Connecting traditional and contemporary approaches in higher education

Constructivism, as previously explained, is based on the idea that learning is a process of active construction of knowledge based on the individual's previous experience and interaction with the environment. In this conception, the emphasis is on the individual construction of meaning, where the student acts as an independent subject who organizes, structures and interprets information in order to shape his own understanding of the content.

Social constructivism, although sharing basic principles with constructivism, additionally emphasizes the social dimension of learning. Knowledge does not emerge solely as a product of individual cognition, but is constructed through collaboration, dialogue, and joint problem-solving (Liu, 2005).

In the context of higher education, social constructivism has significant implications for the organization of teaching, which includes the following elements:

• group and teamwork
• project and problem learning
• peer teaching and evaluation
• collaborative content creation (e.g. wiki)
• discussions on forums and in synchronous sessions
• collaboration in digital tools (e.g. Padlet, Miro, Google Workspace).

This approach promotes the idea that knowledge is created through interaction among students, between students and teachers, but also through contact with a wider community of knowledge, for example online communities, open educational resources, repositories and professional networks, i.e. using e-learning (Wangpipatwong & Papasratorn, 2008).

Constructivism and social constructivism are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. While constructivism emphasizes internal, individual learning processes, social constructivism expands this view and places emphasis on cultural tools, language and social relations as indispensable elements of learning. In the digital educational environment, this connection becomes particularly pronounced. Technological tools that enable collaboration (eg forums, shared documents, virtual classrooms, LMS platforms) provide an ideal infrastructure for the implementation of social constructivist educational models. On the other hand, tools for personalization and self-regulation (e.g. e-portfolios, interactive lessons, reflective diaries) provide space for individual construction of knowledge in the spirit of constructivism.

This is precisely why modern curricula that integrate constructivist and social-constructivist principles represent the most mature models of education in the context of lifelong learning, development of critical thinking, communication and collaboration competencies, and digital literacy. Such approaches meet the challenges of the 21st century and encourage students not only to acquire knowledge, but to create, share and critically examine it in an authentic and dynamic environment.