Combined Learning Models Based on Constructionism Applied in Modern Learning of Biology

Introduction

Globalization and technological change have been transforming university and pre-university education, connecting it to modern learning models based on constructionism by applying it mainly to new technologies and to learning through rediscovery, which contribute to the training of young people’s professional skills and their training for life. According to Daniela and Lytras (2018), “Every individual in the globalised world more and more frequently faces the challenge to change or [to] improve the previously acquired competences. For the economy to progress, the education sector has to be the first that is able itself to adjust flexibly and to apply innovations for the development of the individuals’ knowledge, skills and competencies.” (p.1).

Constructionist learning is when learners construct mental models to understand the world around them and to discover it, when people are active in making tangible objects in the real world, and builds on Jean Piaget’s epistemological theory of constructivism. While Piagetian Constructivism sees children as active builders of knowledge (Papert, 1999), Papert’s Constructionism expands it by attaching particular importance to the role of concrete buildings in the world—as a support for his conception of mental constructs—in the form of a ‘product’ of a more public sort, which can be shown, discussed, examined, probed, and admired …be that product a sand castle, a computer program, a poem, or a theory of the universe (Papert, 1993, p. 142).

As shown by Alesandrini and Larson (2002), constructionism advocates student-centered discovery learning where students use information they already know to acquire more knowledge, “Rather than requiring an understanding before applying that understanding to the construction of something, students in a constructivist classroom learn concepts while exploring their application. During this application process, students explore various solutions and learn through discovery” (p. 118). Given the changes occurring in education in the Knowledge Society of the 21st century, here are some questions that have guided the author in her research in correlation with constructionism:

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  “Can the traditional training model really meet the new requirements for the training of students in contemporary society?”

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  “Given the growing need to improve lives and the environment, would it be necessary to promote a biology-focused education that would foster a spirit of inquiry, intellectual activity, active thinking, and fast and accurate judgment, to put students in the position of searching for solutions and cooperating in investigations?”

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  “What would be the didactical models that would best contribute to the formation of such personalities?”

The researcher tried to find answers not only to these questions, but also to other questions that came along, in order to learn about biology (bios ꞊ life; logos ꞊ science, speech), which is the branch of science that “studies the morpho-physiological characteristics, the origin, the evolution, the reproduction, the heredity, and so on of living organisms” (Petruţa, 2009, p. 13).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed in 2015 that “Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) are bringing about new opportunities and [are] having an impact on teaching and learning methods, mainly through what is commonly known as “e-learning” (p.13).

In this sense, the researcher considered the promotion of the use of informational and communicational technologies (ICTs) in combination with the rediscovery (depending on the students’ individual particularities and on the students’ age particularities) and the promotion of individual rediscovery or rediscovery in team, this combination corresponding to the techno-empirio-psycho-sociocentric (TEPS) combined model. Also, the researcher considered the promotion of the techno-empirio-psycho-sociocentric (TEPS) combined model, when the curriculum, the material base of the biology laboratory, or the ICT competences of the students allow for the use of the elements corresponding to the technocentric (T) model in combination with elements of the empiriocentric (E), psychocentric (P), and sociocentric (S) models. The techno-empirio-psycho-sociocentric (TEPS) combined model is based on Papert’s constructionism, which showed that “The simplest definition of constructionism evokes the idea of learning-by-making” (Papert & Harel, 1991, par. 14).