- Cognitive constructivism is based on two fundamental principles. First, constructivists believe that learning is an active process. Education takes place as students are allowed and encouraged to create direct experience with lesson content. They should be supported as they make errors, and look for their own solutions to problems. Piaget called this process assimilation and accommodation of information. How the information is presented is important, and the order in which information is introduced is an aid to problem solving, yet the core of constructivist learning holds that static information functions as a tool to learning rather than being the goal.
- Piaget's second principle introduced the belief that learning should be whole, experiential and authentic rather than rote drill and memorization. Piaget proposed that meaningful education is constructed as children interact with the world around them. For constructivists, whole activities which involve the desired skill should be practiced and experienced, rather than drilled through isolated skill exercises. Experiential activities become inherently interesting and meaningful to the student, and thus the student places internal value on the acquired information.
- Piaget identified four developmental stages, and paired to these stages to essential skill sets which are mastered during each stage. From birth to 2 years, children develop sensory motor skills which help them differentiate between themselves and objects as they learn the ability to act intentionally. A Pre-operational stage from 2 to 7 years focuses on language assimilation and learning through egocentric behavior. During the Concrete operational stage from 7 to 11 years the child learns logical and sequential reasoning abilities so they can solve problems. Finally, from age 11 and up, the Formal operational stage requires that children learn and practice logical and abstract thinking. At this stage they are able to pose questions, investigate solutions and pursue answers to self-generated ideas.
- Piaget helped identify that different people have different learning styles. His three key styles have been since expanded upon, but Piaget discovered three core learning styles. Some learners take in information most effectively when it is presented visually. Others excel with information that is made available to touch and handle. These are called kinematic learners. Auditory learners do well in a lecture hall, where they take in auditory information. The most important lesson to take from this discovery is that constructivist educators should devise lessons which contain elements for all three of these learning styles, so that all students engage the education process in their own native learning language.
- Constructivists evaluate education through four distinct domains. Learning requires knowledge assimilation, which cognitive constructivists believe is best constructed in the learner's mind through experience. The Learning domain insists that learning transpires as a process of active discovery, not rote drill and memorization. Teachers must be aware of their students' internal motivation, the third domain, because successful learning requires a personal investment, or buy-in. Finally, instruction for the cognitivist teacher means assisting students to add new information to existing knowledge, and thus build a complete and interconnected understanding of the world.
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