are negotiated rather than imposed in teaching design; In the aspect of classroom teaching practice, we attach importance to learners' inquiry spirit and take solving real problems as an important teaching method; In the course design, students' participation, students' experience, complex problems and real situations are emphasized, and learners are encouraged to contact the society and learn through social practice.
2. The enlightenment of constructivist learning view to adult education.
(1) The choice of teaching content should meet the social role needs of learners. Adult learners' learning motivation mainly comes from their social role needs, so adult learning has the characteristics of "being present". Constructivist learning view advocates "learning by solving practical problems". Therefore, in the process of adult teaching, teachers should fully consider the "social role needs" of adults, design the learning content into problems with thinking value similar to daily work, encourage them to think and try to solve them, and truly make learning their internal needs.
(2) Create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation, communication and self-adjustment for learners. Learning under the constructivist learning view is a kind of self-regulating learning, while adults have independent self-concept and self-regulating ability. Therefore, the autonomy and independence of adult learning are consistent with the requirements of constructivist learning view. Constructivist learning view emphasizes the interaction between people and things in the learning process, and takes promoting the communication between learners as the basic task of teaching. Adult learning needs an atmosphere of mutual cooperation, communication and support. On the one hand, they need a study group to jointly design and control the whole learning process. Through group discussion, exchange of opinions and full communication, they can learn to look at problems from different angles, thus generating new insights on problems.
(3) Providing authentic information for learners and promoting knowledge construction. Constructivist learning view pursues the study of complex problems and encourages learners to solve practical problems. Therefore, in the teaching process, it is necessary to provide situational and authentic information for adult learners or by adult learners themselves. Teachers should make full use of this information to expand the meaning of courses and textbooks. If used properly, adult learners' information will often play a more powerful role in supporting learners' thinking and inquiry activities than traditional learning materials.
The main activity of constructive learning is not memory, but advanced thinking, which is the processing, synthesis, hypothesis and demonstration of new and old knowledge and experience by learners. Therefore, in addition to the conventional ways to obtain teaching resources such as classroom, library, field practice, radio and television, information technology with computer application as the core also provides powerful auxiliary tools for adult learners.