Reflection on New Learning Environments and Constructivism: The Students' Perspective

As a teacher teaching Biology and Chemistry, I had learnt about the Constructivist Theory from my PGDE training in NIE. This approach is widely employed in the teaching of the sciences whereby the learner actively constructs his own knowledge, and as a result is able to better "own" the knowledge rather than just being "spoon-fed". I believe that it is based on this rationale that the study in this reading was proposed -- evaluating whether the students perceived PBL as more constructivist compared to that of a conventional lecture-based environment.

I am not sure what exactly constitutes a "New Learning Environment" in this study. The authors have mentioned constructivism and related them to pedagogies such as project-based, case-based and problem based learning. What kind of "old" learning environments are they trying to compare NLE against? Is the transition from "old" LE to NLE subtle or abrupt?

In my opinion, the instructor's intentionality is of utmost importance. He should be acutely aware of the learner's needs and how prepared they are to accept learning in a style the learner is not used to. He should also make his expectations clear -- what would be the desired outcome of a (successful) PBL session in order for it to be meaningful?

As a student, I learnt different subjects in different ways, depending on the level of mastery I had. At secondary school level, I had learnt most of my subjects the 'traditional' way but our imaginations were still fired as our teachers made use of effective questioning techniques in the classroom settings. Rather, we were caught off guard when one day the teacher deviated from her usually mode of delivery and got us to work in groups for a particular piece of work without stating her intentionality and expectations of learning outcomes. Although the process was enjoyable, we did not take the lesson very seriously and had even thought that the teacher could afford to do groupwork with us because it was not an important chapter to learn. The learning could have been more effective if some time was spent for us to reflect on what we had
learnt from one another or about the subject matter during the discussion or brain-storming session.

It is heartening to note that the authors conclude the study with a recommendation to take into consideration a blend of different learning experiences in concocting NLE, not just PBL per se. It would definitely render the learning process more holistic and exciting.