Teaching computer graphics constructively

Abstract

During the last few decades, constructivist-oriented teaching methods have gained increasing support within primary education. This paper provides a short overview of two such constructivist epistemologies and describes a preliminary attempt to apply them in university-level graphics education. While the outcome of the attempt is difficult to evaluate, the reaction from the students raises some interesting issues concerning problem solving and efficiency in general.

Introduction

During the last few decades, many educational practitioners have increasingly turned their attention to constructivist models of learning. These models are substantially different from traditional modernist views of learning in that instead of conceptualizing knowledge as something that is transmitted from the teacher to the learner, they emphasize learners’ active construction of their own subjective comprehension. Constructivist pedagogies have been successfully used in learning situations where the acquiring of a deep understanding of a subject is required, although they seem less suitable for memorization or training [1], [2].

The philosophy of constructivism can be said to have evolved as a post-modernist reaction against the traditional modernist view of knowledge as something in the mind that reflects or represents a fixed external reality. Instead, constructivists typically claim that at least some—or all—aspects of the world that from a traditional realist perspective are seen as ontological facts, stem from (or consists of) human constructions and social relations. Many philosophical variations of constructivism can be identified, ranging from those that see both the world and our knowledge of it as purely constructed to the more common view that there is a world independent of human beings but that our knowledge of it is restricted to our own constructions [3]. This latter perspective (which is probably the most common among constructivist educational practitioners) can be further divided into two main groups:

• Cognitive oriented constructivism, which emphasizes the cognitive mechanisms of individual persons, and

• Socioculturally oriented constructivism, which emphasizes the internalization of socio-cultural activities.

Although the two groups stem from different theoretical foundations, it is possible to view them as complementary. In this case, learning can summarized as a process of active individual construction that occurs when the learner is engaged in a social practice, frequently while interacting with others [4].