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Constructivism

The document describes key differences between traditional and constructivist classrooms. In a traditional classroom, teachers disseminate knowledge to passive students through lecture and testing. In a constructivist classroom, teachers act as facilitators, helping students actively construct their own understanding through collaboration, inquiry-based learning activities, and reflection on their experiences. Assessment focuses on the learning process and students' points of view, not just testing for correct answers.

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191 views

Constructivism

The document describes key differences between traditional and constructivist classrooms. In a traditional classroom, teachers disseminate knowledge to passive students through lecture and testing. In a constructivist classroom, teachers act as facilitators, helping students actively construct their own understanding through collaboration, inquiry-based learning activities, and reflection on their experiences. Assessment focuses on the learning process and students' points of view, not just testing for correct answers.

Uploaded by

salzeli
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TRADITIONAL CLASS Teachers disseminate information to students and students are recipients of knowledge.

Teachers role is directive, rooted in authority . Knowledge is seen as inert. Students work primarily alone. Assessment is through testing correct answers.

CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASS Teachers have discussed with their students and help them construct their own knowledge. Teachers role is interactive, rooted in negotiation. Knowledge is seen as dynamic ever changing with our experiences. Students work primarily in groups. Assessment includes students works, observations, and points of view, as well as tests. Process is as important as product.

Table 1: Differences Between Traditional and Constructivist Classroom

Table 2: The Characteristics Of Constructivism


In a constructivist classroom, learning is Constructed students come to learning situations with already formulated knowledge, ideas and understandings. This previous knowledge is the raw material for the new knowledge they will create. Example

An elementary school teacher presents a class problem to measure the length of the Mayflower. Rather than starting the problem by introducing the ruler, the teacher allows students to reflect and to construct their own methods of measurement. One student offers the knowledge that a doctor said he is four feet tall. Another says she knows horses are measured in hands. The students discuss these and other methods they have heard about, and decide on one to apply to the problem. Groups of students in a science class are discussing a problem in physics. Though the teacher knows the answer to the problem, she focuses on helping students restate their questions in useful ways. She prompts each student to reflect on and examine his or her current knowledge. When one of the students comes up with the relevant concept, the teacher seizes upon it and indicates to the group that this might be a fruitful avenue for them to explore. They design and perform relevant experiments. Afterward, the students and teacher talk about what they have learned, and how their observations and experiments helped them to better understand the concept.

Active students create new understanding for him/herself. The teacher coaches, moderates, suggests but allow the students room to experiment, ask questions, try things that dont work. Learning activities require students full participation and they need to reflect on, and talk about, their activities.

Reflective students control their own learning process by reflecting on their experiences. This process makes them experts of their own learning. The teacher helps create situations where the students feel safe questioning and reflecting on their own processes, either privately or in group discussion. Collaborative the constructivist classroom relies heavily on collaboration among students. When students review and reflect on their learning processes together, they can pick up strategies and methods from one another

Students keep journals in carrying out science projects where they record how they feel about the project, the visual and verbal reactions of others to the project. Periodically the teacher reads these journals and holds a conference with the student where the two assess (1) what new knowledge the student has created, (2) how the student learns best and (3) the learning environment and the teachers role in it. A group of students carrying out an experiment to determine the melting point of naphthalene. They collaborate by doing different tasks simultaneously. One reads the temperature while another reads aloud the time interval. At the same time another student tabulates the reading and draws the cooling curve. Together they interpret the data and discuss the results.

INQUIRY BASED STUDENTS USE INQUIRY METHODS TO ASK QUESTIONS, INVESTIGATE A TOPIC AND USE VARIETY OF RESOURCES TO FIND SOLUTIONS AND ANSWERS.

SIXTH GRADERS FIGURING OUT HOW TO PURIFY WATER INVESTIGATE SOLUTIONS RANGING FROM COFFEE-FILTER PAPER, TO A STOVETOP DISTILLATION APPARATUS, TO PILES OF CHARCOAL, TO AN ABSTRACT MATHEMATICAL SOLUTION BASED ON THE SIZE OF A WATER MOLECULE. DEPENDING UPON STUDENTS RESPONSES, THE TEACHER ENCOURAGES ABSTRACT AS WELL AS CONCRETE, POETIC AS WELL AS PRACTICAL, CREATIONS OF NEW KNOWLEDGE. An elementary teacher believes her students are ready to study gravity. She creates an environment of discovery with objects of varying kinds. Students explore the differences in weight among similar blocks of Styrofoam, wood and lead. Some students hold the notion that heavier objects fall faster than light ones. The teacher provides materials about Galileo and Newton. She leads the discussion on theories about falling. The students then replicate Galileos experiment by dropping objects of different weights and measuring how fast they fall. They see that objects of different weights actually fall at the same speed, although surface area and aerodynamic properties can affect the rate of fall.

Evolving- students have ideas that they may later see were invalid, incorrect, or insufficient to explain new experiences. These ideas are temporary steps in the integration of knowledge. Constructivist teaching takes into account students current conceptions and builds from there.

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