Constructivist teaching and teacher-centred teaching: A comparison of students' learning in a university course

Constructivist teaching and teacher-centred teaching: A comparison of students' learning in a university course

• Yuen, Ka Ming Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Hau, Kit Tai Chinese University of Hong Kong

Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 43(3), 279-290, 2006

Routledge

2006

• C Psychology & Learning
  • CB Psychology of Learning

Case Studies Constructivism (Learning) Comparative Analysis Undergraduate Students Educational Psychology Interviews Recall (Psychology) Participant Observation Teaching Methods Learning Problems Higher Education Student Evaluation Foreign Countries Education Majors Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

A case study of an undergraduate Educational Psychology course that incorporated both constructivist and teacher-centred teaching was conducted. The learning processes and higher-level learning outcomes were examined through participant observation, interviews with students and analyses of student assignments. The lessons were audio recorded and transcribed, and a total of 68 interviews, each about 1.5 hours long, were conducted. In general, the constructivist teaching facilitated students' creation of their own knowledge, as they were allowed to think more over the problems together and generate original ideas. Students' performances in recalling, critiquing and generating with the knowledge gained in the constructivist teaching context were also better than those in the teacher-centred context. This could be explained by the deeper processing of the material, the activation of students' prior knowledge and the similarity between the situations of knowledge construction and knowledge application. The strengths and limitations of constructivist teaching are also discussed.
[Copyright of Innovations in Education & Teaching International is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703290600750861 ]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14703297

• 10.1080/14703290600750861

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/aedbc968

2010-11-24