Professional Documents
Culture Documents
classroom
By:
Jennifer Andersen
Marc Cardinale
Natalina Marti
What is Constructivism ?
Constructivism is not a new concept, it has been around since the
turn of the century and was supported by:
Santrock, John W.; 2010; Adolescence; McGraw-Hill Company, New York
Lev Vygotsky - associated with the
social constructivist theory
1. Making meaning - the community places a central role, and
the people around the student greatly affect the way he or she
sees the world.
2. Tools for cognitive development - the type and quality of
these tools (culture, language, important adults to the student)
determine the pattern and rate of development.
3. The Zone of Proximal Development - problem solving
skills of tasks can be placed into three categories: Those
performed independently by the learner. Those that cannot
be performed even with help. Those that fall between the two
extremes, the tasks that can be performed with help from
others.
Santrock, John W.; 2010; Adolescence; McGraw-Hill Company, New York
traditional vs constructivist classroom
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~foreman/itec800/finalprojects/eitankaplan/pages/classroom.htm
Traditional Classroom Constructivist Classroom
• Students primarily work in groups
• Student primarily work alone • Curriculum is presented whole to part with
• Curriculum is presented part to whole, emphasis on the big concept
with emphasis on basic skills • Pursuit of student questions is highly
• Strict adherence to a fixed curriculum valued.
• Curricular activities rely heavily on • Students are viewed as thinkers with
textbooks of data and manipulative emerging theories about the world
materials • Teachers generally behave as facilitators
• Students are viewed as "blank slates" • Teachers seek the student's point of view
• Teachers generally behave in a didactic in order to understand student learning for
manner, use later on
• Teachers seek the correct answers to • Assessment of student learning is
validate student lessons. interwoven with teaching and occurs
• Assessment of student learning is through teacher observation of students at
viewed as separate from teaching and work and through exhibitions and
occurs almost entirely through testing. protfolios.
Principles of Constructivism
10 basic guiding principles of constructivist thinking that educators
must keep in mind:
– It takes time to learn
– Learning is an active process in which the student constructs
meaning out of
– People learn to learn
– Learning involves language
– Learning is a social activity
– Learning is contextual
– The act of constructing meaning is mental
– Every one needs knowledge to learn
– Learning is not the passive acceptance of knowledge it takes work
10. Motivation is a major aspect of learning
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~foreman/itec800/finalprojects/eitankaplan/pages/principles.htm
Constructivism and Technology
• instruction goes from whole class to groups
• facilitating rather than lecturing
• stronger students may work independantly while weaker
or struggling students get the extra help that they need
• students are engaged more and learn to work with others
• students are more cooperative and less competative
With the every changing classroom and technology it only
makes sense to use some of the constructivisms' ideas to help
students learn.
Pros & Cons of Constructivism
Pros Cons
• students often like when • belief that learning is
they are part of the based on the students
decision making process ability to discover new
• a higher level of thinking knowledge
occures • teachers may not take
• students like hands-on responsibility for poor
activities learning
• students feel a sense of • may lead students to take
ownership when hand-on a majority rules attitude
learning occures rather rather then an individual
then just being told approach to decision
something making
Constructivism Graphic Organizer
5 E Model English Lesson
• Have the students line up in order of birthdays (from
youngest to oldest). The students will pair up in two’s based
upon who they are next to.
• The students will write a paragraph about themselves, using
the list of questions as a guide to tell them what to include.
The students will write their paragraphs and then come up
with questions to ask their partner about other aspects of
their lives.
Exploration
• When the students are done sharing then they will share
their findings with the class by introducing their partner to
them. They students will tell the class what they found out
about them.
• Each group will have to participate but the teacher will call
on volunteers first if any exist.
Extentions
• After each group introduces each other, the class will ask
additional questions that they come up with about their
classmates.
Evaluation
• The teacher will ask each student to say one thing that they
learned about at least one student in the class.
References
• http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/ullrich/webquest/ScienceLesson.h
tml
• http://www.weac.org/News_and_Publications/education_news/1996-1997/under.a
spx
• http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v09n03/practice.html