Constructivism means creating hands on artifacts that the students make from exploring and thinking on their own. Creating a PowerPoint is a great artifact that a student could create to show their understanding of a topic / material.
A hard thing for my students to do is to think outside of the box. If the information is not right there in front of them then they struggle drawing a conclusion or a hypothesis to why or the reason for something happening. Collecting data is a great way to generate questions from students and will drive them to want to reach their own conclusion. The text discusses creating a chart using Excel and creating many different graphs or charts from the data collected. From that data, conversations and questions will arise pertaining to the information. I do a great deal with interoperating graphs and pictures. I use pictures a lot to see their mind set before we start a new topic.
There are many web applications and resources that can be used to get a student to generate a hypothesis. Mr. DcDvitt uses a web application to show the WWII. It is a game that simulates the actions done during the war. All students enjoy playing video games and if it turns into an educational form, GREAT! I have used www.explorelearning.com and Smart Board interactive lessons to allow students to test out hypothesis and manipulate things to see what would happen. A great example is testing an electrical circuit online. What objects are conductors and what are not?
Anyway that you can get a student to think outside of the box and want to learn more about a topic or test it out to see if it works / doesn’t work, you have created a constructivist approach to learning. Too many of the next “generation” does not have the critical thinking skills necessary to be successful in a world powered by technology!
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Mr. Henry-
ReplyDeleteI passed your blog to a friend of mine who teaches Science. She is always looking for new tools. I checked out the sight you posted and it was fantastic. I think that students who "think outside the box" will become great self driven learners in this technology world because they will be able to construct there own meanings about technology.
I too, notice the problem of some laziness in students. They want the answer in front of them and they want to know it right now. However, when presented information in that way they tend to quickly forget it. Your right that collecting data is a great way to entise them to find the conclusions themselves. Maybe I could give those students some "motivational" or intising teasers to push them in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteMy students will be entering the 7th grade next year and will not have a teacher right on top of them pushing them. They need to start to think about things that are not right in front of them. They struggle greatly with tasks like this. So the more that you can get them thinking out side of the box the better. I think about all the things in real life that I encounter and it is scary to think that these students do not see the other side of the coin when they are presented with a situation. I use weird poems or pictures that have two meanings to see what they are thinking about.
ReplyDeleteI also have some students that are lazy and then I have those that always think out of the box. I try to incorporate activities in my lessons that encourage my students to stretch and think out of the box. The lazy students struggle but realize that I am not going to give them a break.
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