Essential Question: What is the relationship between teaching and learning?Wow!! this week was a lot of material to take in. Not sure if anyone else feels the same? Here is my best attempt at picking out what I found important. What is the best way to learn and why? "Constructionists believe that learning results from experience and that understanding is constructed inside the head of the student, often in a social context" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). If this is true, and I believe it is, then we as teachers are responsible for creating the experiences that students need to learn. In the opening of Ch. 5 Martinez & Stager point out that learning isn't the result of being taught and that teachers can't just spew out information and expect that students have learned. There is a lot more going on in a students brain than just listening to an information dump. Students "identities (or voices) construct very different individual discourses as they are represented in diverse reactions and negotiations" (Park, 2008). In other words students personality makes up another factor. This is not necessarily a bad thing according to Park. On many occasions the students different personalities allowed the students to cooperate, negotiate, and work alongside each other to achieve the goal. Students have their own personality or identity. "Identity is not a stagnant property, but rather an entity that changes with time, often going through stages, and is continuously modified based on the surrounding environment. It has been described as “being recognized as a certain kind of person in a given context” (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). This identity involves both the teacher and the learner. As a teacher "the development of a professional identity is not unlike the development of a personal identity but is situated in the context of a discipline and thus framed by the 'rules of membership' of that discipline" (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). The biggest reason I can see as an educator for this philosophy is that "research suggests that teachers who use more progressive or project-based learning techniques are more satisfied in their roles than teachers who use traditional instructional techniques" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Taking all this into consideration how do we create experiences for such a diverse group? How do we implement a constructionist or constructivist philosophy? Instruction is most useful when it will only take a moment to explain or when there is little to no benefit of you doing it yourself. To do this focus on the big ideas, and follow this up with time for students to experience the big idea. This all comes from the idea that "the longer you delay students from getting to the 'making' part of the design cycle, the more students will disengage and the longer it will take to learn the lessons" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Keep with and iterative design cycle. "Iterative design cycle is about continuous improvement, keeping what works, and dealing with what doesn’t. This is learning, not failure" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Why wouldn't we implement this philosophy if it can be so beneficial for both the learner and the teacher? In K-12 education, "Studies show that teachers have concerns about their own ability to provide the required scaffolding for students that can’t be found in the back of the textbook" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). At the post secondary level feeling are almost identical. "In terms of training, many faculty have indicated they feel ill-equipped to change the way they teach and thus would like access to structured, formal training" (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). But even after post secondary educators are trained and get hyped about a new strategy they are met with resistance from colleagues they work with according to Brownell & Tanner. If that is not enough think about how fast we forget what we learned. If you don't practice it you lose it. According to both Brownell & Tanner and Martinez & Stager, this happens to many, and inevitably, the teacher falls back on what they know or what they experienced. And to make matters worse "research has shown that interactive teaching, as compared with traditional lecturing, typically takes more preparation time: (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). With all of this how are teaching and learning connected? We all, teachers and students, come to class with our own perspective. The role of the teacher is to help the student find ways to learn the material. I believe constructionism and constructivism are ways of helping students process their learning. They make sense of this learning in their own way, which also allows the teacher to learn new things as well. This is such a great philosophy but so hard to implement if you are on your own. Teachers need help in learning how to teach most effectively. Without proper support little change will occur. Sources
Brownell, S. E., & Tanner, K. D. (2012). Barriers to Faculty Pedagogical Change: Lack of Training, Time, Incentives, and…Tensions with Professional Identity? CBE Life Sciences Education, 11(4), 339–346. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3516788/ Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Park, H. (2008). “You are confusing!”: Tensions between Teacher’s and Students’ Discourses in the Classroom [Abstract]. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 43(1), 4-13. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ829005.pdf
6 Comments
Genevieve
6/15/2016 03:01:45 pm
I like that you brought up students' different personalities. I agree that it's a whole other factor in how they communicate and work with each other to achieve a common goal. I know some teachers fear moving away from the textbook and want the constructivist learning experiences for their students. I think one of the reasons are fear of criticism from the parents, administration, etc.
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Sara Lucas
6/16/2016 04:42:38 am
I totally agree! If your district/school is not in support it is very hard. Our evaluations are highly dependent on others supporting what we are doing
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Jeff Clay
6/16/2016 10:01:42 am
Awesome post, Sara!
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Sara Lucas
6/19/2016 02:46:03 am
Your last sentence is definitely something to consider. If we would need much training to feel successful, I can only imagine students would need the same?
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6/17/2016 04:43:44 pm
Sara,
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Sara Lucas
6/19/2016 02:49:36 am
I was forced to write my blog post Monday due to my travel plans. I am on a vacation I planned before Christmas and knew I would already have plenty to catch up on. It was not easy to write in a day. I had so many thoughts tying them together was a challenge. It took me a while and many breaks to write the whole thing.
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