Constructivism in Practice: The Case for Meaning-Making in the Virtual World

Introduction

Children use symbols and relationships between symbols to make meaning of their environment, experiences and interactions. The learning theory that describes the process of creating knowledge from these symbols is known as constructivism.

This learning theory postulates that an individual constructs their unique understanding of the world by experiencing, evaluating and incorporating their interpretations into their personal world view. Constructivist learning is active rather than passive; learner-centered rather than teacher-directed.

With advances in visual and interactive technologies such as 3-D interactive computer environments, the process of knowledge construction and meaning making from a visual, auditory and kinesthetic perspective can be more fully explored. By creating their own environments, students can develop their own set of objects, relationships and behaviors that are meaningful to them, and that can be shared and experienced through full-body interaction.

This study was conducted to discover how different learning approaches affect the meaning-making process. Specifically, it was designed to discover if active learning based on constructivist practices would prove to be more educationally efficacious than passive, teacher-led instruction. By providing students with 3-D design tools and real-time technology that facilitated interactive, kinesthetic, visual and auditory learning, it was believed that the meaning-making process would be enhanced, leading to more complex knowledge constructions.

This dissertation documents the use of 3-D interactive environments as a meaning-making tool, exploring the educational efficacy of both the design and experience of knowledge constructions.