Constructivism is a term used in von Glasersfeld article. He talks about constructing knowledge instead of obtaining it. He does this to emphasize the importance of us building it ourselves. The more knowledge we build, the better we understand it and the more we will want to learn. To construct knowledge, we need someone to help us build a base, being a teacher. With their help, students can learn to create their own scaffolding of knowledge.
One thing that I would like to do in with constructivism in my math teaching, is giving the students hands on activities. They learn basic concepts, but they are the ones that put it into action. In my jr. high we were taught what geometric shapes were the strongest and then used that knowledge to build a bridge. By doing that, I learned by myself what worked best and I constructed my own knowledge on how to do things. It gives the students a chance to experience things by themselves and have fun. This is a constructive outlook, because you give the students a basis of how to do something and then they decided how they are going to build off of their knowledge.
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Great post! I think hands on activities will be really helpful for students to put concepts into use. It will also be good for you to see how the students are thinking about the concepts taught in class. This promotes individual thinking, and the students will be able to think back on previous experiences that may be able to help them decide how to put certain concepts into practice. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteAlthough the concepts were all there, I felt like it was a bit underdeveloped. I really like the idea of a hands on approach, but, due to a few grammatical errors and interesting sentence structure, it was a bit difficult to understand. I think I would have developed my thoughts a bit more and also made sure I read it once before posting. :)
ReplyDeleteYour use of the term "construct" is different from what von Glasersfeld had in mind. von Glasersfeld asserts that we construct theories about how the world works, what things mean, and what is true based upon our experience. In this way, what we come to know is "constructed" knowledge, because it is a product of our sense making activities. Knowledge is also constructed when we learn from new experiences. This is because when we have an experience, we interpret that experience using our previously constructed theories. This interpreting activity leads to "constructed" meaning. We can't just absorb the intended or correct meaning from the experience. In this way, all knowledge is constructed.
ReplyDeleteI like that you gave an example of something that a teacher did that worked well with you, and that you are thinking of ways to be able to use the same sort of thing in teaching your own students someday. The wording was a little off and made it slightly difficult to understand, but with a little fixing I think the paragraph and ideas within have great potential!
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