To use constructivism to teach my students math principles successfully, I would need to find ways for them to experience math on their own. If I gave them examples of activities outside the classroom that they were invloved in (such as sports or dealing with money) and incorporated mathematical principles (such as geometry or algebra), then my students would be able to construct their knowledge based on what they previously knew about these same activities. I also think it would be helpful for them to come up with their own story problems based on their own experiences, that way they can find their own "truth" to the mathematical scenarios.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Blog Entry #4
In Learning as a Constructive Activity, Ernst von Glasersfeld speaks of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring or gaining knowledge. In his article he mentions that the knowledge we have is continually built upon by the experiences we have throughout our life. Each experience that confirms our past belief adds onto our "knowledge" and we continue with this sense of truth that we call reality. Our view of this truth and knowledge only changes once we hit a wall and have experiences that contradict what we previously believed. Since our knowledge can always be changing based on what we see as reality, von Glaserfeld considers knowledge a mere theory. Everyone has different experiences, therefore there may not be any knowledge that is entirely correct, but rather viable and capable enough to get us through life successfully.
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You've got the right idea. People create theories about how the world works, what things mean, and what is true based on their past experiences. When they have new experiences, they interpret what these experiences mean based upon their theories. What ever they learn from these new experiences is thus "constructed," because it is a result of people applying their theories to make sense of them.
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you had to see and I very much agree with it. What a good idea to add to the learning experience by connecting it to things that they are very familiar with. You did a good job at describing this and I like how you showed what you would connect, math with sports or money, two of the most popular thing among students. You also did a good job at connecting it to constructivism, telling why it would be important to teach in this style. Overall, I think you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteThis was great! I really like your idea of having your students write their own story problems because I know that has helped me understand fractions a heck of a lot better. I had a hard time seeing a good connection between your topic sentence (on the first paragraph) and the rest of your paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI liked your idea. Building on things that the students already know about is a great way to use constructivism. I am a little curious on what kind of story problems you would have them come up with and how it would help them learn truth. I would be weary that they would learn something incorrect.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job in explaining what contrucivism means. I think it is interesting the idea of the knowledge we construct not necessarily be 100% true, but true enought to get us through life. Using experiences from their past probably would be good to help then truly understand concepts taught in class. Great job on this post - it was very clear and detailed.
ReplyDeleteI really like the implication that you used. Although I think you did explain how this implication ties to constructivism, I would have better been able to understand the connection if it had been stated in terms used in the article. But I do agree with you on this application of constructivism. The flow of your writing was very clear to see and it was easy to understand. I would use more scholarly terms and tone in this part of your blog.
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