Constructivism based on children's cognitive development research not only forms a brand-new learning theory, but also forms a brand-new teaching theory. Constructivist learning theory and constructivist learning environment emphasize student-centered, which not only requires students to change from passive recipients of external stimuli and objects of knowledge infusion to active constructors of information processing and knowledge meaning; Moreover, teachers are required to change from imparting and instilling knowledge to helping and promoting students to actively construct meaning. It can be seen that in the constructivist learning environment, the status and role of teachers and students have changed greatly compared with traditional teaching. This means that teachers should adopt a brand-new teaching mode (completely abandoning the traditional teaching mode of teacher-centered, simply emphasizing knowledge transfer and instilling knowledge into students), a brand-new teaching method and a brand-new teaching design concept. Learning-centered instructional design (ID) was put forward to meet the above requirements of constructivist learning environment, so naturally, constructivist learning theory and instructional theory became the theoretical basis of learning-centered instructional design (ID), that is, instructional design (ID) in constructivist learning environment.
Second, several biases of instructional design research under the constructivist learning environment
With the popularity of constructivism, ID research in the current constructivist learning environment (that is, learning-centered ID research) is attracting more and more attention, especially in the multimedia computer network or Internet-based teaching environment, the application of learning-centered ID has a unique soil. Therefore, in recent years, great progress has been made in this field, but at the same time, there are some deviations that can not be ignored, which should arouse our vigilance.
1. Analysis of neglecting teaching objectives
In the traditional teaching design, the teaching goal is above everything else, which is not only the starting point of the teaching process, but also the destination of the teaching process. Through the analysis of teaching objectives, we can determine the required teaching content and the arrangement order of teaching content; Teaching objectives are also the basis for checking the final teaching effect and evaluating teaching. However, in learning-centered instructional design, students are emphasized as cognitive subjects and active constructors of meaning, so students' meaning construction of knowledge is regarded as the ultimate goal of the whole learning process. In this kind of teaching design, we usually do not start with the analysis of teaching objectives, but with how to create a situation conducive to the construction of students' meaning. The whole teaching design process is centered around the meaning construction, whether it is students' independent inquiry, collaborative learning or teachers' guidance. In short, all activities in the learning process should be subordinate to this center, which should be conducive to completing and deepening the meaning construction of the knowledge learned. It is undoubtedly correct to emphasize the meaning construction of knowledge in the learning process. However, in the current learning-centered teaching design, there is often a bias, that is, the word "teaching goal analysis" is not seen, but "meaning construction" is used instead of "teaching goal". In the constructivist learning environment, it seems completely unnecessary to analyze the teaching objectives. We believe that this view is one-sided and should not be opposed to each other. Because "meaning construction" refers to the construction of the meaning of the currently learned knowledge, and the concept of "currently learned knowledge" is vague and general. The content of a lesson is obviously the knowledge to be learned at present, but a lesson is always composed of several knowledge units (knowledge points), and the importance of each knowledge unit is different: some belong to basic concepts and basic principles (teaching objectives require "mastery"); Others belong to general factual knowledge or knowledge that only needs to be known at the current learning stage (for this kind of knowledge, the teaching goal only requires "understanding"). It can be seen that it is not appropriate to indiscriminately require the completion of "meaning construction" for the current content (that is, to achieve a deeper understanding and mastery). The correct way is to select the basic concepts, principles, methods and processes in the current knowledge as the "theme" (or "basic content") of the current knowledge, and then construct the meaning around this theme. The "meaning" constructed in this way is truly meaningful and meets the teaching requirements.
2. Ignore the guiding role of teachers
The second bias of learning-centered ID research is to ignore the guiding role of teachers. Constructivism advocates "student-centered" learning under the guidance of teachers. It emphasizes student-centered, but does not ignore the guiding role of teachers. Students are the main body of information processing and the active constructor of knowledge meaning, while teachers are the organizers and instructors of the teaching process. Teachers should promote and help students in the process of meaning construction. Therefore, in the process of learning-centered teaching design, while fully considering how to embody students' main role and promote students to actively construct knowledge meaning through various means, we must never forget teachers' responsibilities and ignore teachers' guiding role in this process. In fact, every link of learning-centered teaching design (such as situation creation, collaborative learning, conversation communication and meaning construction) can't achieve the ideal learning effect without the careful organization and guidance of teachers. Student-centered teaching does not mean that teachers' responsibilities and roles are reduced, on the contrary-both aspects put forward higher requirements for teachers. If the learning-centered teaching design ignores the role of teachers and the design of teacher-student interaction, then this kind of teaching will inevitably fail: students' learning will become blind exploration without goals, discussion and communication will become irrelevant rambling, meaning construction will get twice the result with half the effort, consume a lot of time, achieve nothing, and may even come to a dead end. It must be clear that in the learning-centered teaching design, the teacher just changed from the "protagonist" on the field to the "instructor" off the field (the protagonist became a student), and the teacher's direct indoctrination of students was reduced or even cancelled, but the teacher's inspiration, guiding role, preparation and organization work were greatly increased, so the teacher's role can not be ignored.
3. Ignore autonomous learning design
The core of constructivism is to emphasize the significance of students' active construction of knowledge, which is undoubtedly correct. However, many researchers have come to the conclusion that constructivism and learning-centered instructional design are mainly the design of learning environment, that is, how to design a learning environment suitable for learners to actively construct the meaning of knowledge. Learners' "autonomous learning" itself has been ignored.
Obviously, this is putting the cart before the horse. The meaning of constructing knowledge-this is the basic starting point and ultimate goal of constructivism. However, "meaning construction" is not done by others (such as teachers or counselors) but by learners themselves-it can only be done by learners through active exploration and discovery in an appropriate learning environment, that is, through "autonomous learning". Learners are the main body of cognition, and learners' autonomous learning is the "internal cause" to realize the meaning construction of what they have learned. Learning environment is only an external condition to promote learners to actively construct knowledge meaning, and it is an "external cause". External causes can only work through internal causes. It is necessary to design an ideal learning environment because it is conducive to promoting learners' meaning construction; But we should pay more attention to the design of learner autonomy, because without this kind of autonomy, even if there is an ideal learning environment, there is no way to construct meaning.
Take the viewpoint of D.H.Jonassen, one of the most influential representatives of constructivism, as an example, and he particularly emphasizes the design of learning environment. In his recently published article [9], he proposed a new model for designing a constructivist learning environment (cle), as shown in figure 1. As can be seen from the figure, it consists of six parts:
1. Problems (including questions, items, differences, etc. ): This is the center of the whole constructivist learning environment (CLE) design, and the learners' goal is to clarify and solve problems (or answer questions, complete projects and resolve differences);
2. Relevant examples (or cases): examples or cases related to the problem (such as legal, medical or social investigation examples or cases);
3. Information resources: various information resources related to problem solving (including words, graphics, sounds, videos and animations, etc.). ) and various related resources obtained from the Internet through WWW;
4. Cognitive tools: mainly refers to the tools generated on the computer to help and promote the cognitive process, usually visual intelligent information processing software. Such as knowledge base, semantic network, geometric proof tree and expert system.
5. Dialogue and collaboration tools: enable learners to communicate, discuss and negotiate with each other, and * * * share the meaning of constructing questions;
6. Social background support: When designing a constructivist learning environment, we should consider social and cultural background, objective environment, material conditions and other aspects that can support current learning.
The constructivist learning environment designed by this model can provide three teaching strategies for students' autonomous learning:
1. Modeling strategy: Modeling is the most commonly used teaching strategy of CLE. There are two different types of modeling: explicit behavior modeling and implicit cognitive process modeling. Behavior modeling is used to explain what activities and how learners should carry out in learning activities; Cognitive modeling explains the reasoning methods that learners should use in these learning activities. Providing operation examples is one of the most commonly used methods to model "problem solving" behavior. The modeling of cognitive process is complex, so it is necessary to record, sort out and analyze the thinking process in various learning activities in advance, so as to extract the reasoning structure that can help learners deepen their understanding of the problem.
2. Counseling strategies: Correct counseling strategies are conducive to stimulating learners' learning motivation; Can observe and guide students' operation and provide feedback; By analyzing students' grades, we can also put forward targeted suggestions for their further study. The most important job of a coach is to monitor, analyze and adjust the development of learners' abilities (including verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, learning attitudes, sports skills, etc.).
3. Scaffolding strategy: This is a teaching strategy based on Vygotsky's theory of nearest neighbor development zone. By establishing a conceptual framework of scaffolding for more complex problems, learners can climb along scaffolding gradually, thus completing the construction of complex conceptual meaning.
From the above analysis and the model shown in Figure 6, it can be seen that Jonassen focuses on the design of learning environment based on constructivism, and discusses the design of CLE in detail from six aspects from the six components contained in the model. For students' autonomous learning in this environment, only three teaching strategies are provided to support it, and the related discussion is simpler than the previous CLE design. Obviously, this is putting the cart before the horse, and "autonomous learning design" has not been put in an important position. Some articles even simply think that learning-centered instructional design based on constructivism refers to the design of constructivist learning environment [3], and further, it completely obliterates the necessity of autonomous learning design. Therefore, we think this is another noteworthy deviation in the theoretical research of learning-centered instructional design.
Third, the methods and steps of instructional design in the constructivist learning environment
According to the current foreign literature and our practice of experimental research in primary and secondary schools in recent years, we believe that the methods and steps of instructional design (that is, learning-centered instructional design) under the constructivist learning environment should be:
1. Analysis of teaching objectives
Analyze the teaching objectives of the whole course and each teaching unit, and determine the "theme" of current knowledge (that is, the knowledge content related to basic concepts, basic principles, basic methods or basic processes).
In teaching-centered teaching design, the purpose of analyzing teaching objectives is to gradually determine the sub-objectives at all levels from the general teaching objectives stipulated in the syllabus and draw the relationship diagram between them. By forming a relationship diagram, we can determine the teaching content needed to achieve the prescribed teaching objectives. In learning-centered teaching design, the purpose of analyzing teaching objectives, as mentioned above, is to determine the "theme" of current knowledge. Because the theme is included in the teaching content (knowledge points) required by the teaching objectives, through the analysis of the teaching objectives, the formation relationship diagram between the overall objectives and sub-objectives is obtained, that is to say, the knowledge points needed to achieve the teaching objectives have been listed, and the theme of current knowledge can be determined accordingly.
Commonly used teaching objective analysis methods include classification analysis, analytic hierarchy process, information processing analysis and ISM analysis. For details, please refer to general teaching design textbooks (such as literature [4]).
2. Situation creation
Try to create realistic situations related to the current learning theme.
Constructivism holds that learning is always associated with a certain social and cultural background, that is, "situation". Learning in a real situation or a situation close to reality created by multimedia can use vivid and intuitive images to effectively stimulate association and awaken relevant knowledge, experience or representation in long-term memory, so that learners can use the relevant knowledge and experience in the original cognitive structure to assimilate the new knowledge they have learned at present and give new knowledge a certain meaning. If the original knowledge and experience cannot assimilate new knowledge, it will lead to the process of "adaptation", that is, the transformation and reorganization of the original cognitive structure. In short, only through "assimilation" and "adaptation" can we construct the meaning of new knowledge. Assimilation and adaptation are inseparable from the knowledge, experience and representation in the original cognitive structure, and the creation of situations creates favorable conditions for extracting these knowledge, experience and representations from long-term memory. In traditional classroom teaching, it is difficult for learners to construct the meaning of knowledge, because they can't provide the vividness and richness of real scenes, stimulate associations and extract relevant content from long-term memory.
Situational creation can be divided into two situations [3]: one is a situation in which the subject content has a rigorous structure (such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and other scientific contents), and then it is required to create a resource-rich learning environment, which should include many application examples of different situations and related information materials, so that learners can actively discover and explore according to their own interests; The other is that the subject content has no rigorous structure (Chinese, foreign languages, history and other liberal arts content generally have this structure). At this time, it is necessary to create a learning environment close to the real situation. In this environment, it is necessary to be able to simulate the real situation, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of learners to participate in interactive learning and complete the understanding of problems, the application of knowledge and the construction of meaning in the interactive process. In these two environments, there should be an independent "help" system to provide advice and help to learners at any time during the learning process.
3. Information resource design
The design of information resources refers to determining the types of information resources needed for learning this topic and the role of each resource in the process of learning this topic. If students do have difficulties, teachers should help them in time, such as where to get relevant information resources, how to get them (by what means and methods) and how to use them effectively.
4. Autonomous learning design
Autonomous learning design is the core content of the whole learning-centered teaching design. The commonly used teaching methods in the learning-centered constructivist learning environment are scaffolding teaching method, anchored teaching method and random access teaching method. According to the different teaching methods chosen, students' autonomous learning should have different designs:
(1) If it is scaffolding teaching, establish the relevant conceptual framework around the predetermined learning theme. The establishment of the framework should follow Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development" theory [5], which varies from person to person (each student's zone of proximal development is different), and guide students' intellectual development from one level to another through the conceptual framework, just like climbing up the scaffold step by step.
(2) If it is anchored teaching, choose a typical real event or real problem ("anchored teaching") in the relevant actual situation according to the learning theme determined in advance. Then further research is carried out around this problem: make assumptions about the given problem, demonstrate the assumptions by querying all kinds of information and logical reasoning, formulate an action plan to solve the problem according to the results of the demonstration, implement the plan and supplement and improve the original understanding according to the feedback in the implementation process.
(3) For those who enter teaching randomly, we should create a variety of situations that can express the learning theme from different sides and angles, so that students can enter any one of them to study at will in the process of independent exploration.
No matter which teaching method is adopted, the design of autonomous learning should seriously consider the following three aspects:
We should give full play to students' initiative in the learning process and reflect their innovative spirit;
Let students have multiple opportunities to apply what they have learned in different situations ("externalizing" knowledge);
Students should be able to form an understanding of objective things and solutions to practical problems (to achieve self-feedback) according to the feedback information of their own actions.
The above three points, that is, giving full play to initiative, externalizing knowledge and realizing self-feedback, can be said to be the three elements that embody students' autonomous learning.
The three kinds of autonomous learning designs listed above (autonomous learning around conceptual framework, autonomous learning around real questions, and autonomous learning around various things) are popular autonomous learning methods abroad at present, which are suitable for multimedia network teaching environment. Please refer to reference [5] for details and specific design methods. In fact, as long as we can embody the three elements of students' autonomous learning, we can effectively promote students to actively construct the meaning of knowledge, which is not necessarily limited to the above three autonomous learning methods, not to mention foreign experience. From our own cultural traditions and teaching practice, we can also sum up many very effective autonomous learning methods. Taking the initiative and enthusiasm of students as an example, the "heuristic teaching method" created by Chinese philosopher Confucius is a brilliant example.
As for "heuristic teaching method", many people think that it was initiated by Socrates. This is not surprising for western scholars who always say that they are Greeks, but there are many people in China who hold this view (especially in the field of computer education), which is rather "forgetting their ancestors". In fact, Confucius not only insisted on heuristic teaching, but also created the name "inspiration" by Confucius (not Socrates). Confucius was 82 years older than Socrates, and Su Cai was born in 10 after his death. So Confucius is the real and well-deserved founder of heuristic teaching. In addition, the heuristic teaching method created by Confucius is richer and deeper than Socrates' midwifery. To illustrate this problem, we might as well compare Socrates' heuristic dialogue method called "midwifery" with Confucius' heuristic teaching method.
A young man named Odie Hume wants to be a politician. In order to help the young man realize the problem of justice and injustice, Socrates had the following dialogue with the young man by heuristic method (both with Europe A) [16]:
Q: What kind of hypocrisy should it belong to?
A: It should be classified as injustice.
Q: What kind of theft, deception, slavery, etc? Should be classified?
A: The unjust category.
Q: If a general punishes enemies who do great harm to his national interests and enslaves them, can it be said that it is unjust?
A: No.
Q: If he stole the enemy's property or cheated the enemy in the battle, what should he think of this behavior?
A: Of course this is true, but I mean cheating friends.
Socrates: OK, let's discuss the problems between friends. If the army under the command of a general has lost morale and is on the verge of collapse, how to understand this behavior of deceiving his soldiers to say that reinforcements are coming soon, thus inspiring their fighting spirit to win?
A: It should be considered fair.
Q: If a child is sick and refuses to take medicine, his father lied to him that the medicine is not bitter or delicious, and coaxed him to take it and get well. What kind of behavior should this belong to?
A: It should belong to the category of justice.
Socrates still asked: If a person is crazy and his friends are afraid of suicide and steal his knife and sharp weapon, is this theft just?
A: Yes, they should also belong to this category.
Q: Don't you think friends can't cheat?
Odysseus: Please allow me to take back what I just said.
From this vivid dialogue, we can see that the characteristics of Socrates' heuristic teaching are: grasping the contradictions in the students' thinking process, inspiring and inducing, analyzing layer by layer, deepening step by step, and finally deriving the correct conclusion.
Let's look at Confucius' heuristic teaching again. He has only eight words: "no anger, no anger, no anger." (The Analects of Confucius). According to Zhu's explanation in the Song Dynasty: "Angry people want to get through it, but they can't;" Those who are embarrassed and have nothing to say; Enlightenment is to open its meaning; Send it, that is, reach its words. " [17] It can be seen that "anger" is a contradictory psychological state in which students are actively thinking about a certain problem and are eager to solve it but have not yet figured it out. At this time, teachers should guide students' thinking methods in time to help students open their minds. This is "enlightenment". "Anger" is another contradictory psychological state that students have been thinking about a certain problem for a while, but they have not yet considered it mature, but they want to say it but are difficult to express it. At this time, teachers should help students clear their minds, understand the essential attributes of things, and then express them in more accurate language, which is "hair". Although there are only eight words in Confucius' heuristic teaching, it not only vividly shows the whole process of Confucius' heuristic teaching, but also profoundly reveals that when encountering difficulties in the learning process, there will be two contradictory psychological States in turn, or two different thinking contradictions, and the correct handling methods of these two contradictions. Compared with Socrates' dialogue recording method, the similarities between them lie in that they attach great importance to the contradictions in students' thinking process, but their methods of dealing with contradictions in thinking are completely different: Socrates forces students into a state of contradiction through teachers' constant questions, thus gradually guiding students' understanding to a deeper level and finally solving problems. Confucius, on the other hand, is a teacher or student who asks questions and students think for themselves. When students are in an "angry" psychological state, that is, when they encounter the first contradiction in the process of thinking and can't solve it, the teachers just give them some suggestions. Then let the students continue to think seriously. When the students enter the psychological state of "anxiety", that is, when the second contradiction cannot be solved in the process of thinking, the teacher will give them another instruction, and the students will have a bright future and be suddenly enlightened.
From the above analysis, we can see that Socrates' dialogue method is actually teacher-centered, and students are completely led by the nose. Although this heuristic method can also impress students, it is difficult to understand more complicated problems, that is, occasions involving advanced cognitive ability, because students do not give full play to their initiative. Confucius' heuristic method is student-centered, so that students are always in an active position in the learning process, let students ask questions and think, let students actively discover and explore, and find out ways to solve problems. The teacher just gives directions from the side, which plays a guiding and promoting role. Comparing the two, it is not difficult to see that although both heuristics are effective in teaching and can promote students' thinking, it is obvious that Confucius' heuristics have a deeper cognitive psychological foundation, can give full play to students' initiative and initiative, and are more conducive to the active construction of knowledge meaning. Therefore, in the design of autonomous learning, Confucius' heuristic method should be adopted instead of Socrates' dialogue method.
Taking self-feedback as an example, our own experimental research on teaching reform also has many successful experiences. In Chinese literacy teaching in primary schools, there are always more than 200 Chinese characters that are difficult to remember. This kind of Chinese characters are either easily confused because of their similar strokes, or difficult to remember because of their numerous strokes, which makes it difficult to write, remember and identify. Many Chinese teachers report that such difficult words are often corrected five or six times a semester through classroom explanations or correcting homework, but by the time of the final exam, there are always 15% to 20% students who write such words wrong. In order to solve this teaching difficulty, we designed an autonomous learning mode in the experiment, which allows students to realize self-feedback through the computer. After the teacher explained the pronunciation, strokes and meanings of difficult Chinese characters, he not only asked the students to write on the Tian Zige, but also asked the students to immediately input the words into the computer with cognitive codes. Because the division of Chinese characters by cognitive codes conforms to the norms of language and writing and the laws of literacy teaching, if students recognize the fonts or strokes of difficult Chinese characters incorrectly, the Chinese characters currently input by students will not be displayed correctly on the screen (other Chinese characters will not be displayed or displayed), which is equivalent to giving students a feedback message: "You recognize Chinese characters incorrectly, please carefully observe the fonts and strokes of words." After receiving this feedback, the students will definitely think seriously: Why do others input correctly and I input incorrectly? So as to actively check and find your own mistakes, and then correct and re-enter them until they are displayed correctly. This process is entirely carried out by students themselves, without the intervention of teachers. The practice of hundreds of experimental schools proves that almost 100% students can master the above difficult words correctly by using this method of autonomous learning until the final exam. Why do many students still can't master the traditional teaching method after the teacher explains (or corrects) it for five or six times, but almost all students can learn it quickly without the teacher bothering to correct it with new teaching methods? The fundamental reason is that the former adopts the traditional teacher-centered indoctrination teaching, and students are in a passive position in the learning process; The latter adopts the self-feedback learning mode, and students find and correct their own mistakes. In this process, students are completely in an active position.
As for the examples of autonomous learning in knowledge externalization (applying what you have learned in different situations), there are countless examples in teaching practice, so I won't list them here.
In short, the design of autonomous learning is not mysterious, and we have a lot of experience worth summarizing in this respect; Foreigners emphasize learning environment design, and we should learn from their good experience with an open mind, but we must never blindly absorb it without analysis, let alone blindly catch up with others.
5. Design of collaborative learning environment
The purpose of designing cooperative learning environment is to further improve and deepen the meaning construction of the theme through group discussion and consultation on the basis of individual autonomous learning. The whole process of collaborative learning is organized and guided by teachers, and the problems discussed are all raised by teachers. There are usually two different situations in the design of collaborative learning environment: first, the subject of learning is known in advance; Second, the object of study is unknown in advance. Most cooperative learning belongs to the first situation, but the second situation is often encountered in teaching practice. For example, the Chinese class in primary and secondary schools, in the multimedia network teaching environment, is such a situation, so that students can make pictures or propositional compositions in class, and then use the multimedia classroom network for class evaluation and exchange in the second half of class. Because in this case, only one goal is determined in advance-to promote the composition learning of the whole class through collective evaluation and exchange, and the specific evaluation content, that is, the learning theme, is not clear in advance.
For the first case, the design of collaborative learning environment should include the following contents:
1. Design initial issues that can cause controversy around the identified themes;
2. The design can guide the discussion and deepen the follow-up issues step by step;
3. Teachers should consider how to stand in front of students' intellectual development (that is, in front of the nearest development zone) and guide the discussion by asking questions, instead of telling students how to do it directly (that is, they can't think instead of students);
4. Teachers should make an appropriate evaluation of students' performance in the discussion.
In the second case, because we don't know the theme in advance, there is no fixed procedure for the design of collaborative learning environment at this time, which mainly depends on teachers' improvisation and on-site mastery, but we should pay attention to the following points:
1. Teachers should listen carefully and attentively to each student's speech during the discussion, pay close attention to each student's manner and reaction, so as to ask him questions or guide him correctly in time according to the students' reaction;
2. Be good at discovering the positive factors in each student's speech (even if it is just budding) and give affirmation and encouragement in time;
3. Be good at discovering the ambiguity or inaccuracy of a concept (or understanding) exposed by each student through his own speech, and point it out in a timely manner in a way that students are willing to accept (avoid using words that are easy to hurt students' self-esteem);
4. When the discussion begins to deviate from the teaching content or entangle in secondary issues, it should be guided correctly in time;
5. At the end of the discussion, teachers (or students themselves) should summarize the whole collaborative learning process.
6. Evaluation design of learning effect
Including the group's evaluation of individuals and the students' own self-evaluation. The evaluation content mainly focuses on three aspects:
1. Autonomous learning ability;
2. Contribution made in the process of collaborative learning;
3. Whether it meets the requirements of meaning construction.
It is necessary to design an evaluation method that allows students to do it without pressure and objectively and accurately reflects the learning effect of each student.
7. Strengthen practice design
According to the results of group evaluation and self-evaluation, design a set of optional and targeted supplementary learning materials and intensive exercises for students. This kind of materials and exercises should be carefully selected, that is, they should not only reflect the basic concepts and principles, but also meet the requirements of different students. Through intensive exercises, the original misunderstanding or one-sided understanding can be corrected, and finally the required meaning construction can be achieved.