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Director For The Center For Integrative Research

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Recommended: Explain the basic tenets of constructivism as an educational philosophy

Have you ever had students that memorized the material, but quickly forgot it? This is partially due to the knowledge not being applicable to their individual lives. The learning was not meaningful, therefore they had no reason to remember it. Along with the theory of meaningful learning is constructivism, introduced by Vygotsky. Constructivism is, “creating a personal interpretation of external ideas and experiences.” (Psychology Applied to Teaching, Snowman, Mccown, & Biehler) In other words, constructivism is when a student is able to not only acquire new knowledge, but apply it to their lives in such a way that is personal to the individual. According to Psychology Applied to Teaching: Twelfth Edition, “Meaningful learning occurs when …show more content…

If learning in the classroom is not meaningful to each student, the application of knowledge is lost and unbeneficial. Depending upon the demographics of the school you teach at, there are certain steps a teacher can take to better help her students apply what they are learning to their daily lives and experiences. An article was published for Edutopia, written by David Cutler with special contribution from Mark A. McDaniel, the Director for the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning and Education (CIRCLE). According to the article, there are three key steps to integrate meaningful learning into your classroom. These steps are as follows: let students problem-solve, give frequent quizzes with low-risk consequences, and help students learn from mistakes, not punish them for their errors. By creating an atmosphere of independence, students learn to rely on themselves to work through their assignments and challenges, rather than relying of the teacher to give the …show more content…

For example, if a teacher located in downtown Cincinnati related the history lesson to the history taken place in Cincinnati, the students would be able to easily identify and apply the lesson to their daily lives. Also, the teacher could assign research projects to each student according to their background, upbringing, and prior knowledge of a certain culture. By implementing problem-solving techniques, giving frequent quizzes, helping students learn from mistakes, and creating an independent, but relatable culture, the students would better be able to not only take in new information, but apply the information in a way that is personal to

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A Summary Paragraph In his article, “Teaching the Common Core in China,” David Metz (2015) claims that when comparing teaching styles of Americans versus the styles of the Chinese, one will notice a dramatic difference of what is important to each culture and what is not. First, Metz describes the struggles he has when attempting to move from a "teacher-centric" classroom to a more "student-centric" classroom. Second, Metz points that the administration and the parents of the students disapprove and distrust him when he tries to get the students to formulate their own ideas and not steal from other classmates or directly from books and other texts. Next, the author states that students would benefit from being more independent

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Although it can be difficult for teachers to make time to do something new in the classroom, it is never impossible to try. Students need teachers that care enough to teach to the best of their ability, not just teach the standards and get by. In the chapter “How Engaged and Alive We Can All Be!” Jeffrey D. Wilhelm states that, “with some simple reframing (of curriculum into inquiry, of teaching for engaged transaction instead of information transmission), we can meet our students’ basic human needs for motivation, accomplishment, community, and much more” (Wilhelm 14-15). This idea can not be stressed enough.

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251 Words | 2 Pages

Students learn a variety of ways and we have to adapt our teaching and lessons to ensure that all students are learning. We are educating the future, we are teaching students to become critical thinkers,

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One instructional practice will enhance the classroom is giving the students participation with the classroom. John Dougherty talks about how letting the students participate in establishing the classroom rules in his article Classroom Management and the Middle School Philosophy. He further elaborates to say that it contributes to increased compliance, lower numbers of violations, and greater academic success. This could be as simple as asking the students how they believe they learn best like Brodhagen discussed in This We Believe… and now we must act. It is discussed that since these adolescent learners have participated in a numerous amount of education already that they will be able to give a teacher an understanding of how they successfully

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1356 Words | 6 Pages

Using real-life situations would capture a student’s attention aligned with their interests. Depending on the grade level students start to question the relevancy within how a subject will affect their future. When students struggle in the subject math, I love the gratitude and appreciation that students show towards appreciating the help I give them. As a teacher, I believe I can provide guidance in various parts of life. I hope to inspire and become

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790 Words | 4 Pages

As a mathematics teacher, one must consider diversity within the classroom because students acquire knowledge and skills at different times and in different ways. Several teachers are slaves to the teacher-centered classroom and resist change for a more student-centered environment. It is of paramount importance that teachers use various teaching strategies to accommodate students’ learning styles. My inquisitiveness leads my interest in investigating if there is a correlation between constructivism (active learning) and students’ performance in mathematics at the middle school level.

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154 Words | 1 Pages

Based on my contextual factors chart the urban community in which my students live in will impact their learning the most. There are two reasons why my students will be effected by the urban community they live in. One, students in an urban community come from a different population and two, students in an urban community live in different environments. A great instructional strategy for students living in an urban community is a group project. This allows students from different environments to work together.

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Social constructivists believe that students learn by connecting new information two what they already know and then learning takes place when what they already know is integrated with new information (McLaughlin,

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561 Words | 3 Pages

It has taught me independence. Previously, I have felt that yes- we worked alone on such projects- yet here, I have learned to balance my schoolwork and my personal life with time management. Previously, teachers would create the illusion that their class is making you independent; when in reality they were holding your hand the entire

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Seek and value students’ points of view Within a traditional classroom students are geared to answer a question a certain way with only one correct answer. However, in the constructivist classroom teachers should be asking open-ended questions that result in a plethora of answers. By providing these types of discussions students are able to explain their point of view or understanding throughout explanation and support. 4. Adapt instruction to address student suppositions: Within a constructivist classroom, the teacher is the facilitator for all aspects of the child learning experience.

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Since this idea has originated, it has now come back into the 21st century with many advantages including encouraging students to work collaboratively rather than independently. In a traditional classroom, students are expected to sit at a desk and be alert, engaged, and focused for the minimum of one hour to be able to learn the material. Then, they are generally expected to do the homework independently to be able to show if they understand the material taught in class that day. Although this is a very common method of measuring the student’s knowledge in today’s society, this familiar method isn’t all it’s cracked up to

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Learning is a process that brings together cognitive, emotional and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing or making changes in one’s knowledge, skills, values and world views. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive constructivism- humans construct their own understanding by reflecting on their personal experiences and by relating their new knowledge with what they already know. Humans create their own ‘schemas’ to make sense of the world and accommodate new knowledge by adjusting their ‘schemas’. For example, for a student to learn multiplication, he/she needs to have a good idea of addition and grouping objects. Here, the new knowledge of multiplication is constructed from/on the existing knowledge of repeated addition.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

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 (www.learning-theories.com/constructivism).”

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

Constructivist epistemological perspective Constructivist epistemology is a perspective in philosophy of science arguing that scientific knowledge is constructed by the scientific community, who seek to construct models of the natural world. The origins of constructivism are believed descend to the time of Socrates, who claimed that learners and teachers should talk to each other, ask questions to interpret and construct the knowledge. According to constructivists, the world is independent of human thoughts, but knowledge of the world is always a social construction of the human. The “constructivist stance maintains that learning is a process of constructing meaning; it is how people make sense of their experience”.

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1585 Words | 7 Pages

The fundamental principles upon which constructivism is implemented are active learning, social interaction, and self-regulation (Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013). Active learning, as well as active participation, focuses upon the ideal of ‘learning by doing’ in a classroom context (Duchesne et al., 2013). In this regard, the ‘flipped classroom’ provides the chance for students to decide when and where they may listen to online instruction, as well as providing extra classroom time for more practical implementation of the course material (Flumerfelt & Green, 2013). Since what is taught is not necessarily what is learned by the student, especially due to the myriad skills and experiences that shape a student’s learning model (Churchill et al., 2013), the extra classroom time and subsequent increase in teacher/student interaction allows the teacher to correct any misinterpretations of the content (Tucker, 2012; Horn, 2013; Fulton, 2012; Roehl, Reddy & Shannon,

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