A review of constructivist learning methods with supporting tooling in ict higher education: Defining different types of scaffolding

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) engineering education is facing/na decreasing interest by students. To deal with this issue, a need for shifting from traditional/nlearning approaches to constructivist methods has been identified. Several pedagogical/nmethodologies based on social and constructivist theories are being applied to engage students/nin ICT education. This paper presents a literature review of studies carried out from 2000 to/n2010 that have applied constructivist learning methods with supportive tools to specific ICT/nareas. From the analysis of the literature review this paper identifies the most representative/nconstructivist learning methods within the field of ICT education. In particular, we pay/nattention to the educational tooling used to support the learning process and the learning/nbenefits of applying such methods. The analysis also reveals that different combinations of/nguidance approaches and tooling implementations are often adopted to scaffold the learning/nprocess. With the aim of understanding to what extent and how scaffolding is present in the/nstudied learning scenarios, this document proposes a definition of different types of scaffolding/ntechniques. Namely: social-guidance and system-guidance scaffolding, depending on whether/nan individual or a tool is the responsible for providing support to students; macro-scaffolding/nwhen pedagogical methods define activity flows, or micro-scaffolding when the support is/nprovided to perform specific actions within activities; and tool-enveloped scaffolding, when a/ngeneric tool such a learning management system scaffolds the learning process by the/nintegration of different supportive tools, and tool-embedded scaffolding when the scaffolding is/napplied within a specific-purpose tooling.