Chapter 11: Clearing A Path for Constructivist Beliefs: Examining Constructivist Pedagogy and Pre-Service Teachers’ Epistemic and Learning Beliefs

Does teaching constructivist pedagogy facilitate more constructivist beliefs? Do pre-service teachers espouse more constructivist beliefs about knowledge compared to other university students? More traditional views about knowledge acquisition typically regard learners as passive recipients of knowledge that is handed down by an omniscient authority. In contrast, more constructivist views typically perceive learners as actively creating their own understanding of knowledge (Prawat, 1992)¹. Traditional and constructivist standpoints can be enacted within multiple facets of education and learning including the nature of instructional practices, approaches to learning, and epistemic beliefs—that is, individuals’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997, 2002). In this chapter, we explore relations between instructional approaches and individuals’ epistemic and learning beliefs within the context of pre-service teacher education. We begin by describing the defining characteristics of constructivism and explore why fostering more constructivist beliefs among pre-service teachers plays an important role in shaping the classroom climate and learning outcomes for future students. We then examine whether constructivist beliefs can be fostered through explicit instruction on constructivist pedagogy via constructivist pedagogical techniques. We explored this empirically by comparing education majors’ (pre-service teachers) beliefs, who were exposed to constructivist techniques, to non-education majors who received no explicit constructivist instruction at both early and advanced stages of their academic programs. The chapter closes with a discussion of findings from our research, including the challenges of fostering constructivist beliefs, and recommendations for pre-service teacher training.