Week 1 Reflection, Course 5364

Much of our readings for the week focus on the constructivism style of learning. One of this week readings included “Learning as a Personal Event: A Brief introduction to Constructivism” written by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1999. Traditional style or teacher led instruction is comprised of lectures from the teacher while students passively listen. In response to this teaching method, the article noted, “Truth be known, the teacher has done all the work and the students are a captive audience, waiting for the end of class” (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1999). In other words students who are not involved in learning do not feel connected to the lesson plan and are not actively learning, but at best are only passively listening.
The way to adjust instruction from one of teacher led to constructivist teaching is to allow the students to be part of the learning process. Give them guidelines and find out what connects each student to the subject matter and allow them to research it and assist them in their search for knowledge. This way the students are involved, in the article, “If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom”, explains how this process is possible, “Constructivist teachers allow student responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies and alter content”. This does not mean that constructivism teachers only teach what students are interested in, “Instead, students’ knowledge, experiences, and interests occasionally do coalesce around an urgent theme” (Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999)). There are topics such as world news events or national events that may have a great appeal to students, adapting that information into the lesson plan can help students relate and cause them to make connections between what they learn in the classroom and in turn apply that to their framework of knowledge. This is the root of constructivism learning, expanding your personal framework of knowledge.


Works Cited:
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on November 11, 2009 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html

Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved November 11, 2009 from the International Society for Technology in Education at http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/publications/ll/llissues/volume_27_1999_2000_/september10/if_i_teach_this_way,_am_i_doing_my_job_constructivism_in_the_classroom.htm