PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM IN ONLINE EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW

Owing to the rapid advancement of digital technologies and transformations in the modes of teaching, communicating and interacting, the twenty-first century is characterized as the era of reforms and changes. Those transformations are certainly depicted in the way students are being engaged in the learning process. Thus, contemporary learning theories have been emerged or evolved in recent years, and the way of learning has been transformed from a teacher-centered to a student-centered paradigm. There seem to be a plethora of such theories, but the focus of this article will be on social constructivism, as derived from Vygotsky's social-cultural theories of education, and its differentiation from classical forms of constructivism to the level of social interaction. Constructivism and social constructivism as pedagogical paradigms have been operationalized in widely varying ways in the research literature. Although the aforementioned theories have been extensively embraced by experts, academicians, and faculty for many years, there still exists scientific interest for those learning theories and their impact on both tutors and students. The main purpose of this article is to make online teachers and students, as well as adult educators, educational experts and policymakers become more familiar with the importance of social constructivism as a learning theory for the promotion of online learning in academic environments. For this reason, the present conceptual study primarily aims to review the related literature of the field regarding constructivism and especially social constructivism in online learning settings. Initially, an approach to the core concepts of constructivism and social constructivism and their major characteristics will be illustrated. The next section thoroughly discusses the role of online educators from a social constructivist perspective. In the following section, an online peer-to-peer review and evaluation are examined according to constructivist views. The final section offers concluding remarks about how online faculty could apply constructivist theory in their online lessons and programs. The canvass of the relevant literature highlight findings, which seem to be of great significance and may have certain pedagogical implications for instructional designers who decide to design and deliver online courses or programs in Higher Education. Additionally, this paper could act as a guide not only for researchers and online experts but for students as well, who are determined to take on online lessons for their studies.