Towards expert knowledge? : a comparison between a constructivist and a traditional learning environment in university

Abstract

The study is based on recent theories of the development of expert knowledge, on the constructivist view of learning and on cognitive theories of writing. Drawing on these starting points, a constructivist learning environment was built on an educational psychology course. The purpose of the study was to examine students' learning outcomes in this experiment as compared with the traditional teaching and studying in the same course. At the beginning of the course the students were divided into two groups, a constructivist group and a traditional group. The contents of the course were exactly the same for both groups, consisting of three textbooks on learning and human development. The constructivist group students studied the books with the help of different writing assignments requiring knowledge transforming processes, discussed their assignments in groups and wrote a long essay. The assessment of the constructivist group students was based on students' performances, the essays and other assignments as well as the group discussions. The traditional group students studied the books on their own, attended lectures and took an exam. The students' learning outcomes in the constructivist and the traditional group were investigated from three different viewpoints: 1) as the students' subjective learning experiences, 2) as changes in the students' conceptions of learning, and 3) as measured by traditional examination questions. Of these viewpoints the first and the second are in harmony with the constructivist view of learning, while examination assessment represents the traditional knowledge transmission paradigm of teaching and learning. Both approaches were included in the study because one of its aims was to investigate whether different methods of measuring learning produce different pictures of learning outcomes. The constructivist group students did not have to take an exam as a basis of their course grade, but they were asked to answer the examination questions in order to provide research material. Data on the students' subjective learning experiences were gathered by interviewing them after the course. During the interview the students were also asked to fill in a self-assessment form on their learning. Answers to open interview questions were analysed by the phenomenographic procedure, after which the categories of description resulting from the analysis were tabulated by group. Changes in the students' learning conceptions were studied by having the students write a short essay on their conceptions of learning at the beginning and at the end of the course. The essays were analysed by using the phenomenographic method and concept maps. Furthermore, a categorisation of theoretical viewpoints was used. The examination answers were analysed by means of the SOLO Taxonomy and an epistemic categorisation derived from earlier studies of student learning. The analysis of the students' subjective learning experiences revealed both similarities and differences between the groups. All students in both groups described their learning in terms of knowledge acquisition. However, most constructivist group students also emphasised the acquisition of an ability to apply knowledge, the development of their critical thinking skills, changing their conceptions of the topics studied and a shift from epistemological dualism towards a more relativistic view of knowledge. These types of description were rare among the traditional group students. The students' conceptions of learning appeared to change quite similarly in both groups. The behaviorist views decreased and the cognitive views increased in both groups. However, constructivist views and the idea of experiential learning b ecame more common only in the constructivist group. The examination of the development in the students' ideas of learning produced a category system of seven types of change in learning conceptions: 1) adding new concepts; 2) re-defining, specifying or particularising concepts; 3) linking specific aspects of a given conception; 4) moving from one category of explanation to another; 5) adding a theoretical viewpoint; 6) replacing a theoretical viewpoint with another; and 7) forming an explanatory framework. These types of change suggest that changes in learning conceptions may occur on at least four levels: I) on the semantic level, involving the meaning of individual concepts; II) on the level of relationships between the concepts; Ill) on the level of shifts between ontological categories; and IV) on the level of a background theory or a framework theory. The examination answers were longer in the traditional group, including more detailed descriptions. However, the answers of the constructivist group students contained more classifications, comparisons, evaluations and generalisations, and their SOLO level was higher than in the traditional group. The results show that the constructivist group students felt that they had acquired not only formal knowledge but also many skills that are required from experts in working life. Furthermore, the constructivist group students' knowledge of the topics studied seemed to be more complex and coherent than that of the traditional group students, who tended to accumulate more detailed information. On the whole, the constructivist learning environment seemed to produce the kind of learning outcomes that correspond with the general aims of higher education, thus fostering the prerequisites of professional expertise.