This week we were presented with the concepts of both constructivism and constructionism. Constructivism is a theory that essentially says that every person makes their own meaning based upon their own experiences. Constructionism is an idea that states that people learn more when they create some sort of artifact that they can share with others. While both of these have a place in the classroom to some degree, constructionism seems to do so in a much larger way. If a student has an opportunity to learn something by just being exposed to it, then they may learn a little about it. But, if a student is completely immersed in a topic or task, they take away much more. This is especially apparent in a science class room where topics can be hard to grasp and theories may be hard to grasp. Lab formats where items are created or where learning is done in a discovery manner provide much stronger results in students.
In this week’s resources, the instructional strategy that was presented was that of generating and testing hypothesis. Which, being a science teacher, was right up my alley. The idea is that students are presented with questions, and to arrive at the answers, they need to work through a process. They have to create their own hypothesis on the question from which to base a test. Their testing process should allow them to arrive at a correct answer. This process asks students to break down an overall problem to its smaller pieces, analyze them, ask questions, formulate tests, and analyze and explain results. Our book offered some great ideas for structured approaches to this with math and social studies using different kinds of technology. For example, students were given a scenario where they were given an amount of money, and a handful of options as to what to do with the money. They had to appropriate the funds to give them their best return on the investment. This involves the student in the decision making process, and helps them formulate reasoning as to why they chose what they did for a plan.
This strategy seems to be a strong method for embracing constructionism. It engages students in a process in which they create some sort of evidentiary item to back up their hypothesis.
As science teachers I think we have an advantage in incorporating this theory of learning. Discovery learning takes place often in the laboratory setting and students are asked to create a product regularly. Whether it is to build an experiment or show the steps of a dissection, there is an outcome that can be seen and measured. The resources this week provided some good ideas to try with students, especially the technology strategies. I imagine that if students are able to create a product while using technology, the level of learning will be remarkably high.
ReplyDeleteYou're correct. This methodology does come very naturally in science. We have it easy. However, something like math is not as obvious. It was great to see the technological tie in to use in that subject.
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