Constrictivism Case Study

1. Describe two similarities between the traditional lesson and the constructivist one as described above. What are two differences?

One similarity between the lessons is that they both involved measurement. The teachers had the students measuring something that was interesting to them. In one case it was a whale and in the other it was a ship. Another similarity between the two lessons was that both of the classes had not worked with yardsticks or measurements. One difference in the lessons was that the constructivist teacher did not give her students instructions on how to see how long the ship was. The other teacher gave her students yard stick to measure the whale. Another difference was how the students reacted to the lessons. The students in the traditional class were unsatisfied with the lesson and really weren't sure what they had learned. The students in the other class were able to learn the importance of standard measurements and got a lot more out of the lesson. They were also much more engaged than the other class was.

2. What are two benefits and two drawbacks of the constructivist approach as described above? Why? In your opinion, are the benefits worth the costs? Explain your response.

One benefit of the constructivist approach as described above is that the students were engaged in the learning process. Another benefit is that the students got more out of it because they had to thing through the problem on their own. One drawback is that it took the teacher a lot more time to get through the lesson. As teachers we have a lot of material we need to get through and the constructivist approach sometimes is too slow of a pace. Another drawback is that there are a lot of misconceptions you will have to clarify. For example the students had a misconception about measurement. In my opinion I think that sometimes the constructivist approach is worth the cost sometimes but not always. There may be certain things you are trying to teach your students in which they would get more out of by using the constructivist approach. At other times you may not have enough time to let the students learn in that way. I think some subjects and topics are better suited for constructivism.

3. How does the constructivist lesson described about promote critical thinking? Give specific examples of critical thinking from the case study and include a definition of critical thinking to support you response.

Critical thinking is the purposeful and reflective judgement about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, writ en or verbal expression or arguments. In this example the teacher promoted critical thinking. One way she did this was by having the students think of their own method for seeing how long the ship was. She also lets the students work through their measurement problems on their own. For example she lets them measure with their hands how long the boat is but the students get a different number, she lets the students figure out what to do next. She never told them what to do, she just let them observe and reflect.

4. Would the constructivist activity be considered an authentic activity? Why or why not?

Yes this would be considered an authentic activity. Authentic activities are activities in which the learner solves a problem that is realistic. The problem is solved through their own knowledge and thinking. The students collaborated over this real life problem of how to see how long the ship was. The students were also able to use many different resources in solving this problem. It also took a sustained period of time for the students to solve this problem. The teacher also did not really define the task well. The students did not explicit instructions. These factors lead me to believe that this is an authentic activity.