Social Constructivism in Social Media: Facebook For Teaching and Learning Purpose

Abstract

This study describes the importance of looking into the theory of constructivism in the process of teaching and learning for higher learning institution in Malaysia. 56 participants from 3 different groups of Art and Design final year students in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Melaka campus have been chosen as the subjects for this study. It investigates how these groups of students are able to construct knowledge based on their prior knowledge, past experiences and the cultural factors that govern the environment they are in to produce good and interesting final year project. Problems arisen in the process of teaching and learning whereby students and lecturers were not able to meet up during lecture and studio hours due to many constrains like absenteeism, meetings, and insufficiency for monitoring and consulting student’s project progress and developments resulting in inefficiency and less productive of the final products by the students. Thus, Social Constructivism is looked into using a well- known Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) tool which is Facebook. The qualitative method is used for collecting data to examine the social interaction and the development of communication among students. The findings in this study indicate that the use of Facebook has served as a good tool for Graphic Design students to achieve better social interaction amongst them in the process of teaching and learning session. Therefore, CMC should be used as an alternative tool for lecturers to be able to communicate with students. Learning process should not be confined only during classroom. Both the students and lecturer should participate in students’ own learning time and to overcome the constraint of face-to- face interaction.