Constructivism in Practice

The theory of constructivist and constructionist revolves around the concept that teachers recognize the need to allow students to demonstrate their own individual learning. Students are more engaged and more motivated to learn when they are given the flexibility to grasp concepts by using a variety of instructional strategies. Teachers can assess if students are learning by planning lessons that will provoke problem solving and critical thinking skills. This type of assessment allows the teacher to evaluate whether students clearly understand concepts and it also help teacher define areas that students are finding to be more challenging. The teacher can then begin to implement interventions to help students with mastery of concepts. The constructivism practice is similar to Generating and Hypothesis concepts because it focuses on the individual learning style of the student. Often the generating and hypothesis concept is used when students have to perform task related to science however from my reading, I now have more insight on how I can use this method to help students apply their knowledge in my curriculum. When students have to explain their hypothesis and conclusions it gives them the role of being a decision maker. The decision maker requires the student to analyze a situation and to predict the outcome by using a selective method. Students will also have to use their higher order thinking skills which promotes a more stimulating learning environment. Spreadsheet software, data collection tools and web sources are technology tools that allow teachers to create lessons where the concept of generating and testing hypotheses can be used as an interactive device to help students gather and interpret data. In my class, when I give students a problem based project, I incorporate activities where students will have to use their prior knowledge and also assigned new concepts that will require students to do research or additional readings. I always present the curriculum using a real life connection so that student can understand the significance of learning new concepts. When students can see the relevance of the assignment, they are going to be more interested in completing the assignment. I often observe students working to their full potential when teachers assign tasks that allow the student to demonstrate their own learning of concepts.

References:

Orey. M (unknown). ““Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories””. Laureate Education, Inc.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.