DEVELOPING A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING IN SECONDARY EDUCATION: PRINCIPLES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EFL TEACHERS

Abstract

Constructivist teaching upon the principles of constructivism theory given by Piaget, Vygotsky and other theoreticians has been prominent in recent research on English language teaching and has provided a basis for recent English education reform efforts. Although there are different views on what constructivism is, there is a common agreement that constructivism has played a crucial role in teaching English in Vietnam. This article, therefore, aims to discuss constructivism learning theory as a paradigm for teaching. Specially, the purposes of this paper are to give out a brief description of the history of constructivism, analyze five guiding principles of constructivism, and distinguish traditional views of teaching and constructivist teaching (CT), thus providing a theoretical framework of constructivist teaching in secondary education. Systematic Literature Review, a kind of the descriptive method, was utilized as a primary tool to select and review the previous research with the aim to explore the issues related to constructivism and CT. Results indicated that five dimensions of CT, twelve characteristics of a constructivist teacher and several implications of constructivism for teaching were designed and analyzed systematically.