Constructivism

What is constructivism?

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know. 

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them. (Read more here: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/)

Definition
Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.
( Read more: http://www.pgce.soton.ac.uk/IT/Learning/MA(Ed)IPD/constructivism.htm)

Jonassen (1991) talks about constructivism as follows:
Constructivism, founded on Kantian beliefs, claims that reality is constructed by the knower based upon mental activity. Humans are perceivers and interpreters who construct their own reality through engaging in those mental activities...thinking is grounded in perception of physical and social experiences, which can only be comprehended by the mind. What the mind produces are mental models that explain to the knower what he or she has perceived.... We all conceive of the external reality somewhat differently, based on our unique set of experiences with the world and our beliefs about them. (p. 10)
Bednar, et al (1991) elaborate further:
...the learner is building an internal representation of knowledge, a personal interpretation of experience. This representation is constantly open to change, its structure and linkages forming the foundation to which other knowledge structures are appended. Learning is an active process in which meaning is developed on the basis of experience....Conceptual growth comes from the sharing of multiple perspectives and simultaneous changing of our internal representations in response to those perspectives as well as through cumulative experience.
Consistent with this view of knowledge, learning must be situated in a rich context, reflective of real world contexts, for this constructive process to occur and transfer to environments beyond the school (p. 91-2).
(http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/Skaalid/definition.html)

A reaction to didactic approaches such as behaviorism and programmed instruction, constructivism states that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it. Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment. Learners continuously test these hypotheses through social negotiation. Each person has a different interpretation and construction of knowledge process. The learner is not a blank slate (tabula rasa) but brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation.

Note: A common misunderstanding regarding constructivism is that instructors should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing. Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught. Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge.

Vygotsky’s social development theory is one of the foundations for constructivism.

(http://www.learning-theories.com/constructivism.html)

Other resources:

http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/theory/constructivism.shtml

http://www.ijese.com/IJESE_v3n4_Cakir.pdf

Inquiry in Science Teaching & Learning

Dear student-teachers,
When we teach science, try our best to make our students think about the topic we focus.Throw out questions that make them think.Use all the thinking skills - might it be Edward de Bono's theories & strategies (CoRT, 6 Thinking Caps, Lateral Thinking etc.), Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping/Use your head and others, Thinking Through Questioning (Wiley Wilen), using Graphic Organizers (GO) and other strategies- to incite & iniatite thinking. Go on and explore these sttrategies to improve our teaching. Hope these two articles will help to start.

Inquiry-based learning (Enquiry-based learning in British English) or inquiry-based science describes a range of philosophical, curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching. Its core premises include the requirement that learning should be based around student's questions. Pedagogy and curriculum requires students to work together to solve problems rather than receiving direct instructions on what to do from the teacher. The teacher's job in an inquiry learning environment is therefore not to provide knowledge, but instead to help students along the process of discovering knowledge themselves. In this form of instruction, it is proposed that teachers should be viewed as facilitators of learning rather than vessels of knowledge. Even though this form of instruction has gained great popularity of the past decade, there is plenty of debate about the effectiveness of this form of instruction.

Inquiry-based learning is an instructional method developed during the discovery learning movement of the 1960s. It was developed in response to a perceived failure of more traditional forms of instruction, where students were required simply to memorize fact laden instructional materials (Bruner, 1961). Inquiry learning is a form of active learning, where progress is assessed by how well students develop experimental and analytical skills rather than how much knowledge they possess.

 See more :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning

How to Teach Students to Connect

Before you explore, describe:

• What the task is about
• Why it is important to do it
• How much time has been set aside
• What the final product will look like
• Who will see the final product
• Teacher prompts:
  
  1. "Would you like to know why...?"
  2. "Have you ever wondered about...?"
  3. "You will better understand..."

How to help students frame the investigation:

• Provide the background
  
  1. Define the parameters for exploration
  2. Model exploring in front of the class
  3. Allow students to explore
  4. Teacher prompts:
     
     1. "Please read these directions..."
     2. "Listen for clues while I tell you this story..."
     3. "I wonder what will happen when..."
     4. "I think that happened because..."
     5. "Have your journals open as you explore."
     6. "Write and draw observations that are interesting to you."
• Connect the background to the question
  
  1. Invite each student to share his or her story, to explain his/her science theories
  2. Ask each student to listen to others and organize his own science theories
  3. Draw out of the student the connection she sees between her story and the task-at-hand
  4. Insist on reasons, details, and explanations for his theories
  5. Teacher prompts:
     
     1. "What does this remind you of?"
     2. "How is it the same or different?"
     3. "How big? How often?"
     4. "What happened first? Can you remember more detail?"
• Make sure the question is testable
  
  1. Help the student state the question in such a way that it tells him or her what to do to answer it
  2. Verify that the question has an answer that can be observed or measured
  3. Teacher prompts:
     
     1. "How will you measure...?"
     2. "What do you think the answer will be?"

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How to Teach Students to Design

Develop a systematic plan to collect data:

• Allow students time to perform a trial run of his or her data collection
• Promote the use of detail to communicate clear directions
  
  1. Tools and "rules"
  2. Teacher Prompts:
     
     1. "What did you use to measure...?"
     2. "How will you keep from messing up your data?"
     3. "How many points should you have on your graph?"
     4. "Will you average....?"
• Model how to make statistical decisions
  
  1. Sufficient data
  2. Number of repetitions
• Create an empty data table
  
  1. Teacher Prompts:
     
     1. "Set up and label the columns..."
     2. "List the values for the manipulated variable."
     3. "Make an extra column for observations."

See this more in -
http://educationnorthwest.org/

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What is science?

Science

Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is, in its broadest sense, any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome. In this sense, science may refer to a highly skilled technique or practice.

In its more restricted contemporary sense, science is a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, and to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research.^[2][3] This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word. Science as discussed in this article is sometimes called experimental science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of scientific research to specific human needs—although the two are commonly interconnected.

Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research. Using controlled methods, scientists collect observable evidence of natural or social phenomena, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to construct theoretical explanations of how things work. The methods of scientific research include the generation of hypotheses about how phenomena work, and experimentation that tests these hypotheses under controlled conditions. Scientists are also expected to publish their information so other scientists can do similar experiments to double-check their conclusions. The results of this process enable better understanding of past events, and better ability to predict future events of the same kind as those that have been tested.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia