Blog Entry #5

Warington describes the various advantages of how students learn more by finding the answers themselves, not being taught numerous different rules. Through her experiences, teaching a basic concept and then allowing the students to think through more difficult problems is a great way to determine what each student knows. Another advantage she talks about is that the students rely on themselves, not the teacher or a classmate, to find the answer. This encourages individual thinking as well as strengthening the confidence of each individual in their problem solving skills. Also, this method encouraged group work, talking with other students in order to find the answer. This also has the potential to prevent the struggling students from getting farther and farther behind as each individual is forced into discussion of a concept, not simply copying numbers on an assignment. Due to these numerous advantages, Warington presents the idea that this is the most effective way for students to learn a true understanding for concepts.

As with every situation, there is another side to the argument. There are disadvantages to this style of teaching to contrast the advantages. Without teaching the students the proper method to arrive at the solution, paired with not giving correct answers has the potential for students to get off track and stay off track. If the students are teaching themselves, they could be arriving at a correct answer through an incorrect method, which because they have found for themselves, is harder to remove from their brains. Also, this method takes a lot longer to accomplish and is nearly impossible to use to cover all the required curriculum today. This constructivist approach to teaching definitely had the potential to be effective, but it also has the potential for students to get behind: a debate for efficiency.

Blog Entry #4

In his article about constructivism, Van Glaserfeld talks about "construct knowledge." He uses this term to identify knowledge as understanding gained by both experience and experiments. His word choice is very strategic, by using the term construct he portrays the imagery of each student actually building, or constructing, their own knowledge. The students' building blocks are there own experiences, suggesting that in order for a student to accurately learn a new concept, he/she needs to be actively involved in problem solving. This can be done, but is not limited to, the use of hands-on classroom activities. These types of activities are helpful because they force the child to prove their individual understanding by applying a concept to a new situation. Van Glaserfeld emphasizes that we are always learning, through every experience we have we are constructing our own knowledge and theories of how the world works. Our knowledge is never correct though because we don't know what is correct in a world that is always changing.

If i was a math teacher, I would incorporate constructivism into my teaching by having student-teach days twice a month. On this day I, as the teacher, would be in the hall with a desk for myself and a desk for one student. I would have a movie showing in the classroom and call out students individually. When each student came out into the hall to meet with me, I would give them a problem and answer from the material we had been learning in class and have them teach me how to arrive at that answer. I would repeat this process with each student. This follows the constructivist idea because I would be able to better see each students individual understanding and what each is personally taking from class lectures, and how to benefit them in the future.