The relationships between student perception of constructivist learning environment, self-directed learning readiness, problem-solving skills, and teamwork skills

Abstract

Constructivism is a recent educational philosophical development. This study was designed to ascertain the level of constructivism implemented in the Industrial technology program as observed by students. The study also sought to determine the level of constructivism students' desire, and the relationship between what they observed and what they preferred. The faculty view of the implementation was also collected. A comparison was made between the faculty view of the level of constructivism and the student view of the amount of constructivism being used. An instrument for the aspects of constructivism was used for data collection, three parts were an Australian validated and reliable instrument. The fourth part about problem solving was prepared, validated and tested for reliability at Iowa State University. The faculty instrument was a modification of the questions toward faculty perception rather than the student view. Interviews were made with several students, the results confirming what were determined by the instrument. A high correlation existed between students who observed a higher level of constructivism practices being used with higher scores on problem-solving and teamwork skills than for their peers. Satisfactory indices of a good fit between a hypothesized model and the observed data led to the development of a structural equation model. This model suggested that student learning in an constructivist environment could improve their self-directed learning readiness, problem-solving skills and teamwork skills.