Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"Theoretical Foundations for Constructivist Teaching"

If I were to make a summative response over this article, I would like to retitle it "Quick Guide to Education." This article encompasses concepts and ideas that are taught through the Ed. Psych. course as well as in merely every education course offered. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the information, it is just repetition for a student half-way through the program. With that being said, any guide book is a quick and easy reference to a topic that can otherwise be extremely extensive and I intend on keeping this within my "files."
Some further clarification that I gained from this article is that Piaget views development as leading learning while Vygotsky views learning as leading development. The way the author worded it and put them simultaneously together, I was able to make sense of their differentiation. I must say that from this, I am leaning towards agreeing more with Vygotsky. Granted a three year old is not going to understand why the seasons exist because they have simply expereienced them all but I do believe that a child will excel mentally and potentially physically once they have absorbed and made sense of their surroundings.
I have to admit, I enjoyed Figure 2-3 (Social constructivist teaching suggestions) and Figure 2-4 (Constructivist strategies for teaching) so much for the fact that they were so inclusive, that I just printed them out and will continue to hold them in my binder of useful things. They encompass the basic strategies/concepts that I have ever learned through education courses. A few final things I found interesting from the article were that they mentioned a few of my favorite things together: experimentation and problem-centered activities. Hoorah! In one section it also talks about the use of language in the classroom and it relates to me because I find that essential for all classrooms and I fully intend to have a classroom FULL of posters with vocabulary, quotes and diagrams of all sorts.

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