Constructivism in the Classroom: Teaching Students to Think for Themselves

One morning, I walked into my second-grade classroom, expecting the usual routine, students settling in, grabbing their morning warm-up, and starting their day. Instead I found chaos.

A few kids were standing frozen, others were looking around in absolute confusion, and, to my absolute shock, two were in tears.

I had stepped out to grab a battery from the office, only two doors down, but when I returned, the scene before me was something I never expected. The problem? Their chairs weren’t where they were “supposed” to be.

Every afternoon, I put the chairs on the desks so the custodian could clean the floors. Every morning, the kids knew they had to take their chairs down before starting their day. It was an automatic, mindless routine just like putting backpacks in the cubby. But the day before, I had left early, so instead of placing the chairs on the desks, the custodians had simply pushed them against the walls.

And now, standing in a room full of chairs just a few feet away from their desks, my students were completely stuck. One sobbing child looked up at me and said, “My desk doesn’t have a chair. I don’t want to stand all day.”

Not one of them had the thought to just…go get a chair and move it to their desk, or else ask why their chairs were against the wall.

At that moment, I realized just how much adults do for kids, and how little problem-solving they get to do for themselves.

What This Has to Do With Learning

Classroom…not my own.

This wasn’t just about chairs.

This was a perfect example of how kids are so used to following directions that they often don’t know how to think for themselves.

They’re trained to:

✔️ Wait for instructions instead of figuring things out

✔️ Look to an adult for the “right” answer instead of thinking critically

✔️ Follow routines without understanding why they exist

And while structure is important, mindless compliance doesn’t prepare kids for the real world.

This is where constructivism in the classroom comes in.

What Is Constructivism?

Constructivism is a teaching philosophy that says learning isn’t about memorizing facts or following step-by-step directions, it’s about building knowledge through experience, discovery, and critical thinking.

Instead of treating kids like empty containers we need to fill with knowledge, constructivist teaching treats them like active participants in their own learning.

✔️ They ask questions

✔️ They explore concepts through hands-on experiences

✔️ They make connections between ideas

✔️ They solve problems on their own, rather than waiting for instructions

In other words, they learn how to think instead of just what to think.

How to Encourage Thinking in the Classroom

Puzzle pieces

So how do we move from “Where is my chair?!” Panic mode to a classroom where kids feel confident solving their own problems?

1- Let Kids Struggle (A Little)

It’s tempting to jump in and fix problems immediately, but struggle is part of learning. From that day on, I gave my students a “problem” to fix each day without telling them. Things like putting the pencils in a cup for them to get up and retrieve, rather then handing them out, or not having the colors they needed ready for a map project, so they had to go to the crayon bin and get them after reading the instructions. Here are a few thoughts:

✔️ If a student doesn’t know how to spell a word, instead of just giving them the answer, ask “What sound does it start with?” “Can you think of a similar word?”

✔️ If a math problem is tricky, don’t explain it right away. Instead, ask: “What do you already know?” “What’s one way you could try solving this?”

✔️ When a student gets stuck on ANY task, respond with “What do you think you should do next?”

The goal isn’t to leave kids helpless but to build their confidence in their own ability to figure things out.

2- Teach Students to Ask “Why?”

A constructivist classroom is full of questions, not just answers. Encourage kids to be curious by asking them:

✔️ Why do you think that happened?

✔️ What do you notice?

✔️ What do you think would happen if…?

✔️ How do you know?

For example, if a student says “Birds can fly because they have wings,” don’t just nod, push for deeper thinking.

✔️ “Do all animals with wings fly?” (No, penguins don’t!)

✔️ “What else haps birds fly?” (Their bones are hollow!)

The more kids think about their thinking, the more they’ll start constructing their own understanding of the world.

3- Encourage Problem-Solving with open-ended tasks

A worksheet with one right answer? Not constructivist.

A challenge that forces kids to think critically and experiment with solutions? That’s where the real learning happens.

Examples:

✅ Instead of: “Solve this math problem”

🔹 Ask: “Can you find three different ways to solve this problem?

✅ Instead of: “Follow these science experiment steps”

🔹 Ask: “What do you think would happen if we changed one of the materials?”

✅ Instead of: “Read this story and answer these questions”

🔹 Ask: How do you think the ending would change if the main character made a different choice?”

Learning should feel like an exploration, not a checklist.

4- Step Back and Let Kids Take the Lead

One of the hardest (but most important) things to do as a teacher is to let go of control.

✔️ Let students teach each other instead of always hearing from you

✔️ Let them design their own experiments, ask their own questions, and find their own ways to solve problems

✔️ Let them fail, reflect, and try again instead of always jumping in to “save” them.

When students take ownership of their learning, they become independent thinkers, not just rule-followers.

Final Thoughts: Bringing It Back to the Chairs

That morning in my second-grade classroom, I didn’t realized I had trained my students to rely so much on routine that they didn’t know what to do when something unexpected happened.

After that day, I started intentionally challenging them:

✔️ Sometimes I’d “accidentally” forget to write the morning instructions on the board and wait to see who would figure it out.

✔️ I started asking them to come up with solutions before I stepped in to help.

✔️ I encouraged them to ask questions, make mistakes, and think for themselves.

The result? More confidence, more problem-solving, and fewer meltdowns over missing chairs. Because at the end of the day, teaching isn’t about making sure kids always have the “right” answers, it’s about making sure they know how to find them.