Effect of Constructivist Approach on Academic Achievement of Seventh Grade

1. INTRODUCTIONConstructivism was approached by an Italian philosopher ‘Gi-ambattista vico ’ and he regarded knowledge purely as a by-product of human construction. According to him ‘the known is the made’. It holds sharply different views about the nature of knowledge from behaviourism and cognitivism as they be-lieve knowledge is static, absolute and final function of learning is to gain knowledge but Constructivism rejects static, passive or fixed view of knowledge. Formalization of the theory of Con-structivism was generally attributed to Jean Piaget. He also sup-ported the views of John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky and Jerom Bruner.According to Joseph Novak, ‘Constructivism is that human con-struct that meaning to their ideas and experiences as a result of an effort to understand and make sense of them.’According to Bruner, ‘Constructivism is the learning theory in which learning is seen as an active process in which learner con-struct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge.’Learners do not come to class as empty vessels waiting to be filled rather they are active organism seeking meaning. Th