Constructivism; Rebuilding the Classroom

Constructivism is…

Constructivism is a theory in education that holds a few central ideas about learning. In “Science Education: An International Course Companion” by Keith Taber and Ben Akpan, the big ideas in consturctivism are laid out as follows,

1 Learning is an active process

In constructivism, students are called to have a more active role in the classroom. Students must interact with the world around them and reconcile what they find with their prior knowledge and experiences.

2 Knowledge is not given, but found

The traditional classroom is not welcome within the realm of constructivism. Teachers cant just stand up at the board and lecture about a topic. Teachers dont GIVE information to their students, students are meant to find the information themselves.

3 Learning is a social process

By engaging with others in the classroom, students are able to challenge and develop their ideas. Debate is an important part of constructivist teaching. Students are meant to engage with the environment and that includes other students. Opposing ideas clash together and are modified and reconstructed to fit with new knowledge that has been obtained.

4 Learning doesnt start in the classroom

Kids already have ideas about the world. They have lived their entire lives in the real world and have come to their own conclusions about how their environment works. Constructivist theory states that those preconceptions are vital and important. They help build the framework opun which new information can be assimilated and accomodated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08wUT1ruaYU

In this video, a young girl looks at a field of ducks and geese and decides to share her knowledge. She looks at them and thinks “These are smallish white birds, I know what those are called, they must be chickens.” She came to the situation with prior knowledge. After this situation, she was likely given new knowledge (these birds are not chickens) and had to assimilate that new knowledge.

Soo, How do I implement this?

The easiest way is to implement a process called the 5e’s learning cycle.

The 5 e’s are

Engage

The Engage stage is where the students attention is brought in. Often times this stage is a demonstration of a scientific concept

Explore

Now that something has changed in the environment and students are engaged, students are encouraged to interact with the material and deepen their understanding of the environment.

Explain

In Explain, the students verbalize their new understanding and come up with a more concrete definiton of the concept

Elaborate

The Elaborate stage is where students get to apply their new knowledge. Often this takes the form of a variation of the original demonstration, or a manipulation of concept into a presentation or project

Evaluate

Evaluation occurs as the final stage. At this point in the process, students are tested over their mastery of the concept, although it doesnt need to come in the form of an explicit test.

But lets get more specific

Lets lay out a lesson plan built in the constructivist style.

Engage

Get the kids to go outside and check out the area around the school. Get them to look at areas where the ground has been disturbed. Is there water pooling in places? Has soil been removed or collected in some of those areas? Have them write down their observations from checking out those disturbances

Explore

Give the students plastic trays and samples of different types of soils (sand heavy soils, clay heavy soils, potting soil). Ask them to create a sample of the ground outside with the different kids of soil . Now give them water and small tools like shovels to replicate the disturbance in the ground. Ask them how something like that could have happened. Has is it rained recently? Has there been contruction going on? Are there signs that people or animals may have disturbed the area.

Explain

Ask some guided questions to get them to an understanding of the types of soil and the effect that the environment has on it. The goal here is to get them to come to the definitions for erosion and weathering.

Elaborate

Give them the same materials as before, but also give them model trees and other building materials. Have them create a landscape with the purpose that it has to stand up to the environment and prevent erosion from occuring. Then, simulate some of the causes of erosion. Pour some water on the landscape and observe how it changes.

Evaluate

Have the students write a reflection. How did it work? What aspects of their environments stood up well to weathering, and which ones didnt? Have them grade themselves on how effective they withstood the weathering conditions and have them detail what other improvements they could have made.

The Strength of Constructivism

The real value of this thoery is that it gets kids out in to the real world. Students want to see how science effects their lives, and this is an excellent way to show them exactly that.

https://twitter.com/MrPeterMurray/status/1050225257280299008

Taber, K. S., & Akpan, B. (2017). Science education. [electronic resource] : an international course companion. Rotterdam : Sense Publishers, [2017]. Retrieved from https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=cat00344a&AN=mucat.b4513827&site=eds-live&scope=site