Pure constructivism for teaching a course in database management systems: Experience beats being told

Abstract

The scientific exploration of how people learn resulted in the theory named Constructivism. Such theory explains how students build their understanding of the world, assembling concepts into knowledge. The primary process consists of experiencing something and then reflecting on those experiences. This paper describes our experience in teaching and undergraduate course (third year) in database management system using laboratories, simulators, problem-solving tutorial session and of course lectures and recorded lectures (on-line delivery). We identified several concepts and tracked down the level of novelty of the idea and also the experience students had with it though the different learning activities in the course. We repeated our approach for four editions of the course. The evidence collected during these four versions demonstrate that concrete experience is invaluable even for the lowest categories of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy. We introduced other elements, such as authentic assessment, but it seems particularly clear that the concrete experience is the most relevant component to enhance students’ progress in the ladder described by Bloom’s taxonomy.