Lessons in Constructionism

Working with the theory of constructionism is so refreshing compared to behaviorism.  The idea of constructionism is taking firsthand experiences and making it a priority, as opposed to test scores being put into the for front.  The theory of constructionism states that people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  Giving students that opportunity to build those firsthand experiences is a great learning tool. Students are actively engaged in creating their own meaning of the material in turn concretely connecting their knowledge and memory of the material.

Some of the learning tools that were recommended in this week’s reading were creating spreadsheets.  I have not worked much with spreadsheets so my experience with them is very limited. One idea that I really liked was having students making educated predictions while collecting data.  We are flipping the old idea of reading the material and answer the questions on its ear and allowing students to go through chapters and develop educated hypothesis using the spread sheet. When you build a hypothesis you are asking questions and building the connection to the material. Using these spread sheets they are actively engaged in the lesson connecting them with previous knowledge. At the beginning of the lesson students are already asking the questions.   

In my art class I can use this same idea when introducing new artists or new art movements.  Students will first be able to see works of art by an artist without being told about him or her.  Students will then be building up their own idea of what the artist was all about.  I could even try to create a spreadsheet comparing the artist or movement to other forms of art or artists.  Then we would be able to start and learn about the art movement or artist. This would make a much greater learning experience for the class then handing out an article on the artist and go around the room and read about them.  The more I could get my students involved and incorporating any type of technology would make art history a little more bearable. 

Cognitive Learning Theories

When we talk about cognitive learning and using cues, questions, and other ways of triggering learning in our students.  We need to understand how our students learn.  When we give our students cues we are trying to trigger what has been learned.  In order for cues to work we will have needed to helped our students to attached the new information to something they have already known.  It will now be tethered and able to retrieved.  Scaffolding is very similar when you build upon something already learned.  Remember it is all about getting new information to your students but I think most importantly how do have them learn how to retrieve that information for years to come.  We have to learn how they learn best and then teach them so they know how they best learn.

 

Using concept mapping in your classroom is a great way to connect new material to material that has already been learned.  If you wanted to introduce new content and review old content at the same time using a concept map is a great way to do that.  It is like a good old fashion brain storm.  You are able to bring in old ideas and tie it to new ones.  Allowing students to make new connections to the new material.  That is very key to learning new information because now they will have something tethered  and will be easily retrievable unlike short term memory that will be easily forgotten because it is not tied to anything and the student will forget how to retrieve that information.   Summarizing is something we as teachers always do.  We take information that we want our students to know and understand, but instead of  just reading it out of a book we give it to them in our own words.  By putting it into our own words we will be more likely to use those same words again as we discuses the project or lesson again.  When we review it is always in a summarizing manner.  Note taking with any word processing programs will be a great advantage to our students as well.  Remember we are needing to get new information to our students and to have them be able to remember it and retrieve it easily.  Being in a word document on a computer can print out the material that the students are needing to remember.

 

Taking your students on a virtual field trip is amazing technology.  Once again you are trying to introduce new information to your students and have them experience something new.  By giving your students new experiences they will be able to tether that new information to that experience.  Also lets think about the financial benefit to your school.  You will be able to take students to Washington D.C. or to New York.  Places that your school or students may not be able to go in the real world.  A virtual field trip will allow you to go any ware even into space.

 

Reference

 

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R.,& Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

There was a great strategy we learned about in our video this week.  Talking about moving the clip, as a student displays a certain behavior.  The clip will be moved either up or down depending on the behavior both good and bad.  This is form of behaviorist learning theory.  We just have to be careful that we don’t rely too much on behaviorist theory.  Mainly because the learning environment can become very negative very fast, and we must try to keep it a positive one.

Reinforcing our students effort is a very important teaching strategy.  Students need to be given many examples of what a good effort is.  They are so apt to just not try if they feel it is something they are unable to achieve in.  I have so many students in my art classes that tell me they can't do something even before they start the lesson or even pick up a paint brush or carving tool.  They need to know how effort relates to achievement.  How do we expect our students to be able to know just how far they can go if they were never pushed or shown what their true limitations are.  We always tell them give us your best.  How do they know what their best is if they don't have good effort?  It is up to us to show them they can succeed. 

Now I do not assign home work to my students.  I recommend to them to take work home if they are falling behind but only as a way to stay caught up with the other students in class.  It is hard to tell students to practice at home and really mean that.  I know when I was in school homework was never looked at as a good thing.  So I never allowed myself to think of it as a way to reinforce what I learned at school or to strengthen new concepts taught or skills learned.  So the idea of homework goes back to that idea of negative learning environment.  I am not sure how we can show a positive spin on behaviorist theory and homework.  If anyone has an idea please share with all of us.

References

Pitler, H., Hubbel, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria: ASCD