THE LEARNER AS A UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL
Constructivism started as a theory in Russian Art during the Middle Ages where students in the Arts builds their own ideas and concepts about an issue or phenomenon and they reflect them in their art works.
Constructivism is also a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.
Education is to seek out its meaning. Consequently, learning must set up with the questions around which the learners are enthusiastically trying to construct its meaning. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts. In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models.
The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the “right” answers and regurgitate someone else’s meaning. Since education is naturally interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.
I simply agree with this theory for the reason that if the students are going to choose only the information’s that can be integrated with their experiences it will encourage them to arrive at their own version of the truth, influenced by their background. If the students will be given the chance to choose what they are going to paint it will help them to make things easier because it is their own choice. It is more comfortable for them to make their own paintings because there are no criteria of what they are going to paint. If the instructors are going to give such thing the students will find it hard to decide what they are going to paint. What if the teacher will ask them to paint which is very far from their ability? The students cannot make their works as its best because they already know within their selves that they really cannot make it.
So I think it is more trouble-free for the students if the teacher will give them the choices of what they are going to paint. And they will also put their best upon making the paintings because they already experienced it. If the student prefers his happiest moment to be painted, the result of it will also be fine-looking since it was his happiest moment.
