{"id":384,"date":"2017-10-21T01:01:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T05:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=384"},"modified":"2017-10-22T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T03:06:11","slug":"why-the-emotions-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2017\/10\/why-the-emotions-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Emotions Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think back to high school, what kind of people were your favorite teachers?\u00a0 Were they the boring kind that just stood at the front of the room and lectured?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 I know my favorite teachers had us getting involved with what we were learning and exploring it in groups or on our own as much as possible.\u00a0 This is what we call\u00a0<strong>constructivism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.pinimg.com\/736x\/43\/c8\/a5\/43c8a5b7adc4fd34a49211b7dc9c9aee--educational-quotes-balanced-literacy.jpg?resize=350%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is Constructivism?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Constructivism is an idea that has been around for a long time in teaching.\u00a0 The theory holds that students come in not as blank slates, but rather as active learners that already have experiences in their lives that they can use in their learning.\u00a0 The teacher doesn&#8217;t just dump information to the students and then they learn it, but rather they use the information given and their past experiences to produce an effective learning experience.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kiran Sethi: Kids, take charge\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.ted.com\/talks\/kiran_sethi_kids_take_charge\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Making Constructivism Work<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not every teacher can just teach with constructivism and hope to be successful.\u00a0 The backbone of constructivism is the emotions behind it.\u00a0 The relationships that are built between students, and the students and teacher.\u00a0 These relationships and specifically the latter one are what Sherry Herron writes about in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/static.nsta.org\/files\/jcst0907_8.pdf\"><em>A Curious Thing Happened on the Way to Constructivism<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Herron writes that &#8220;..attributes such as empathy, courtesy, and respect should be part of a teacher&#8217;s value system\u00a0<em>before<\/em> constructivist methodologies can be fully realized.&#8221;\u00a0 What does this mean?\u00a0 The more that a teacher cares\u00a0 about his students and shows them respect as individuals, and not act as higher authority figures, the more successful the individual will be at using constructivism.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/EuDmbfl.png?resize=634%2C918&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"634\" height=\"918\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once this connection is made, then constuctivism can begin to flow within your classroom.\u00a0 But it is up to you to make it work.\u00a0 Here are some ways that it can be done:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have students work in teams (Cooperative learning!)<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t just lecture, let the students think and put things into their own words\n<ul>\n<li>Get them involved in the lesson<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Get students actively doing an activity such as putting together a project<\/li>\n<li>Do labs, but take away the step by step procedures (always be safe!)<\/li>\n<li>When misconception arise, give students another way to think about it\n<ul>\n<li>Stop the misconception before it festers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Use the 5E&#8217;s!\n<ul>\n<li>Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The whole idea of constructivism is in the name.\u00a0 Your students should be\u00a0<em>constructing<\/em> their knowledge, not just having it dumped onto them.\u00a0 Transferring knowledge from one person to another is impossible, it&#8217;s better that we let them construct that knowledge with some guidance and care along the way.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BSALSzjFpMR\/\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BSALSzjFpMR\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Activity: Can you Adapt?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Engage\n<ul>\n<li>Show students a video about one of the most well adapted animals on Earth: the Tardigrade (water bear)<\/li>\n<li>Have students write down the features of a tardigrade that make it so unique<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Explore\n<ul>\n<li>Have students research and interact with various features of animals that show unique or interesting features to them<\/li>\n<li>Give them things such as a turtle shell, crab claw, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Explain\n<ul>\n<li>Present students with terms such as adaptation, vestigial structures, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Have the students come up with their own definitions in groups and then the entire class can use these definitions to make one unified definition for each<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Elaborate\n<ul>\n<li>Each group can pick the animal that most interests them and then find multiple unique adaptations and possible vestigial structures that animal has<\/li>\n<li>Put together a pros and con to each of the adaptations and produce something visual for the class (Poster, PowerPoint, video, etc.)\n<ul>\n<li>Present this to the class with more information on the animal they chose (where does it live? What does it eat? etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate\n<ul>\n<li>Students will be assessed on their understandings informally while they are going through the cycle and through their presentations of their animals\n<ul>\n<li>Their presentations\/posters could be used to evaluate their understandings formally as well<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1b053f053cbb0b58a2c1-0c725c907c2d637068751776aeee5fbf.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/762201a253114475af6bc793fbc1571b_adaptations_460x345.png?resize=460%2C345&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Herron, S. (2009). A Curious Thing Happened On The Way To Constructivism\u2026 .\u00a0<i>Journal of College Science Teaching,\u00a0<\/i>8-11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>When you think back to high school, what kind of people were your favorite teachers?\u00a0 Were they the boring kind that just stood at the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2017\/10\/why-the-emotions-matter\/\" title=\"Why the Emotions Matter\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-constructivism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}