In von Glaserfeld's paper "Learning as a Constructive Activity" he defines and explains in detail his thoughts and meanings to the term "constructive knowledge". The key word of this is constructive. He does not believe that people just take in what they hear. Rather, when learning, humans filter things through their mind and use their own experiences to make sense of things. They construct the idea of what they are hearing in their head. One example he used that made it clear to me was with the word 'mermaid'. No one has really met a mermaid, but with a description of it being the head of a human and the fin of a fish, one is able to construct or put together the pictures and create a mermaid in their head. One last important detail of constructing knowledge in the paper is, that the way things are constructed is from prior knowledge. Each time something is learned it can then be used to help construct another idea.
If I whole heartedly believed in constructivism, I would implicate it in my classroom in two ways. First, I would prepare each lesson with the perspective of the age of the students I was teaching in mind. There is a great chance that the things I would know would be drastically different than the things that the students would know. I would need to make sure that the concepts I were teaching would be possible to piece together with the students knowledge. Second, I would be sure to describe things a variety of ways. There is no way I could find a way to teach that each student would be able to construct an idea. So, if I taught things a few different ways, there would be a better chance of everyone understanding.
I think that the ways in which you would implement constructivism are clear and written in a nicely organized paragraph. I agree with the two points you gave and think they are great ideas. I thought you did a great job of explaining how these two ways would help students construct knowledge, which made it clear how your ideas tied into a constructivist perspectivie. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job illustrating how people can construct knowledge. If one was to acquire knowledge then it could just be given to them, and it wouldn't be open to individual interpretation.
ReplyDeleteYour paragraph was clear and concise. You were able to get your ideas across well. It is important to tailor each lesson to the needs of the classroom. I think that it might be difficult and time consuming to teach the ideas different ways. It's important to teach it in a way that a majority of the class will understand, but it is important to recognize that not all the students will understand everything right away.
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