What are the philosophical and theoretical foundations of Just-in-Time Teaching?
It is unclear whether the developers of JiTT align themselves with constructivist philosophy, although constructivism is cited to justify JiTT’s practice of approaching learning from the basis of current student knowledge (Marrs & Novak, 2004). Certainly, the emphasis on inductive learning, collaboration and student engagement is consistent with other inductive methods associated with constructivism (see Prince & Felder, 2007). The theoretical foundation of JiTT is that (1) learning is actively constructed by learners by building on or revising prior learning; and (2) learning requires students to reflect and make adjustments in their learning based on timely formative assessment (see Marrs & Novak, 2004). Thus, the pre-class assignments expose problems or misconceptions in students’ current learning and classroom discussion provides a venue for immediately addressing these misconceptions and promoting student reflection and adjustment.
