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Implications of Constructivism in my Professional Journey

In our recent class, we had learnt about concept and theories of knowledge and learning. The skills or things acquired by a person through his/her experiences or education is called knowledge, whereas improvement in the acquired skills or knowledge taken place because of interaction of learner with its environment is called Learning. In this session we also discussed about three major theories of knowledge and learning which are as following:

• Behaviourism
• Cognitivism
• Constructivism

All these theories explain the mode of learning and factors which influences it. It also justifies the role of memory in learning and how learning is transferred from teacher to learner.

I, always, believe in Constructivism theory of knowledge and learning, which states that knowledge is actively constructed by the students for themselves. It was drawn out of Cognitivism. According to Vygotsky-Cultural-historical theory, cognitive development or construction of knowledge requires social interaction or past experiences of the students. Constructivist theory puts more emphasis on social interaction among people and its can easily be implicated by giving group work opportunities.

In my professional journey, I preferred teaching students by constructivist approach in which I always gave them chance to work in teams so that social interaction may be encouraged. I perceive, a group of people with common interests and goals, share their experiences and enhance their knowledge. Group presentations and project-based learnings induces more social engagement and results in improvement in any skill.

Nowadays, I encourage students to reflect their own learning processes so that they may be more independent learners and will be self reliable learners. That is how I keep adapting to new strategies and techniques in my classroom for the betterment of my students and maintain dynamic nature of teaching and learning.

For this blog post, I have been though  Constructivism – Teaching in a Digital Age (opentextbc.ca)

I have also read The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching

I have watched for Implication of Constructivism Constructivism in Education (youtube.com)

I knew that I was a teacher, but this week I also discovered that I am a constructivist.

When I started teaching ESL to adult newcomers in Canada, I was introduced to Portfolio-Based Language Assessment (PBLA) – a teaching and assessment model that is widely used in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC). The more training I did in this model and the more I applied it in my classroom, the more I approved of it and tried to adhere to it.

Only now I realize that PBLA is to a great extent based on the principles of constructivism. For example, social constructivists believe that learning is more effective through encouragement and social interaction (A.W. Tony Bates). In PBLA, peer feedback is highly encouraged, as well as working in pairs or groups. Moreover, according to the principles of constructivism, students must work towards building their own meaning and knowledge (A.W. Tony Bates). Similarly, one of the main PBLA guidelines is that students should be the owners of their learning – they should be given a choice of what to study, they have to perform regular self-reflection, and each learner tracks their progress by updating their portfolio. Most importantly, constructivists consider process to be as important as the outcome, and so do PBLA adherents, as the students’ skills in the classroom are being assessed regularly and not just at the end of a term/academic year.

Although I can now call myself an eager advocate for constructivism, I must admit that my classroom practice is not free from behaviourist and cognitivist influence. For instance, I have always believed that praising students for their achievements, however big or small they are, will reinforce their progress. Little did I know that evoking certain responses by specific stimuli (A.W. Tony Bates) is a key principle of behaviourism! In my defense, by encouraging the students to react certain way to my verbal rewards, I have always been appealing to their emotions and their self-esteem, while behaviourists try to view human activity objectively, rejecting reference to feelings and consciousness (A.W. Tony Bates).

Furthermore, twice a week, my students work individually on an online platform (usually Ellii or RazKids) under my supervision. Mostly, they have to read or listen to a text adapted to their language level and complete a range of comprehension and/or vocabulary exercises. The program then rewards them for correct answers and suggests to improve the wrong ones. However, now I realize that such activities are basically a new, more modern version of Skinner’s Teaching Machine, and though it can be an effective teaching tool, it should not be overused.

As for cognitivism, I believe I largely comply with this theory of learning when I plan my lessons. Some parts of my lesson plans are a vivid reflection of Bloom, Anderson, and Krathwol’s hierarchy of learning (A.W. Tony Bates) and Gagne’s 9 events of instruction: I tend to start a class with a warm-up speaking exercise (gaining attention), then I briefly inform my students about the objectives of the lesson, then we revise what we studied before, and after that, we learn something new and put it to practice, until eventually the students are able to use the new material independently (create). Nevertheless, I like experimenting with different order of activities during class – for instance, I have tried introducing more complicated new material right after a warm-up, before the students get tired, and review the previously learned matters towards the end of the class. This approach also worked well, but I am still yet to observe and decide what would be the absolute best lesson structure for my students – perhaps I could make it a part of my future research?

In conclusion, I must admit that studying the theories of learning more deeply helps me see my teaching through a new, more detailed lens. I can now identify which theory has influenced each of my teaching strategies, and I am able to see which ones of those strategies I would like to improve.

Early in my career when I started teaching without any formal learning on education and theories of knowledge, I used to follow certain elements of behaviorism that mostly include organizing and managing the classroom through various reinforcement techniques. In my early years I used to struggle in finding a balance between my teaching and engaging students. After a certain time I realized that things were not going my way and started planning on strategies to shift my approach towards a more student centered approach. I started emphasizing on lesson planning and understanding how children process the information that shows a strong connection to cognitive theories. This change came when I started my bachelors degree in education and learned the concept of educational psychology. This has helped me to move towards cognitive learning and got to know about children’ cognitive process and clear understanding on why some students struggled with simple concepts. These understanding allowed me to adapt cognitive theories in my teaching.

I remember one incident, when I was teaching in grade 2 and one girl raised a challenging question. Earth is known as a blue planet because its made up of water and you told water has no color  has made me think again about my approach. I realized that teaching is not about delivering  information but it’s about engaging and facilitating their critical thinking. This has led me to move towards a constructivist approach.

Over these years of my teaching career, my beliefs have changed significantly with the experiences. In the initial days I was more focused on delivering content and believed that subject mastery is important to be an effective teacher. With experience in the social sector and working for the improvement of underserved community children’s education has nurtured me the importance of inclusivity and holistic development of children.

If someone were to ask for a current definition of technology, the average mind would immediately default to current advancements. However, to truly value current technology it is important to first learn where current developments originated. In the world of educational technology, a current example would be the introduction of smart boards. It is easy to forget that at one time classrooms were equipped with overhead projectors, and before that handwritten notes on a blackboard. Tony Bates does a great job of a examining a timeline of prior educational technologies in their article: A short history of educational technology. A personal takeaway from this article was the introduction of PLATO to the world of education. This online education tool brought instant messaging, online testing, forums, and message boards to the world of learning. It is hard to believe that this program was first developed in the 1970’s, it seemed to be well before its time. Fast forward to today’s technology, it is easy to see how PLATO continually advances such as including programs like google classroom. Further allowing education to extend beyond the classroom.

In another article Neil Postman shares the idea that technology becomes dangerous when people take it for granted. Working with youth daily, it is easy to see how current technology such as televisions, streaming services, cellphones, computers, and smart watches have quickly become part of their everyday life. The youth of today have come to rely on their technology for entertainment, as well as learning. One worry I have regarding this reliance is how youth struggle to function without contacting friends or watching their favorite show daily, it has become their routine. The same could be said about how technology is used within education. Educators have become reliant on using technology for research, writing, sharing videos, and projecting lessons. Neil Postman concludes with a statement that stuck with me, “the greater the technology that is introduced, the greater the price.” In other words, while technology is meant to make our lives easier, it can also make some aspects of life more difficult.

While advancements in educational technology are amazing, it is also important that we are weighing the pros and cons of what we, as educators, are bringing into the classroom. Do we worry that one day handwritten notes and printing become a thing of the past or that books are only available digitally? Regardless of your standpoint in the use of educational technology, it is important to understand the reasoning for using them and the positive and/or negative impacts they bring with them.

Unveiling how Technology shapes Learning Experiences

In our recent educational technology class, we explored how technology evolved from the ancient times to the present day, transforming the learning landscape. Contrary to the common thought that technology solely deals with digital tools, we found a new  definition of technology, as, simply the application of knowledge for practical purposes.

We discussed how the definition of technology has broadened over the years. Whether it is early tools like hand axes ,innovation of fire or the latest developments like the printing press and refrigerator, technology has always been about human resourcefulness. The indigenous planting technique known as “Three Sisters” planting technique, speaks loud about how knowledge can be applied to improve efficiency and viability.

The central idea of our class was that educational technology has always sparked excitement combined with skepticism, let it be early innovations like blackboard and film or recent ones like smartboards and online learning tools. However, each progress has its own pros and cons as stated by Neil Postman

Another fruitful part of the discussions dealt with the concept of “hard and soft technologies”. A common example of “hard technology” is the refrigerator as it serves the specific function of keeping food cool, whereas, smart phones come under the category of “soft technology” as it does multiple functions of phone, camera, radio, computer, calculator and much more. As educators, we have to consider these details while we integrate technology into our teaching practices.

A topic of debate that came across in our class discussion was “How important is medium in delivering education?”. I read this source and found that some people sided that medium is like a vessel for information whether it be a textbook, a video or a digital tool, while others opined that medium plays an important role in shaping learning experiences. This debate directs our attention towards the fact that while choosing a tool for teaching, we must critically examine its effect on student learning.

The gist of the session was that educational technology is not merely limited to a latest gadget, its any tool or method that improves the process of learning. We as educators must strike a balance between the benefits and potential drawbacks of any novel tool before integrating it in our student’s learning process.

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