The Educational Model of Social Constructivism and Its Impact on Academic Achievement and Critical Thinking

Constructivism is one of the theories derived from the post-modernist philosophical-social movement of the twentieth century. The principles of constructivism are based on awareness of learning, and its main message is that knowledge is not passed on to learners, but to learners themselves. This research has designed an educational model based on the theory of social constructivism. All theories of constructivism insist that the attainment of knowledge and understanding is a continuous process that is strongly influenced by the learner's prior knowledge. The social constructivist approach emphasizes the social context of learning and the fact that knowledge is constructed as a factor. Dealing with others provides opportunities for students to evaluate and correct their understanding as they are exposed to the thinking of others and play a role in creating shared perceptions. Thus, experiences in the social context provide an important mechanism for the development of students' thinking. To achieve the research goal, inductive content analysis method has been used. In this study, purposeful sampling method was used. The criteria for selecting an article to analyze qualitative content were well-known authors, published in a reputable journal, the relevance of the content of the article, and the novelty of the year the article was published. The number of final selection papers for qualitative content analysis by inductive method was 36 articles and content analysis unit. Based on the content analysis of the articles, three categories of teacher role, learning role and knowledge role were obtained.