Constructivism

This unit has been dedicated to Constructivist thinking in educational philosophy and cognition. Constructivism is a broad movement encompassing many factions but the main thread is that students learn innately, by doing and creating connections for themselves.  Starting with Jean Piaget, or some might say with John Dewey, the constructivists saw learning as an activity that is built into brain development, not the other way around, with progressive exposure to facts and rules leading to understanding and mastery.

Like the Behaviorists, they see the "traditional" method of teaching as ineffective.  Lecturing, passive experience and the use of authority and "grading" as the heart of experience treat the student as a receptacle to be filled with knowledge.   Their prescription is not more tightly controlled input, with the student considered tabula rasa, but instead an open, project-based environment where the student learns by doing, and proceeds from the big picture onward.

This model has caused me to reflect a great deal on my own practice, as my career.  I am no Behaviorist, much the opposite, but I learned in the "Old School" and my career has been a constant struggle to adjust to the 'new' constructivist approach.  I am comfortable and actually quite entertaining in front of a class, which has added to my resistance to new paradigms.  However, over the years, I have noticed that my methods, while very effective with a certain type of student, do not work at all with many of my lowest-functioning students.  This would be anybody from the lower C area on down.  If they cannot attend to what I am saying, they will not learn.  If my words are too difficult for them, the book will be more of the same.

I have taken coursework on applying the Next Generation Science Standards, and they suggest a very constructivist approach.  The teacher's rols is not to lecture, but to lead students through discussions of evidence, and to help them come up with explanations for phenomena.  I am not to jump to reward the kid with the "right" answer so that the discussion stays to my script.  Instead, I am to  encourage everybody to verbalize or otherwise represent their understanding.

This is not the story of my dramatic turnaround.  I am still struggling.  Students may be able to construct their own learning, but many will not do that actively for themselves.  The resistance to making mental effort is strong in many students, and they will spend tremendous energy on avoiding the expenditure of energy.  Constructivism is difficult in an environment where students are not able to be present in their own lives for whatever reason.  In those cases, with precious little time to spend with them individually, I find myself at a loss.  Hopefully, the transition will happen soon, because right now, I feel like a man without a paradigm.