Constructivist and constructionist activities are not new concepts and I think it is save to save every administrator would love to walk into his or her teacher’s classroom and see these types of activities being used. Dr. Michael Orey states that during constructionist activities, students learn best when they build an external artifact (Laureate Education, 2010). I would have to agree. I know I learn best when I am physically involved. If I am traveling someplace for the first time, I will remember the directions better if I am the actual driver rather than if I was to be the passenger. If I am the driver, I am fully engaged and my focus is on every turn. The same concept applies in the classroom as well.
In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, “Generating and Testing Hypotheses” explains how student are engaged in processing information, applying content knowledge, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). In order to generate and test hypotheses students must use critical thinking skills and perform some sort of experiment to test their hypotheses. This is related to this weeks constructivist/constructionist learning theory due to the hands on approach. After establishing that students learn best working hands on, technology is a great way for students to be engaged and work hands on. A few uses of technology that work great for testing hypotheses are spreadsheets, data collection tools, and web resources. Again, I do not see too many examples involving math even though it is stated that all three types can be used in all areas. At the moment, I believe spreadsheets might be the most productive for me. Students can do many different things with spreadsheets. They can collect and store their own data and test many different hypotheses on the correlation between their data. Students can create histograms, bar graphs, scatter plots and line graphs. With scatter plots, students can create lines of best fit or use line graphs to compare data. Students can also use spreadsheets for different functions such as linear functions and exponential functions.
It is difficult to use constructivist/constructionist activities on an everyday basis because they are time consuming but when used correctly and efficiently, students can benefit greatly.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories: Author.
Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, Colorado: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL).
Jason that was a good metaphor at the beginning. I also have to be the driver to remember where I am going and how I got there. I agreet that their are not to many math examples given. The example of the spreadsheet was helpful but like you said, it's time consuming. This is hard to implement when you have a pacing guide to go by and a standardized test to prepare for. Hopefully one day the people in charge will understand all this and get rid of all these tests so we can really teach our students.
ReplyDeleteSoon, New York State will be converting to the Common Core Standards. I am not sure that this will be much different than our state assessments now. By trying to make every students a college bound student, the curriculum and what we have to teach does not allow us much time to be creative. I am not saying we cannot but it is difficult to do. I just keep trying to do the best I can with what I am given.
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