What exactly is constructivism?
From Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom by Bruce A. Marlowe and Marliyn L. Page:
What exactly is constructivism?
*It’s about constructing knowledge, not receiving it.
*It’s about thinking and analyzing (crap detecting), not accumulating and memorizing information.
*It’s about understanding and applying, not repeating back.
*It’s about being active, not passive.
What are some guiding questions?
*How can we facilitate students’ learning in such a way that we provide opportunities for them to discover, create, and apply knowledge for themselves while working within a public school setting?
*How can we get students to push themselves beyond what they dreamed they were capable of?
*How can we get them to want to truly understand what they learn and to demonstrate that understanding in a meaningful and creative way, rather than just memorizing information and spitting it back out on a test?
*How do we get students to understand that learning for learning’s sake is cool, and fun, and hard, and much more worthwhile than memorizing information for a grade and then forgetting it?
Not easy questions, but questions that can be answered if we look at how technology can help make these things happen.
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