constructivism in the classroom
- 2. Approach Child-centered, rather than curriculum based. Focuses on knowledge construction. Students construct new understandings using what they already know, and prior knowledge influences what new or modified knowledge they will construct from new learning experiences. Everyone's view of the external world differs from others because of their unique set of experiences. Children may need different experiences to advance to different levels of understanding The ideas and interests of children drive the learning process.
- 4. An approach of a Teacher
- 5. Constructivism The 5 E's in Constructivism Engage Evaluate Explore Elaborate Explain
- 6. Constructivism: Engage In stage Engage, the students first encounter and identify the instructional task. Must engage students in their lessons in order for them to learn. Engage students by: guiding whole group discussions, asking students to explain what they learned, working together in small groups to complete projects or tasks.
- 7. Constructivism: explore In the Exploration stage the students have the opportunity to get directly involved with phenomena and materials. Students inquire, work together, form hypotheses, learn about new ideas and concepts on their own before coming together as a whole class. Students develop an idea of what they may think an object or idea is, then explore it further to see if their idea was accurate. Students use tools such as textbooks, the internet, scientific instruments, and their creative minds to explore new concepts.
- 8. Constructivism: explain Explain, is the point at which the learner begins to put the abstract experience through which she/he has gone /into a communicable form. The student will define and explain the current concept using their own words. The student will accomplish this using informational readings, group discussions, and teacher interaction. Learners will support each other by sharing their ideas, observations, questions, and hypotheses.
- 9. Constructivism: elaborate To Elaborate the students expand on the concepts they have learned, make connections to other related concepts, and apply their understandings to the world around them. Students will expand their learning on the concepts by making connections to related concepts and applying their understanding to the world around them. This will help students make connections that will lead them to more inquiry which will lead to new understandings.
- 10. Constructivism: evaluate Evaluate, the fifth "E", is an on-going diagnostic process that allows the teacher to determine if the learner has attained understanding of concepts and knowledge. Constructivism encourages teachers to assess their students learning on an ongoing basis. In traditional classrooms, assessment would be paper tests taken by the students after the content was taught and in which they received a grade. In a constructivist classroom the teacher assesses the students work and adapts the lesson plan to meet the needs of the learner
- 11. Advantages: 1. Each person in the world builds their own knowledge. 2. Focuses on student- centered learning 3. Teacher guides students in building their own understanding and knowledge. 4. Students actively engaged in their learning process Disadvantages: 1. Lack of teacher preparation for constructivist classrooms 2. Difficult to break the cycle of those who have been taught in a classroom where they were expected to solely absorb information