Qualitative research methodologies and methods
John Maltby, Glenn A. Williams, Julie McGarry, Liz Day in Research Methods for Nursing and Healthcare, 2014
Constructivism is a theory that was developed by Jean Piaget, who emphasised that individual knowledge in internalised within each person. Piaget argued that much of the knowledge that we gather through our lives comes from our own experiences, and that this new knowledge is then placed in our consciousness with all our other knowledge. However, constructivism emphasises that our previous knowledge impacts on how we treat new knowledge and what that means to us. Constructivism suggests that we have a framework of understanding that we use to interpret most new knowledge within that framework. For example, if you are at work and there is a new patient in the ward and they seem upset, you may understand this new experience as being a normal reaction by patients who are new to wards because they are clearly anxious or upset about being in hospital. What is important to note is that your knowledge has fitted into a framework of previous knowledge. However, what it also means is that we may sometimes misinterpret new knowledge, or have misunderstandings about knowledge. It may be that the patient is in pain or upset about something else altogether. Of course new experiences may change your framework. If, for example, you found out later that the new patient was in pain, the next time you saw a new patient crying you might additionally check whether they were in pain, thus changing your framework about knowledge of why new patients might cry.
Training and Certification
Arianna D'Angelo, Nazar N. Amso in Ultrasound in Assisted Reproduction and Early Pregnancy, 2020
Learners can participate in the learning environment and construct their knowledge in ways that are meaningful to them and facilitate their progression, a philosophy known as “Constructivism.” Developing a skill or craft, in this instance ultrasound, encompasses mental action or the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses (i.e., to recognize or conceptualize, an approach referred to as “Cognitive Apprenticeship” as described by Collins [18]). When applied in a technologically rich environment, learners construct their knowledge and skills through accurate and realistic practices considerably faster than in a conventional opportunistic environment. The “observation” of an expert is replaced with e-learning and exemplars of lesson plans and video clips of simulated ultrasound scans undertaken by clinical experts often referred to as “modeling”; hints and recommendations extend learners’ competencies, referred to as “scaffolding”; while feedback and guidance improve practices, known as “coaching.” These learning steps assist them to articulate their knowledge (“articulation”), enable them to be critical of their own performance (“reflection”), and finally drive them into a mode of problem-solving of their own (“exploration”).
Education to promote dignity in healthcare
Milika Ruth Matiti, Lesley Baillie, Paula McGee in Dignity in Healthcare, 2020
Transformative learning is based on Mezirow’s work (Williams, 2001). This takes account of the ideas of constructivism, moving on to use the meanings that the learner identifies to transform their view of others or self and to guide future action. This is vital in practice-based professions. Strategies to promote transformative learning may set out to challenge existing ‘frames of reference’, as in Rush’s (2008) study. Rush examined the impact of employing mental health service users to teach nursing on the nursing students’ attitudes about the potential capabilities of these mental health service users. The students’ previous experiences of mental health service users had been as providers of their care rather than as recipients of their knowledge. In relation to promoting dignity, working with clients to formulate a dignity charter would enable students to work in partnership with clients. This challenges the usual relationship of caregiver and recipient and enables students to work in new ways. Providing opportunities for students to experience the world from the clients’ perspectives, reflecting on how that makes them feel and then identifying actions that they could undertake to promote dignity, would also be transformative.
Mechanisms involved in the formation of professional identity by medical students
Published in Medical Teacher, 2021
Gila Yakov, Arieh Riskin, Anath A. Flugelman
Constructivism is a learning approach in which students actively construct their own knowledge by their experiences as learners. According to constructivist theory, new knowledge is learned in a way that students build on previous knowledge. In the context of medical professional identity formation in general, and particularly in our course, we specifically address social constructivism. According to social constructivism, learning is a collaborative process in which knowledge develops from the individuals' interactions with their culture and society, which in our case are the student's experiences with interactions within the social milieu of the medical world he/she gradually gets exposed to (Goldie 2012; Kalet et al. 2018). The construction we refer to in Table 1 is mostly by horizontal linking, such as the parallel discussion regarding physician's oath both in the informal meeting of his group in the course ‘Becoming a Physician’ and the formal course of medical history. However, sometimes the link relates to a past experience, such as the chapter the student saw on the television series, where the construction is called vertical in Table 1. The link mechanism helps structure the new knowledge in a vertical and horizontal constructive ways by linking the course ‘Becoming a Physician’ to formal and informal learning (Table 1).
Immersive virtual patient simulation compared with traditional education for clinical reasoning: a pilot randomised controlled study
Published in Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, 2023
Claire Bonnin, Dominique Pejoan, Eric Ranvial, Méryl Marchat, Nicolas Andrieux, Laurent Fourcade, Anaick Perrochon
The clinical case focussed on chronic respiratory insufficiency; it was based on medical and paramedical elements concerning an actor patient in the respiratory disease unit of the Limoges CHU. An expert consensus (medical doctor, physiotherapist, teacher specialised in the respiratory field) and a reference work (Antonello & Delplanque, 2001) provided relevant information and enabled us to determine the learning outcomes with regard to this clinical case. As Radianti and al. (Radianti et al., 2020) recommended constructing VR application based on a specific learning theory, we chose constructivism learning theory to develop this clinical case. Students had already received knowledge in courses about respiratory pathologies. Constructivism is an active process of learning. This clinical case allowed students to link prior knowledge to a real patient’s case.
How Do Social Workers Working in Long-term Care Understand Their Roles? Using British Columbia, Canada as an Example
Published in Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 2021
The paradigm chosen for this research study was constructivism (Creswell & Poth, 2018). According to this paradigm, there is no objective reality. All realities are subjective and socially constructed by human beings. There are multiple realities. The researcher, participant and their interaction influence the research. Research is a co-creation process between the researcher and the participant, and they are co-investigators. Researcher brings in their lived experiences, values, and beliefs. Realities are contextual. There was a fit between constructionism and the research topic: The participants’ understanding of their roles in long-term care were subjective and socially constructed. They could not be objective. Multiple perceptions were depending on the author (who has worked as a social worker in long-term care since 2017), the participants, their interactions, and the contexts.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Learning Theory
- Learning
- Knowledge
- Understanding
- Perception
- Knowledge Transfer
- Experience
- Piaget'S Theory of Cognitive Development
- Social Environment
- Behaviorism