Constructivism in Practice

Through our resources, we learned that constructionist learning is when the student is actively engaged in creating or building something that forces them to assimilate and accommodate knew knowledge into their schema. By using technology such as spreadsheet software and PowerPoint, students are creating an artifact that facilitates higher order thinking skills. They must synthesize, analyze, problem-solve and make decisions, and then when students share their artifact, they are forced to articulate the concepts they have learned, all of which uses higher order thinking skills and are a fundamental aspect of the constructionist learning theory.

Using web resources, especially web-based simulation or simulation software, allows students to manipulate in way that otherwise might have been impossible or not financially feasible. As I shared in my discussion, I used web-based simulation of muscles contracting and relaxing to show students how muscles work to create movement. In this simulation, they were able to manipulate the muscles and rotate a 3-D image of the muscles to see how movement is related to contracting and relaxing muscles at different angles. We also explored a simulation of a frog dissection to compare and contrast human and frog muscles.

When we began the unit, students made hypothesis about how they thought muscles worked. As we progressed through the unit, students reevaluated their hypothesis, testing them against their new knowledge and revised them as needed. Along with revising their own thinking, they came up with new questions and were encouraged to explore to find their answers. Some students needed guidance in finding their answers, while others worked eagerly at constructing their own knowledge and sharing it with the class. I feel in a constructionist role, the teacher is more of a facilitator, both guiding and learning from students during the process.