This paper examines constructivist instructional technology as an alternative to traditional rote-memorization-based educational approaches. It traces the evolution of American public education and introduces constructivism as a theory centered on active learning, experiential engagement, and practical application. The paper discusses Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences framework and its implementation at the Gardner School, then analyzes the Full Option Science System (FOSS) as a comprehensive active-learning program. Together, these examples illustrate how constructivist methods engage students across diverse intellectual strengths, promote independent inquiry, and achieve deeper lesson retention than passive instructional approaches.
The paper demonstrates effective use of the compare-and-contrast technique at the structural level. Rather than simply advocating for constructivism, it first characterizes traditional education in detail, then shows precisely where and how constructivist approaches diverge. This method gives the argument analytical depth and makes the paper's claims verifiable against a clearly defined baseline.
The paper opens with a historical overview of American public education to establish context, then defines constructivist theory and contrasts it with traditional methods. Two case studies follow — Gardner's multiple intelligences approach and the FOSS science program — each receiving its own section. The conclusion synthesizes both examples back to the core thesis that active, engagement-based learning surpasses passive instruction in retention and intellectual development.
During the twentieth century, public education evolved from the proverbial one-room schoolhouse to a modern educational system based on twelve years of progressive, structured levels of instructional lessons. Likewise, early public educational materials often consisted of little more than a single textbook used throughout grade school, perhaps another textbook used throughout middle school, and little more throughout high school.
By the beginning of this century, public education had evolved significantly, incorporating integrated series of age-appropriate, subject-specific textbooks. Many textbook series also include workbooks and other integrated study and lesson-based diagnostic materials. Notwithstanding the undeniable progress of public and private education systems, the principles behind educational methods have not changed very substantially in the last two centuries of American education (Adams & Hamm, 1994).
Traditional academic education focuses on learning by rote memorization in the case of fact-based academic subjects, repetitive practice of mechanical techniques in the case of mathematics, and a combination of rote memorization and repetitive practice in the case of physical and biological sciences. In the last half of the twentieth century, several contemporary education theorists proposed alternative instructional methods to take advantage of the actual mechanisms behind human learning, instead of relying almost exclusively on memorization and repetition.
In education, constructivism refers, generally, to learning from observational experience, active participation, and especially active reasoning, rather than through various forms of memorization and repetitive practice. Many education theorists believe that learning by experience and by lesson reinforcement through practical application is markedly preferable to even the most creative forms of traditional, passive educational approaches (Schroeder & Spannagel, 2006).
That is not to say that variety in traditional teaching materials and lesson plans is unimportant, because it is understood that almost any type of novelty contributes to greater subject-matter interest and higher retention levels than a single type of lesson for all modules and all subjects. Everything else being equal, lessons that feature a combination of lecture, written texts, and workbooks achieve better results than the identical lesson presented through any one medium by itself.
This principle explains the success of flashcards, one of the earliest and simplest methods of adding lesson variety to maximize attention span, interest, and lesson retention.
While multi-dimensional modules are generally more successful than one-dimensional modules, even the most creative multi-dimensional instructional programs still rely on passive learning. Constructivism is designed around an entirely different concept: using active learning and the specific application of more general lesson principles to parallel instructional problems, instead of memory-based learning (Shmaefsky, 2005).
One of the first pioneers of constructivist educational programs is Professor Howard Gardner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. According to Gardner's multiple intelligences-based theory of education, learning takes place through seven different specific types of intelligence: linguistic, quantitative logic (i.e., mathematics), bodily-kinesthetics, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and spatial orientation.
Traditional educational approaches, even where they incorporate a wide variety of different types of instructional materials, make use of only two of the seven types of intelligences defined by Gardner: linguistic and quantitative logic. In principle, Gardner's criticism of traditional educational theory, methods, and materials is that they promote effective learning primarily in students who happen to have superior aptitude in those two types of intelligences, to the virtual exclusion of the other five. Incorporating lesson-type variety by adding workbooks, practical demonstrations, and video presentations increases attention span and interest, but their benefits remain disproportionate, favoring students with stronger natural linguistic ability and quantitative logical aptitude (Gardner, 1999).
The Gardner School in Vancouver, Washington, utilizes a wide variety of constructivist teaching materials designed to promote active learning equally through all seven of the intelligences identified by Gardner. This approach makes use of everything from music to games of spatial orientation and kinesthetic awareness — such as the 1960s game Twister™ — to teach traditional academic material. Creativity is a necessary attribute for instructors using the Gardner method, precisely because it does not prescribe the use of any specific materials.
A typical approach within the Gardner system might use an ice skating session to present lessons on Newtonian physics in a manner conducive to understanding by students with stronger kinesthetic awareness. Likewise, music might be used to present mathematical concepts such as ratio and scale, or scientific concepts such as the physics of mechanical waves. The Gardner method employs these materials in a manner designed to promote active learning by presenting the subject matter directly through materials that lend themselves to absorption via all seven intelligences (Gardner, 1999).
Education theorists are largely in agreement that active participation promotes better lesson retention at all levels of primary and secondary education. Variety in lesson materials is also widely acknowledged to improve student attention and interest in academic subject matter. Modern academic programs feature integrated materials intended to complement each other, reinforce the lessons, and provide variety in presentation. Nevertheless, even these materials fail to change the one constant: they rarely manage to stimulate active learning in the manner achieved by constructivist educational approaches and materials.
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