Constructivism

1. YouTube Elizabeth Herrity Pamela Lockhart Kristal McMillian Amy Mendoza Sonia Miranda Caty Reeves Constructivism

2. Individual ConstructivismJean Piaget (1896-1980) Piaget called his general theoretical framework "genetic epistemology" because he was primarily interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. The concept of cognitive structure is central to his theory. Cognitive structures are patterns of physical or mental action that underlie specific acts of intelligence and correspond to stages of child development. There are four primary cognitive structures (i.e., development stages) according to Piaget: sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations.

3. Social ConstructivismLev Vygotsky (1896-1934) The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. Vygotsky (1978) states: "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals." Also developed the idea of the “Zone of Proximal Development”, which can be compared to the concept of scaffolding.

4. Jerome Bruner (1915- ) Bruner states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information. Bruner's ideas are based on categorization: "To perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decisions is to categorize." Bruner maintains people interpret the world in terms of its similarities and differences.

5. Key Vocabulary • Schema - a mental framework for understanding and remembering information • Scaffolding - the provision of sufficient support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students • Accommodation - changing the cognitive structure to make sense of the environment • Assimilation - the interpretation of events in terms of existing cognitive structure • Zone of Proximal Development - the range of tasks that a child can complete independently and those completed with the guidance and assistance of adults or more-skilled children • Collaborative elaboration – the process of sharing individual perspectives, resulting in learners constructing understanding together that wouldn’t be possible alone • Cognitive Conflict – placing a student in a position in which the application of his or her own understanding of a problem leads to cognitive difficulties which the student must then resolve • Spiral learning – building on what is known and gradually moving to the unknown

6. Major Ideas • Each learner is a unique individual with unique needs and backgrounds. • Learners should be encouraged to arrive at his or her version of the truth, influenced by his or her background, culture or embedded worldview. • The responsibility of learning resides increasingly with the learner, who should be actively involved with the learning process. • Sustaining motivation to learn is dependent upon the learner’s confidence in his or her potential for learning. • Instructors should act as facilitators instead of teachers.

7. Individual Constructivism Analysis

8. Big Ideas Learners do not passively absorb information from the environment; rather, they actively work to make sense of their environment and construct their own, unique understandings of the world. Hints about how to think or behave often facilitate performance.

9. In a Constructivist Classroom… • Information is presented in a Top- Down approach, whole- part • Focus is on authentic tasks • Inquiry type lessons are used • Higher level thinking is expected • Raw data and primary sources are mainly used • Teachers act as guides

10. The Good and the Bad

11. Assessment • Self evaluation • Interwoven with instruction • Students demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways

12. Social Constructivism

13. Why social constructivism? • Modeling the mental processing of a given task (i.e. think-aloud activities) improves students’ performance. • Success of reciprocal teaching – students engage in reading comprehension strategies (predicting, questioning, summarizing, clarifying) in groups • Provided evidence of relationship between quality of social interaction & nature of learning that occurred • What is social constructivism? • The idea that thought, language, and knowledge are ‘not just influenced by social factors but are social phenomena’ • Cognition is a collaborative process • Development is internalization of socially shared activities/ processes

14. Social Constructivism in Education What does this theory mean for the culture of schooling? • Schools must be reconsidered in terms of… • different teaching methods (yes, of course) • different cultural systems, representing different educational, social, & communicative norms & priorities

15. What does this theory mean for classroom culture? • Learning as a Social Enterprise • Emphasis on collaborative student work • Teacher as scaffold (guide on the side) • Shared ownership of the learning – negotiation of shared meaning (rather than division of labor) through: • All members of group work on same part of the problem at the same time • Members externalize their thinking, both right & wrong • Members negotiate to agreement before moving forward • As instruction moves forward, regulative activity is transferred from teacher to students

16. Student Team Learning • Team Rewards • Students in team receive rewards if they meet some designated learning goal • Teams are not in competition with one another • All teams can earn reward • Individual Accountability • Team’s success depends on the individual learning of all team members • Team members explain concepts to one another • Ensure that each member of group is up to speed • Equal Opportunities • Students contribute to their teams by improving over their own past performances • Ensures that all skill levels are equally challenged and equally valued

17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2CnA0uIqMs

18. Application/ Evaulation

19. Constructivism in a Nutshell • Building learning from our own real experiences. • According to Piaget • “The essential functions of intelligence consist in understanding and in inventing, in other words in building up structures by structuring reality.”

20. Constructivism in a Nutshell In the article “Democracy and Education; Empowering Students to Make Sense of Their World,” by William H. Garrison states that…. “We learn by constructing meaning from our experiences. We reconstruct, reorganize and direct our experiences as we attempt to make sense of our world.” • Hence, learning happens when students can make real world connections.

21. The Guiding Principles of Constructivism • Learning is a search for meaning. Therefore, learning must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct meaning. • Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts. And parts must be understood in the context of wholes. Therefore, the learning process focuses on primary concepts, not isolated facts. • In order to teach well, we must understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those models. • The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his or her own meaning, not just memorize the “right” answers and regurgitate someone else’s meaning. Since education is inherently interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process, ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.

22. Constructivism in the Classroom • Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.

23. How Constructivism Impacts Learning • Curriculum–Constructivism calls for the elimination of a standardized curriculum. Instead, it promotes using curricula customized to the students’ prior knowledge. Also, it emphasizes hands-on problem solving. • Instruction–Under the theory of constructivism, educators focus on making connections between facts and fostering new understanding in students. Instructors tailor their teaching strategies to student responses and encourage students to analyze, interpret, and predict information. Teachers also rely heavily on open-ended questions and promote extensive dialogue among students. • Assessment–Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized testing. Instead, assessment becomes part of the learning process so that students play a larger role in judging their own progress.

24. Dewey’s Theory of Democracy and Education • The social aspect of constructivism transcends the idea and mediocrity of students simply working together.

25. Dewey’s Theory of Democracy and Education • Democracy in education means allowing students to have some basicfreedoms of choice in the way that they learn, or the ways that instruction is presented. • From a learning perspective, the most important is the freedom to choose, to act on that choice and to experience the results of those actions. • Instructional practices should always include self-reflection to allow students to examine thoughts, actions and consequences. (Metacognition)

26. Models of Lessons Within the Constructivism Family • Many of the models that we have studied fit into the Constructivism Family • Models that are designed to help students construct meaning from real life experiences and which teach them to “think” in ways to make connections such as making the unfamiliar familiar

27. Models of Lessons Within the Constructivism Family • Models that can be used include; • Concept Attainment • Concept Development • Problem Centered Inquiry • Synectics • Cause and Effect

28. Best Practices – What Constructivism Looks Like in the Classroom • The teacher acts primarily as a facilitator • HOTS – Always! Blooms Taxonomy or other methods to challenge Higher Order Thinking Skills • Lots of dialogue in the classroom: Teacher to student; student to student and whole group sharing of ideas • Students are given the opportunity to choose their product on assignments

29. Best Practices – What Constructivism Looks Like in the Classroom • Student centered learning • Socratic Seminar • Reciprocal Teaching • Kagan Strategies • Guided Questions • Novelty • Personalization • Autonomy

30. Best Practices – What Constructivism Looks Like in the Classroom • Students must be able to make real life connections to the material being taught. • Use graphic organizers, examples and analogies to help students make connections of prior knowledge to that which is new.

31. Constructivism Across the Curriculum • Student centered models such as reciprocal teaching can be used in any academic content area for grades K – 12. • The teacher primarily acts as the facilitator and students are given roles such as reader, summarizer, questioner and clarifier. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTB2UNWcs3k

32. What Constructivism Looks Like in the Classroom • Social Constructivisim in Literature Circles • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2CnA0uIqMs • A Day Without a Teacher • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhvaDFwmfBY

33. How Constructivism Fits Into the P21 • Collaborate with Others • Assume shared responsibility for learning • Build social skills and social responsibility • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving • Students inductive and deductive reasoning to make real world connections • Creativity and Innovation • Students think creatively • Work creatively with others • Implement Innovations (Autonomy and Novelty)

34. The Big Ideas by Jeanne Ormond • 1) Learners do not passively absorb information from the environment; rather, they actively work to make sense of their environment and construct their own, unique understandings of the world. • 2) Learning is more likely to occur when learners pay attention to the information to be learned. • 3) Learners learn more effectively when they relate new information to prior knowledge.

35. Assessment in the Constructivist Classroom Brooks and Brooks (1993) describe what assessment in a constructivist classroom looks like: Rather than saying "No" when a student does not give the exact answer being sought, the constructivist teacher attempts to understand the student's current thinking about the topic. Through nonjudgmental questioning, the teacher leads the student to construct new understanding and acquire new skills. Constructivists believe that assessment should be used as a tool to enhance both the student's learning and the teacher's understanding of the student's current understanding. It should not be used as an accountability tool that makes some students feel good about themselves and causes others to give up. Below is a list of the important principles that guide the work of a constructivist teacher:

36. Assessment in the Constructivist Classroom • Constructivist teachers encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. • Constructivist teachers use raw data and primary sources along with manipulative, interactive, and physical materials. • Constructivist teachers use cognitive terminology such as "classify," "analyze," "predict," and "create" when framing tasks. • Constructivist teachers allow student responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies, and alter content. • Constructivist teachers inquire about students' understandings of concepts before sharing their own understandings of those concepts. • Constructivist teachers encourage students to engage in dialogue both with the teacher and with one another.

37. Assessment in the Constructivist Classroom • Constructivist teachers encourage student inquiry by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask questions of each other. • Constructivist teachers seek elaboration of students' initial responses. • Constructivist teachers engage students in experiences that might engender contradictions to their initial hypotheses and then encourage discussion. • Constructivist teachers allow a waiting time after posing questions. • Constructivist teachers provide time for students to construct relationships and create metaphors. • Constructivist teachers nurture students' natural curiosity through frequent use of the learning cycle model (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). • info@ncrel.org

38. Individual Constructivism Standards

39. Let’s Look at Kindergarten History… • K.5 Students put events in temporal order using a calendar, placing days, weeks, and months in proper order.

40. Which of these… …third grade math standards is most like individual constructivism? • Number Sense 2.2 Memorize to automaticity the multiplication tables for numbers 0-10. • Measurement and Geometry 1.1  Choose the appropriate tools and units (metric and U.S.) and estimate and measure the length, liquid volume, and weight/mass of given objects.

41. What is an activity that you can do with the standard I have given you?

42. 1’s Grade six PE • 1.9 Combine relationships, levels, speed, direction, and pathways in complex individual and group physical activities.

43. 2’s High School California Geology • 9 c. Students know the importance of water to society, the origins of California’s fresh water, and the relationship between supply and need.

44. 3’s Health 3rd grade • 2.3 Describe the internal and external influences that affect food choices and physical activity

45. Individual Constructivisms and… • Gifted students • Struggling students • This theory emphasizes multiple and diverse processes to connect with what they know.

46. Behavior management • Active participant

47. P21 Standards P21 standards- between individual and social can be related to all… here are some individual highlights • Learning and Innovative Skills- Think creatively • Information, media, and technology- access, evaluate, use, and manage information

48. Social ConstructivistStandards • Social Studies 6th grade • 7A The student understands the cultures and historical developments of selected societies in such places as Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. • Ex. Students do archaeological dig to find different objects and the teacher introduces classifying techniques. Students collaborate with other students to develop theories about the civilizations that inhabited the area.

49. Life sciences Kindergarten • 2. Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth. As a basis for understanding this concept: • a. Students know how to observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals. • Ex. In pairs students observe and record the growth of planted seeds.

50. Writing 4th grade • 2.1 Write narratives • Relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience. • Ex. Students keep journals and record how they felt about a class project, the visual and verbal reactions of others, and how they felt about their writing had changed. Teacher reviews with student to assess how the student learns best.