It is critical for educators in understanding
theories such as Constructivism and Constructionism, that 1st both
be taken into consideration for the advancement of learning and success in the
classroom. What seems to be
assisting in our professional increase and downfall of success is the many
outside influences of scholars who profess to have a different way or style to
creative learning; and while I couldn’t agree more with helping hands to win
this battle of creating success in our classrooms, I must mention that we as
teachers are the front lines, in the classrooms everyday dealing with the up
and downs of teaching. That being
said, I value the opinions of my collegues 1st who presently take a
stand each day of an academic school year. To go further, teachers and administrators as well must make
a stand as to know “when to say when”, while taking each theory seriously; but
with “a grain of salt.”
My understanding of constructivism and
constructionism can be applied to an effective project based assignment in my
science class. Before I move forward however, I would like to explore and
demonstrate why constructionism maybe viewed on a larger scale as oppose to
constructivism, in my personal opinion.
Constructivism
is basically a theory based on observation and scientific study about how
people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and
knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those
experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our
previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe
discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active
creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and
assess what we know. While both are
important, educators focus more on the developmental aspect of learning in the
most effective ways. Dr. Orey explains using an constructionist approach
allows the learner to gain 1st hand experience in building with three
mechanisms for learning:
-Assimilation
-Accommodation
-Equilibrations
-Schema
With constructionism, students are engaged in
creating something deeply enough to create assimilation and accommodation (Dr.
Orey, 2001). All with the usage of technology this comes together
as Technology enables teachers to implement the constructionist
theory because it offers tools that allow students to complete time-consuming
tasks in a timely manner. Technology also offers mediums in which students can
publish and present their final products in meaningful, creative ways (Laureate
Education Inc., 2008). For my project-based lesson, I will use replicas
from the San Andreas Fault. The students actually found this lesson very
interesting as the project was broken down into three classes or a full week.
Since we run a block schedule, those classes I had twice that week
continued the end of the project the following Monday.
Steps One: We discussed active volcanoes in the world
and afterwards narrowed the research down to the U.S. As class we
researched this information discussed why/how volcanoes becomes active and the
damages they may cause. This was a great discussion of information and
bit of experience sharing with me because I was in Japan during the earthquake
and Tsunami. The questions kept pouring in about the damages, while I had
the advantage of explaining why they occurred in the beginning. Using the
San Andreas Fault was closer to home and as such gained their attention.
Step Two: The students were given a plastic replica of
the active volcano with a block of play-doe, toothpicks, ruler and an activity
sheet to record their findings. By placing the play doe on top of the
replica, using the toothpicks to hold in place, the students were asked to
slide the plastic replica back and forth once and record how much the fault
would move on five different tables or stations. With completing the math
calculations as a group of 3 to 5 students, everyone had an input.
Step 3: After recording the information from each
station, they were then asked to write as a team their final reflection or
hypothesis on this live volcano and when it may erupt again.
Constructionism asserts that knowledge is not simply transmitted
from teacher to student, but is actively constructed by the mind of the
learner. Moreover, constructionism suggests that learners are
particularly likely to create new ideas when they are actively engaged in
making external artifacts that they can reflect upon and share with others.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer).
(2008). Constructivist and Constructionist Theories.
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging
perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Constructionism, Learning by Design, and
Project-Based Learning.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., &
Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom
Instruction that works.
