Review by: Hasanbegovic, Jasmina (2004-11-25)

It would be difficult to find an article or book on constructivism and its implications for technology supported teaching and learning which does not cite this popular book edited by Jonassen and Duffy. Searching for a dialogue between instructional developers and learning theorists, the editors asked some of the key learning theorists and researchers to describe their theoretical perspective and to consider the implication of their views for the instructional-design process. They also asked two leading instructional-design researchers to reflect on the new perspectives offered by the constructivist perspective to the practice of designing instruction. The learning theorists re-examined theirs implications given the critique from instructional designers. Other leading instructional designers and learning theorists offered their comments on the critique of the constructivist perspective or reflected on the implications to be derived from the conversation.

The educational theorists (Bednar, Cunningham, Perkins, Spiro, and the Cognition and Technology Group of Vanderbilt) present their theoretical position and then discuss the implications for front-end analysis, instructional strategies, and assessment.

Bednar and her colleagues wish to challenge the concept that the eclectic nature of the field of Instructional System Technology (IST) is necessarily a strength. They illustrate their argument by reference to the implications of various versions of cognitive science for the field of IST. The authors argue that abstracting concepts and strategies from the theoretical position strips them of their meaning. The designers must develop reflexive awareness of their personal beliefs about the nature of learning and select concepts and strategies from a theoretical basis consistent with their beliefs. The authors present at the beginning basic characteristics of the information processing and constructivist viewpoints within cognitive psychology to contrast their implications for instruction and for the instructional design process. Finally, they reflect on the implications of the discussion for future directions emphasizing that their instructional methods reflect a theory of learning and a specific epistemology.

Cunningham revitalises the participants of the Galilean Dialogue to discuss objectivist and constructivist views of assessment. After presenting the learning position of objectivism and constructivism, the discussants reflect the activities of an instructional developer within a constructive framework. The work of a constructivist begins by selecting tasks that are relevant to the child's everyday experience where the task of the teacher is to provide access to tools that can be used to better understand or construct solutions to the problem at an individual or group level. Assessment as a human matter arises naturally from the situations where students are involved in realistic or actual tasks and are not involved with an instrument designed to be as independent of context as possible. The mind constructs information based upon past experience and ongoing interactions with the world. These constructions can be assessed by seeing if the students can successfully construct plausible solutions to the tasks and by checking if the student develops a certain self-awareness. The instructional designer will work within the "teacher’s zone of proximal development", providing tools and techniques to help the teacher accomplish his or her goals.

Perkins raises the question what information-processing technologies and constructivist perspective offer for educational practice and what the two afford in combination. He emphasizes the "active learner" component as the student elaborates upon and interprets the information given.

The Cognition and Technology Group’s apprenticeship learning approach aims to create shared environments that permit sustained exploration by students and teachers and enable them to understand the kinds of problems and opportunities that experts in various areas encounter and the knowledge that these experts use as tools. The authors describe seven design principles for generative learning environments in mathematics involving a series of video-based adventures about Jasper Woodbury. They introduce an episode from the adventures of Jasper Woodbury to explain the active generation mode of the scene which requires students to generate the kinds of problems that Jasper must consider in order to decide whether he can get the boat home before dark without running out of fuel. They also discuss the added value of technology as a delivery medium for generative learning environments, as well as the use of hypermedia for extending the use of video to a variety of contexts.

As the presented theories of instructional design and development by educational theorists contrast substantively with traditional practice in this field, two of the most prominent instructional designers, Walter Dick and David Merrill, reflect on these theories and to present their views of the implications of constructivism for instructional technology.

Dick reviews the work of each chapter from the point of view of an instructional designer and explores several general reactions that emerge from a review of Parts I and II of this book. In particular, he mentions the boundaries of the overwhelming theory, no concern for entry behaviours of students and for efficiency and certifying the competency level of individual students. A lack of learner control indicates also that instruction as an educational intervention – that is driven by specific outcome objectives, materials or procedures that are targeted on these objectives, and assessments that determine if the desired changes in behaviour (learning) have occurred – apparently does not occur in constructivist interventions. The author ends his review with suggestions for constructivists and instructional designers. Although constructivist interventions are costly to develop, require technology to implement, and are difficult to evaluate and therefore find little acceptance in schools, constructivists should continue their research to identify the real strength and weaknesses of their approach and to continue to interact with instructional designers. Instructional designers should listen to the ideas of constructivists concerning the transfer of skills.

In contrast, Merrill begins with the similarities between the principles of constructivism and his ID2 model contrasting the fundamental ideas of latter with the principles and illustrating the consistency of ID2 with a moderate interpretation of some of the assumptions of constructivism like relevant tasks, active learning and experiential learning. Merrill emphasises as major points of difference that strategy and subject matter content are somewhat independent and that the learner need not always be in control. He argues against an extreme constructivism which is incompatible with a significantly more cost effective approach as it inhibits technological solutions to their pressing instructional needs.

The forth part of the book stimulates the dialectic on constructivism and instructional design as the "constructivist" authors reflect again on the comments provided by Dick and Merrill, and other authors of the instructional design community contribute to the dialogue on constructivist beliefs and practice raising the issues of extremism, prespecification of knowledge, multiple perspectives, complexity, entry skills, conditions of learning and assessment.

This book contains the basics of constructivist implications on instructional design and introduces the main issues on this topic. The dialogue between well known experts on learning theory and instructional design enables the reader to understand the main arguments and problems of both camps and clarifies their main disagreements. The hope of the editors for laying the foundation for continued discussion in order to construct more meaningful interpretations of learning and instruction is fulfilled. However, the conversation and references of all authors force a linear reading through the whole book, making it difficult to access just a particular chapter.