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PR Log - Global Press Release Distribution

Facilitated Learning by Teachers

 By Cynthia Joffrion

 Dated: Jul 24, 2010

Facilitated learning is another important goal of constructivist teachers. This can be effectively transferred 

to an online environment to promote higher student achievement 

Facilitated learning is another important goal of constructivist teachers. This can be effectively transferred

to an online environment to promote higher student achievement. A good online instructor should create a

safe environment for learners to express themselves freely in appropriate ways, to share their ideas, and to

ask questions (Hamilton, 1996; Porter, 1997). This type of setting is non-threatening to online students.

They feel safe in this setting and free to fail and then try again.

It is evident that the online constructivist learning environment offers students the freedom to choose and

arrange their learning processes with other learners while the instructor acts as learning process facilitator.

Online instructors using the constructivist approach still have a responsibility to monitor and warrant thequality of learning and peer discussions (Wester, 1999). It is still necessary for the instructor to support the

learning process with direction, rules, and student guidelines. In addition, the instruction must help

students keep on course if they move away from learning objectives.

Teacher-Student Roles in the Online Classroom Setting

The online instructional environment enables learners to construct their own learning and directly

participate in the learning process. This promotes the constructivist goal that students should be active

participants in the instruction and learning process. Students should view the online classroom as a place

where they can transform themselves. Yelon (1996) explains that the term “transform” implies that

learning is self-guided and meaningful. In addition, students must take the view that they are responsible

for their own learning. Students must actively take information and conceptualize it into their own reality.

In fact, most online courses are designed where students take part in the construction of course goals and

objectives. Yelon (1996) relates that in a constructivist environment where students form their own

objectives, they will probably progress from general to specific very quickly. The teacher monitors

progress; however, if the students interactively progress through the course objectives and control the

progression, they tend to take ownership.

Teacher’s Role

The tenets of the constructive teacher’s role related to instruction and student success is applied easily to

online learning. For example, the teacher should hold the ideal that students are motivated by their own

internal perceptions, needs, and characteristics. They are not motivated by external demands, expectations,

and environmental conditions but by an interaction of all three. Therefore, in the online classroom setting,

the teacher’s primary role is to provide an environment which fosters creativity and learning for thestudents. This highlights the constructivist belief that knowledge is actively constructed, not passively

received.

Constructivists such as Vygotsky and Dewy believed that learners do not learn in isolation from others,

and cognitive psychology has gradually established that people naturally learn and work collaboratively in

their lives (Petraglia, 1998). This shift in the traditional student-teacher relationship in the online

environment fosters emerging participant structures.

The constructivist theory suggests that interactivity characteristic of the online classroom assists students

in constructing knowledge, promoting learning, and retaining the course materials. The traditional

classroom offers the same tenet, however, not in the degree as online classrooms. One of the greatest

advantages of online instruction is that it is very interactive. In addition, many online educators have

suggested that creating interactivity in online courses by creating a learning community is essential to the

learning and success of the students (Bullen, 1998; Palloff & Pratt, 2001).

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