Essential Criteria to Characterize Constructivist Teaching: Derived from a review of the literature and applied to five constructivist‐teaching method articles

Abstract Constructivism is an important theory of learning that is used to guide the development of new teaching methods, particularly in science education. However, because it is a theory of learning and not of teaching, constructivism is often either misused or misunderstood. Here we describe the four essential features of constructivism: eliciting prior knowledge, creating cognitive dissonance, application of new knowledge with feedback, and reflection on learning. We then use the criteria we developed to evaluate five representative published articles that claim to describe and test constructivist teaching methods. Of these five articles, we demonstrate that three do not adhere to the constructivist criteria, whereas two provide strong examples of how constructivism can be employed as a teaching method. We suggest that application of the four essential criteria will be a useful tool for all professional educators who plan to implement or evaluate constructivist teaching methods. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr Rosemary Smith for valuable discussions, advice, and mentoring throughout the writing process. Notes 1. Ms Baviskar is first author because the idea for a review paper exploring constructivism in science classrooms launched the original collaboration and because she performed most of the background and paper selection work. The ideas surrounding the four criteria of constructivism in the introduction were derived primarily from Mr Hartle's background and training in educational theory and practice. In all other aspects, each of the three authors contributed equally to this work.