Blog Post #1: Constructivism
Blog Post #1
Read the article titled Teaching for Conceptual Change and respond to the following questions.
I was surprised that the children held onto their old ideas for so long. I suppose I thought that children were quick to pick up on new concepts but I didn’t realize that their piecemeal ideas about the world were so deeply rooted and difficult to change. I was pleased to see that the teacher did not immediately move into her planned unit after the first experiment but rather gave the children time to further investigate, helping the teacher see other issues or misconceptions that would need to be addressed while also giving the students time to reflect on findings and try to work out their own explanations. Realizing that experience is the best teacher helps to make the best teachers in our classrooms.
We trust what we have experienced over what a scientist stuck in a lab has to say about our experiences. Often it is hard for us to connect a scientific principle to the reality we have lived every day.
A constructivist teacher allows her students to take their existing knowledge and connect it to freshly learned concepts in ways that help make sense of reality. Rather than presenting a body of knowledge for memorization, a constructivist teacher will take the new knowledge and build it on the existing foundation, to build on the students’ current understanding of the way the world works. The student is more likely to accept and truly understand a new concept if they feel they have had a part in reaching the proper conclusion. The traditional model would have the student memorize the new concepts without addressing previous misconceptions or knowledge, thus leaving the student with often disparate understandings of the world around them.
Read the article titled Teaching for Conceptual Change and respond to the following questions.
- Describe your initial response to what you read. What surprised you? What stuck out to you? What questions do you have?
- The article asserts that our existing understanding of the world has an impact on our ability to accept more scientifically grounded explanations of how the world works. What does this mean?
- Based on reading this article, what does teaching as a constructivist mean as opposed to teaching using a “traditional” model?
I was surprised that the children held onto their old ideas for so long. I suppose I thought that children were quick to pick up on new concepts but I didn’t realize that their piecemeal ideas about the world were so deeply rooted and difficult to change. I was pleased to see that the teacher did not immediately move into her planned unit after the first experiment but rather gave the children time to further investigate, helping the teacher see other issues or misconceptions that would need to be addressed while also giving the students time to reflect on findings and try to work out their own explanations. Realizing that experience is the best teacher helps to make the best teachers in our classrooms.
We trust what we have experienced over what a scientist stuck in a lab has to say about our experiences. Often it is hard for us to connect a scientific principle to the reality we have lived every day.
A constructivist teacher allows her students to take their existing knowledge and connect it to freshly learned concepts in ways that help make sense of reality. Rather than presenting a body of knowledge for memorization, a constructivist teacher will take the new knowledge and build it on the existing foundation, to build on the students’ current understanding of the way the world works. The student is more likely to accept and truly understand a new concept if they feel they have had a part in reaching the proper conclusion. The traditional model would have the student memorize the new concepts without addressing previous misconceptions or knowledge, thus leaving the student with often disparate understandings of the world around them.
- Margaret L.'s comment: I was also glad to see the persistence of the teacher and her use of questions to prompt the students evolving understanding of 'warm'. It would be much easier to just tell the students what the correct conclusion should be. It was interesting that wile the children were experimenting, the teacher also seemed to be learning and experimenting as well. She was getting a deeper understanding of how young children hold to what they know to be true of the world around them and observing their reasoning.
- Donna W.'s comment: Hi Brandi. I do think children are quick to pick up on new concepts. It's just that they are quick to pick up on concepts that already fit their worldview and prior knowledge base. And there is the key I believe. The underlying premise here is that our existing knowledge base (built on experiences and beliefs) PREDISPOSES us to look for certain information and disregard other information. So if something doesn't “fit” what we “know” to be true, often we just ignore it. That’s how we work sometimes. To overcome that, we may need very concrete experiences and physical interactions with the topic at hand in order to SEE the flaws in our thinking.
I'm glad that you liked the idea of the teacher taking TIME to allow the children to explore and process their learning. Yes. Learning takes time! It doesn't operate or proceed on some pre-set schedule according to some curriculum map or test schedule.
Your analysis of the constructivist model as opposed to the traditional model is on target. Of course, reality and these models are both much more complex than our summary or the article's depiction. But hey... that's the point of the class... to truly dig into these ideas.
You implied that this method (constructivism) was more powerful. How sure are you that this is true? Are you sure it's so proven? I gave you one article to read. Are you willing to take it's statement at face value and based on your prior knowledge? I hope as we move through the program to give you more support and research about our field to help you either confirm your position or to expand it or maybe even to refute it. That's the whole idea behind the class.... it's about you being critical about your pedagogy. It's the start of an exciting journey for you! I am jealous!