Constructivism Study Guide

Constructivism Study Guide

Objectives:

●     Analyze the impact of constructivist pedagogies on teaching and learning

●     Consider how constructivist techniques can be implemented effectively in your content area

●     Discuss when constructivist techniques are most appropriate

●     Identify constructivist theories beyond what is provided in the text

●     Promote higher-order thinking and conceptual understanding

●     Evaluate the use of constructivist pedagogies in the US and other nations

Key Terms:

Pages 371-383

Constructivism – View that emphasizes the active role of the learner in building understanding and making sense of information.

Individual constructivism – are concerned with how individuals build up certain elements of their cognitive or emotional apparatus.

Radical constructivism – Knowledge is assumed to be the individual’s construction; it cannot be judged right or wrong.

Social constructivism – learning means belonging to a group and participating in the social construction of knowledge.

Community of practice – Social situation or context in which ideas are judged useful or true.

Situated learning – The idea that skills and knowledge are tied to the situation in which they were learned and difficult to apply in new settings.

Complex learning environments – Problems and learning situations that mimic the ill-structured nature of real life.

Social negotiation – Aspect of learning process that relies on collaboration with others and respect for different perspectives.

Structure (not in text) - Help kids see structure of the discipline. How it fits into the big picture.

Readiness (not in text) - What are they ready for? Based on ZPD.

Intuition (not in text) - Allowing kids to go through with their gut.

Motivation (not in text in this context!) - Kids are motivated by things that are real and authentic.

Spiral curriculum – Bruner’s design for teaching that introduces the fundamental structure of all subjects early in the school years, then revisits the subjects in more and more complex forms over time.

Enactive (not in text) - Hands on processing. (Baby Books, crinkle, fuzzy, etc.)

Iconic (not in text) - Processing using imagery. (Picture Books)

Symbolic (not in text) - Processing using symbols like words, letters, etc. (Chapter books)

Pages 384-404

Discovery learning (not in text) - Figuring out based on prior knowledge. Feedback is necessary.

Authentic activities (not in text) - Individualized. Tasks identical or similar to what they'll encounter later in life.

Inquiry learning – Approach in which the teacher presents a puzzling situation and students solve the problem by gathering data and testing their conclusions.

Problem-based learning – Methods that provide students with realistic problems that don’t necessarily have “right” answers.

Anchored instruction – A type of problem-based learning that uses a complex, interesting situation as an anchor for learning.

Cognitive apprenticeship – A relationship in which a less experiences learner acquires knowledge and skills under the guidance of an expert.

Reciprocal teaching – A method, based on modeling, to teach reading comprehension strategies, designed to help students understand and think deeply about what they read.

Cooperative learning (spend some quality time with this - there are some great suggestions!) – Situations where elaboration, and argumentation are integral to the activity of the group and where learning is supported by other individuals.

Reciprocal questioning – Students work in pairs or triads to ask and answer questions about lesson material.

Jigsaw – A learning process in which each student is part of a group and each group member is given part of the material to be learned by the whole group. Students become “expert” on their piece and then teach it to the others in their group.

Structured controversy – Students work in pairs within their four-person cooperative groups to research a particular controversy.

Pages 405-414

Service learning – Combines academic learning with personal and social development for secondary and college students.

Digital divide – A split between access to technologies between those who fall into high versus low socioeconomic status.

Summary:
My way of thinking! I'm extremely interested in hands on learning. I'm kinestheic and so I've always learned this way. I've wondered if it would help most people or just some. In learning about out learning styles, there was a pretty even distribution in our class. I wonder if it would be as effective for other types of learners. There are many different approaches to teaching constructively. These range from cooperation to inquiry learning. I love the idea of having students come up with their own desires for learning, and the teacher helping them. This is how young children learn. If they aren't interested, they won't do it. This allows for students to remain excited about learning rather than hating it after being in the education system.