Modern Constructivism
In the class that I observe I haven't seen a whole lot of constructivism. In the math class the teacher does use spiral curriculum. She covers material they have learned the year before and goes into it more deeply or builds upon previous concepts learned. She does focus more on the symbolic processing in her math classes. She does include some iconic and enactive processing by having students play with ideas about statistics and she also uses pictures of graphs to explain what the equation is doing.
She did have an authentic activity that I observed. She was trying to help her students understand adding and multiplying exponents. She created a math maze where there were 12 multiple choice questions posted around the classroom. Students chose the answer they thought was right and that one told them the next one to go to. If they went through all 12 questions then each answer they chose was right. If they somehow got a question twice then they had to review which one they got wrong and go back to that. This is closely related to cooperative learning where the students were working in groups of all different skill levels to help solve the map.
Another authentic activity the teacher did with her stats class when introducing probability and linear regression is she asked students if they wanted some starbursts. After the students picked a starburst they then went on the board and made a mark of what color of starburst they got. The teacher then asked the students what questions or statements they could make from the graph. After a few ideas she then told them what the information meant with the linear regression and what type of graph it was and more. She then split the class into groups and have them repeat the experiment to see what other questions they could answer and what other information they could gather.
This was an example of inquiry learning. This activity also showed structure in the way the content fit into the activity and how it related to a bigger picture. It was also more of an introduction to the chapter and worked in the student's ZPD and got them ready for the next thing. This activity also allowed for some student intuition. When they went back to their groups they made predictions about what might happen and what they might see. This really motivated the students to get involved since they were having fun learning new concepts. This was a great example of the key themes in Bruner’s theory.
She did have an authentic activity that I observed. She was trying to help her students understand adding and multiplying exponents. She created a math maze where there were 12 multiple choice questions posted around the classroom. Students chose the answer they thought was right and that one told them the next one to go to. If they went through all 12 questions then each answer they chose was right. If they somehow got a question twice then they had to review which one they got wrong and go back to that. This is closely related to cooperative learning where the students were working in groups of all different skill levels to help solve the map.
Another authentic activity the teacher did with her stats class when introducing probability and linear regression is she asked students if they wanted some starbursts. After the students picked a starburst they then went on the board and made a mark of what color of starburst they got. The teacher then asked the students what questions or statements they could make from the graph. After a few ideas she then told them what the information meant with the linear regression and what type of graph it was and more. She then split the class into groups and have them repeat the experiment to see what other questions they could answer and what other information they could gather.
This was an example of inquiry learning. This activity also showed structure in the way the content fit into the activity and how it related to a bigger picture. It was also more of an introduction to the chapter and worked in the student's ZPD and got them ready for the next thing. This activity also allowed for some student intuition. When they went back to their groups they made predictions about what might happen and what they might see. This really motivated the students to get involved since they were having fun learning new concepts. This was a great example of the key themes in Bruner’s theory.
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