Excerpt: The premises of the constructivist model used in higher education are parallel to the basic beliefs about how children learn. These premises include emphasis on choicemaking, use of a student driven curriculum which meets individual needs, development of critical thinking skills, incorporation of active learning, and alternative forms of evaluation.

The article raises the problem of critical thinking from a constructivist perspective. In the course of argumentation, we justify the thesis that constructivism is a valuable basis for both a theoretical approach (as a model) to critical thinking and a didactic design of activities focused on shaping and developing appropriate skills and dispositions. In our article, we point out that the advantage of the concept of critical thinking based on the constructivist model is mainly related to the assumptions underlying constructivism itself. Its application to the theory and practice of critical thinking implies important solutions, for the most part, on the epistemological and ethical level, while at the same time providing an attractive alternative to the concepts of critical thinking present in contemporary educational discourse.

Key words: critical thinking, constructivism didactics, educational philosophy, educational theory

Two instructional methods (teacher centered and student centered) were compared in a non-laboratory-based environmental science course for college undergraduates. Students in 2 teacher-centered (traditional) classes (n = 46 and n = 45) were presented material in standard lecture fashion for 90 min twice a week. Students in 2 student-centered (constructivist) classes (n = 48 and n = 42) worked in small, heterogeneous groups on thought-provoking scenarios and critical thinking questions or constructed concept maps on the information of the day; material was presented to the students in question-discussion fashion. Identical materials, learning resources, student questionnaires, and examinations were used for both populations. Students in constructivist classes performed significantly better on exams, rated the course higher, and participated more in campus and regional environmental support efforts than students in traditional classes.

When we look at institutional education, we see that behavioural approaches to teaching still dominate in educational reality. From this perspective, learning is completely dependent on teaching, just as students are under the authority of the teacher. In a sense, this is a situation of a specific kind of symbolic violence. It has its sources in traditional ways of understanding education as a particular form of training produced in the school. But this is not the only reason. Another one is a tacit assumption about the correctness of naïve realism: the belief that we can obtain objective and universal knowledge of the external world. In this article I argue that this generates the situation in which students’ thinking is subordinated to the system. Such education kills free and critical thinking, as well as effectively blocking social change. In other words, the current public educational system is oppressive at its very basis, because of its epistemological assumptions. However, before we start changing educational practice we should first change our way of looking at knowledge. Here, I discuss selected controversies around the traditional model of knowledge and learning, as well as suggesting different paradigms of knowledge and education.

Key words: constructivism, educational paradigms, epistemic values, knowledge, learning

The problem with the traditional model of education is that the student is largely receptive. The constructivist model corrects this defect by promoting learning within a highly interaction oriented pedagogy. The problem is that sometimes it combines this with a constructivist view of knowledge, which does not provide an adequate epistemological framework for critical thinking. Even though individual creativity should be encouraged, students’ constructions must be subject to critical scrutiny. This assumes the development of the capacity for critical evaluation on the basis of generally valid rational criteria. The constructivist view of learning is most useful, when it is combined with moderate foundationalism about knowledge. Adequate knowledge constructions presuppose the development of the capacity for critical thinking with its constitutive habits, skills and attitudes.

Open peer commentary on the article “Anchoring in Lived Experience as an Act of Resistance” by Claire Petitmengin. Abstract: Micro-phenomenology is a successful research tool with major environmental implications. However, there is much to be gained by also approaching it as a philosophical method in its own right. As such, we use it as a critical practice of overcoming habitual conceptual distinctions between body and environment, inside and outside, rationality and feeling, reconnecting the thinking process to the experiencing body. Enacting this reconnection inspires the research and training of embodied critical thinking. Yet, one needs to be careful to not overstate micro-phenomenology as a solution for the social and environmental crisis.

This paper attempts to apply the constructivist approach to the use of new media and to analyze its impact on the instructional design in Social Studies. Our aim is to highlight the connection among the constructivist principles, the learning environment enhanced by the use of the new media and the activities specific to the social studies didactics. The article starts from nowadays social needs, identifies the main issues of the constructivist approach to the new media, presents some examples of good practice and discusses their consequences for the students’ learning as well as possible challenges for the teaching-learning process.

Key words: constructivist approach, new media, teaching environment, student-centered perspective, problem-based learning, critical-thinking.

The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of the frequency of constructivist learning and its dimensions, including critical thinking, the differences in them with regard to certain demographic characteristics, and correlations with the frequency of use of certain new media in teaching students in the final grade of lower secondary education in Croatia (N = 703). The results show that students assessed a significantly higher incidence of critical thinking in relation to the other four dimensions of constructivist learning. In respect of every latent dimension of constructivist learning, (all) students with higher grade point averages are inclined towards a higher assessment of the frequency of the personal relevance of learning, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. Girls are more likely to highlight the personal importance of studying, critical thinking, and student negotiation, while there is no difference in the assessments regarding gender in the control of studying and the uncertainty of learning with new media. Students, regardless of where they live, assess the incidence of general constructivist learning equally, also in regard to each dimension, i.e. the personal relevance of learning, the uncertainty of learning (with new media), critical thinking, shared control, and collaborative learning. The frequent use of new media is associated with the increased incidence of all the dimensions of constructivist learning. An interpretation of the results indicates that critical thinking is by far the most prominent dimension of constructivist learning, whereby the gender of students and their grade point average are, to some extent, key factors in the differences in critical thinking, but also in most other dimensions of constructivist learning. This paper explains in detail the didactic implications of its research results.

Key words: new media, constructivist learning, critical thinking, secondary education, students