From Constructive Alienation to Constructive Alignment. Beyond a Mechanistic Trap
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29197/cpu.v18i35.413Keywords:
constructive alignment (vertical and horizontal), deep learning, inclusivity, SOLO TaxonomyAbstract
Constructive alignment is a pedagogical model created by the Australian professor John Biggs that arises as a result of his author´s genuine concern about how to improve the quality of education in a post-secondary system impacted by structural changes that open the doors of higher education to new social sectors. The model tries to respond to the question of how to teach so that all students can engage in deep learning and how to strengthen the meaning of teaching beyond the one of content transmission. This essay aims at answering the following questions: What is constructive alignment? What issues have originated this model? How does it affect the way faculty plan their classes in higher education today? What are the risks and opportunities of utilizing it as a planning tool? What do faculty need to know in order to be able to apply this model in our classrooms critically rather than mechanistically? Through a hermeneutical approach, which includes the interpretation of theoretical works on constructive alignment and institutional documents, the articles discusses the application of John Bigg’s model in the higher education system in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The application of this model has placed greater emphasis on its technical aspects. Its constructivist aspect has been neglected, which has blurred the original objectives of the model.
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