Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Early Learning Centers
The Constructivist Approach to Learning
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools’ Early Learning Centers are modeled on a constructivist approach to education. This approach recognizes that children learn best when they are actively engaged with materials, ideas and people. The underlying assumption guiding this approach is an understanding that children are not receptacles of knowledge already known, but are active creators of new knowledge. To that end, constructivist learning promotes student-centered instruction, holistic pedagogy and experiential learning, as opposed to a primary focus on whole group teacher-directed instruction and didactic pedagogy. Constructivism has its roots in progressive education movements, with influence from education pioneers such as John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, and Loris Malaguzzi (the Reggio-Emilia approach). It is not rooted in only one mode of instruction, but is focused holistically on principles of humanism and democracy. It is based on a wide breadth of research exploring how human beings learn, how they are motivated to achieve and how they thrive in relationship to one another. The goal of the approach is to create informed citizens, who are empowered to change society, and make the world better, through their individual and collective contributions.
It is a philosophy that requires extensive knowledge of child development, as well as the development of meaningful relationships with every child. Teachers are expected to use their knowledge of brain development and content, with their acquired knowledge of the individual and collective needs of children, to construct learning environments, lessons and activities that stimulate rigorous learning at the children’s zone of proximal development. The key to a constructivist classroom is significant investment in planning, and intentionality of the part of the teacher, so that the children actively engage in learning, without constant instruction and directions from the teacher.