GENERATION Y & Z CONSTRUCTING EDUCATION

RELEVANCE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO EDUCATION
Q1. DISCUSSION 4134

In this article, you will see I am describing the constructivist approach to education, its relevance to Generation Y & Z students both in learning environments and with regard to their professional development, also touching on some of the ways constructivism in learning is relevant to the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner with regard to the education of children .

The Constructivist Approach to Education covers a large area of pedagogical research and psychological theory with regards to child development and optimum learning environments. By accepting Constructivist theory and its ideals, we describe knowledge as what we construct for ourselves as we learn. This mode of educations’ highest potential empowers the student to be skilful for this digital millennium, self-directed and motivated, goal orientated and goal achieving. Through guidance and facilitation from the educator the student evolves by a combination of synergistic social collaboration on the subject (eg discussion, negotiation, common understanding), and responding to learning environments designed to enhance:
Problem solving
Development of higher order thinking skills
Independent knowledge seeking
Acquisition of self-motivated learning skills and assimilation of knowledge
Understanding of the self through experience and objectivity
The mistake becoming a tool for further enquiry
Interdisciplinary learning
Exposure to a variety of viewpoints: individual and organisational
The ability to discern true authority on information source and content
Moral integrity
The teacher/facilitator is at once a mediator, a learner themselves capable of spontaneous response to what arises within the parameters of the learning environment – a guide to the students for deeper enquiry and through clearly devised scaffolding, a catalyst for the student to reach beyond their view of their own potential; to stretch beyond their comfort zone of understanding.
http://www.cdli.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/cle3.html

Steiner emphasises that the teacher: the human being who stands in front of the class holds the quality of the educational experience through who they are as an individual and how they have developed themselves and continue to develop themselves. Thus the teacher guides each student through their own action research and self-reflection, bringing life to the content and process of learning herein we see a quintessential parallel between anthroposophy and constructivism.

Constructivist, Piaget maintained a lifelong interest in the field of education, though his published works proliferated in other areas such as biology, psychology, epistemology and logic. He spent many years as the director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE). (Ducret, Jean-Jacques 2001) Jean Ducret a close friend of Piaget also writes.....
“The idea probably closest to his heart was that educationists, while drawing on genetic psychology and other relevant sciences should independently carry out research enabling them to establish both a teaching system and the methods most appropriate to the goals envisaged.”

The relevance of Piaget’s understanding of Constructivism to today, in relation to education, is most pertinent in that he encourages the development of intelligence and all-round culture taking precedence over the acquisition of specialised knowledge. Generation Y prioritise their social needs and are multi-skilled and multi-tasking.

The lives of Generation Y (those born between 1980 and 1994 inclusive) are a mosaic of different roles, phases and careers. Today average retention rate per job per employee is just 4 years compared to 1959 when the Longitudinal Labour Market Study showed an average job retention rate of 15 years. 21st Century life is rarely linear and sequential. (McCrindle, Mark 2006 see "mccrindlism" hyperlink under Blog post ISM) Constructivist educational environments reflect our times; Generation Y are being educated now. The world ahead requires flexibility, lateral thinking, emotional literacy, competent ICT skills and more.

The nature of learning provoking the desire to learn more inherent in a Constructivist Education is supported by statistics –“89.6% of Generation Y agreed that if they received regular training from their employer it would motivate them to stay longer with the employer". And interestingly the training in relation to work they would like to receive is in the “soft skills” area (presentation skills, management and communication skills etc) as opposed to “hard skills”- technical skills and formal University courses. These “soft/people skills” are transferable across different workplaces and situations. (McCrindle, Mark 2006)

The social learning dynamics required through collaborative learning in a Constructivist educational environment elucidate the nature and individuality of Generation Y and the up and coming Generation Z. I believe these young adults, adolescents and children will need the ability to discern and commit to ethical choices to sustain our environment, both ecologically and socially.

From the following summation of Piaget’s thinking and suggestions in the education field (Ducrat, Jean-Jacques 2001), the importance and relevance of these guidelines in relation to the learning needs of Generation Y can easily be seen:
Creation of school careers - put off selection as long as possible to allow students potential to become sufficiently clear
Postpone specialisation as long as possible by teaching basic programmes
Maximise development of student’s intelligence and all-round culture to assist him manage large number of problematic situations and make a more organic whole of the different practical, technical, scientific and artistic aspects of social life
Teachers be trained in methods that increase awareness of the intellectual and moral development of pupils during childhood and adolescence
Educationist should carry out their own experimental checks as a means of verifying the aptness of methods or procedures to be used in teaching