Theoretical Framework: Constructivism and significant learning.

Constructivism:

is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know. 

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them. 

Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn how to learn.

More information: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

Significant learning:

It is the knowledge that integrates the student himself and is located in the permanent memory, this information can be learning, behaviors, attitudes or skills. Perceptual psychology considers a person learns best what they perceived as closely related to their survival or development, while not learn well (or is learning that is located in the short-term memory) things that he/ she considers far or what he/she considers unimportant.

The significant learning that comes to discover what the acquired knowledge (insight), intrinsic motivation emerges, i.e. the commitment of students with their learning process. In contrast, centered education teacher, student motivation extrinsic usually based on coercion and qualifications.

More information: http://hadoc.azc.uam.mx/enfoques/significativo.htm

http://www.wcu.edu/WebFiles/PDFs/facultycenter_SignificantLearning.pdf