Constructivist Classroom Environment Analysis

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Modeling, Coaching and Scaffolding are three major roles for facilitators to support students in constructivist learning environments. A constructivist classroom environment provides opportunities for students to question the material being presented and explore various topics as their interests. The aim is to produce a democratic classroom environment that provides meaningful learning experiences for autonomous learners. In a constructivist classroom, the teacher and the student share responsibility and decision making and demonstrate mutual respect. Teachers should be explaining, modeling, and using guided practice in the classroom. By modeling what they want their students to do, students will be better able to work through their assigned …show more content…

That is the social world provides the basis for cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, the optimal place for cognitive development is the zone of proximal development. This zone is the distance between where a person is at in solving a problem alone and where they could have been with the help from another person. This guidance or help in solving a problem is known as Scaffolding. For example, the learner is in the zone of proximal development and will be able to benefit from the scaffolding in the form of explaining, demonstrating and guiding provided by the instructor. Scaffolding is “a form of adult assistance that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts” (Wood et. al, 1976, as cited by Daniels, 2001, …show more content…

While teaching the ‘Chandogya Upanishad’ the parable of salt and water can be experimented among students in order to know in depth about the concept of Brahman. The first step will be to predict, that is to ask the students to predict the outcome of the experiment. The second step will be to observe, that is carry out the demonstration and the students will be asked to write down what they see. The third step will be to ask student to rectify their explanation if their prediction is different from their observation. The students will be asked to write their explanations on paper and there will be class discussion. Inquiry learning take place as the students ask thoughtful and open ended questions. According to Cook (1992), learners will work harder and better, they will discover their own ideas and they will fight hard to answer any questions set by