This weeks text was “Translating Constructivist theory into practice in primary-grade Mathematics”, by Jody Brewer, and its research was based on interviewing 8 maths teachers on their views of constructivism and to see if their views mirror their teaching methods. 

Before reading the text I thought about my own views on Constructivism and I feel that constructivist teaching allows students to create knowledge, using their prior knowledge and the environment around them to create new knowledge. The students are scaffolded by the teacher to aid their learning process and learn through peer interactions.

Each of the teachers interviewed had similar beliefs but also had other views on what constructivism is. There were four main themes on the teachers perceptions of constructivism these were a) learning is an active, constructive process, (b) new knowledge is built on prior knowledge, (c) autonomy is promoted, (d) social interaction is necessary for knowledge construction and active learning.

Two views from the teachers were “knowledge comes from within the children. They construct it instead of the teacher being the holder of knowledge and giving it to the children” and ” You take what you know and you take what you don’t know and from your perspective you try to learn what it is you don’t know and how it makes sense to you.” This quote was significant for me as it looks at a child’s prior knowledge and their ability to use it to construct new knowledge. However, i believe that children can not construct knowledge on their own and need to be scaffolded by their teachers so that they have some kind of understanding on the topic.

Teacher scaffolding students learning as they learn collaboratively, from “City of Destin Florida” website.

” Autonomy means the ability to govern oneself by taking relevant factors into account.” This theme was encouraged by all eight teachers as the don’t want their students to be limited into just one way to solve a problem, but be able to look at other factors. I believe autonomy should be considered in the classroom so the students have the ability to construct their own way of learning but i believe learning would best be done collaboratively so that the students can discuss their beliefs and consider other students views to a problem.

The final theme was social constructivism, where teachers said they needed to share ideas and receive feedback from others because it clarifies and extends their own thinking. I found this view of constructivism to very effective in a classroom/ learning environment.

Social Constructivism.  From pbwiki, by ms. munroe

All current teachers and future teachers need to “start thinking about their own teaching and ideas about teaching”(Christiansen, 1999) and there will be no limit to the potential for development. I hope that when I become a full time teacher that my constructivist views will mirror my classroom instruction and activity. I don’t ever wish to become on of those boring, monotone teachers that stands in front of the class and feeds the children information, i want to engage my students, make their learning fun and engaging.

Reference List:

Brewer, J., & Daane, C.J. (2002). Translating constructivist theory into preactice in primary-grade mathematics, 123(2), 416-417