Constructivist Learning Theorists

Where do the theorists fit in with this connection between community and learning?

Dewey

"The relationship between knowledge and reality is a result of individual and social experiences (Ultanir, 199)

"learner centered and less teacher dominated learning environment" (Ultanir, 201)

"the child own experience must be acknowledged" (Ultanir, 206)


The idea of social experience and its impact on learning is closely related to Bruner's ideas of engagement. Social discussion provides students with authentic motivation and a reason to apply and develop their problem solving skills.

Piaget

"continuous and gradual change of schema" (Jones)

"the most frequent cause of accommodation is the interaction, and especially linguistic interaction, with others" (Glaserfeid, 66)

"motivation to master new problems is most likely to spring from having enjoyed the satisfaction of finding solutions to problems in the past" (Glaserfeid, 181)

This gradual change supports the instructional practice of connecting prior knowledge with new learning, using each lesson and activity to build on a big idea rather than focus on specific content points.

Vygotsky

"social interaction leads to gradual, incremental changes in thought and behavior (adapted from the cultural and societal norms)" (Jones)

A direct connection to the importance of a classroom community.This raises the question of what are these cultural and societal norms? Are they different in and out of the classroom? In school, are we teaching students to norms of our society, or teaching them to seek out norms in order to understand social arrangement and communication?

Bruner

"effective instruction is engaging and stimulating to student minds" (Jones)
"set purpose for learning- motivate further exploration" (Jones)


How do the verbs we use in student objectives define their learning experience?

What are our expectations of education and how does these expectations impact the learning models used in classrooms?

What is the difference between memory and understanding? How do we assess this difference? 

The Having of Wonderful Ideas, Eleanor Duckworth

"Having confidence in one's ideas does not mean "I know my ideas are right"; it means "I am willing to try out my ideas" (Duckworth, 5)

What is a wonderful idea?

How do ideas grow from ideas?

How do educators encourage students to arrive at wonderful ideas?

http://www.azquotes.com/author/57783-Eleanor_Duckworth

Why are students ideas significant?

When students come to the realization that their ideas, values, thoughts, and skills are significant, they become confident in their ability to learn and share. Student's develop self respect for their own thoughts and are more willing to share and converse with classmates about their ideas. An inclusive environment harvests this growth in self-confidence, helping students solidify their ideas. When students see their ideas as significant, they begin to ask meaningful questions to  help grow their ideas even further.

"One can familiarize children with a few phenomena in such a way as to catch their interest, to let them raise and answer their own questions, to let them realize that their ideas are significant- so that they have the interest, the ability, and the self-confidence to go on by themselves" (Duckworth, 8)

Learning models that are so focused on getting to the final answer are preventing students from learning the important skills locked inside the struggle of problem solving: (Duckworth, 67) 

surprise

puzzlement

struggle

excitement

anticipation

dawning certainty

This lack of divergent exploration connects to the ideas recorded by students in the novel "Doing School" by Pope. Student's who have mastered the art of doing school correctly, meaning getting college-ready grades and preparing strong community service-based resumes, express their frustrations and missed opportunities to learn.

When, where, and why did we change from learning through play to learning for preparation?

The Inclusive Classroom

What happens to inquiry learning if the teacher does not meet these role requirements?

http://quotesgram.com/inquiry-quotes/

If the educator does not complete their role in the learning process, how does student's inquiry suffer?

Inquiry based learning occurs with the establishment and development of an inclusive classroom environment. Inclusion create a safe place to learn.

• recognize, respect, and incorporate student's prior knowledge and experiences
• comfort to take risks
• consider academic/social strengths and weaknesses of individual learners
• focus on the process skills
• reflection and development of the community- what works? what doesn't?

But what happens when this inclusive community is not established? 

The focus of learning shifts from the process to the answer.

Inquiry without a supported community is superficial. Students who are not comfortable to ask questions and take risks cannot achieve higher order process skills and are forced back into the habit of simply problem solving to find one correct answer.

I think that this idea of an inclusive classroom reaches past just teaching with a culturally relevant perspective. Or, perhaps the idea of inclusion is locked within this theory. When I think of a culturally relevant classroom, I think of a place where all students are recognized and respected as learners. This does not necessary mean in a diverse setting where students have various backgrounds. Any classroom, regardless of the student demographics, must be inclusive of all learners with varied strengths, weaknesses, and experiences. This is true culturally relevant teaching, and the heart of the environment necessary for inquiry based learning of successfully occur.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice and Education and Racism: A Primer on Issued and Dilemmas

How does culturally responsive teaching foster inquiry learning?

Inquiry learning is rooted in students ability to think.

Students ability to think is influenced by their prior knowledge.

Prior knowledge is developed based on experience.

Culture experiences, and expectations impact their home-school connection.

Learning with the inquiry model just does not seem to work without creating an inclusive, supportive, and safe classroom community. In order for students to take risks in their work, asking questions, creating solutions, and analyzing their work, their learning space must be supportive.

As it is now, students who arrive at school with a home culture that matches that of the institution are tracked more easily towards academic success. 

Students, however, should not just assimilate into their school community, but build it. Within this creation, students look for recognition and respect for the knowledge and experience they each bring from home.

Can culture be used as a tool to create authentic problems and activities, especially in math? I am still thinking about this one. It seems like incorporating culture into math problems is too superficial and would not actually make the problems more 'real'. I think the value of incorporating the classroom into students diverse cultures is within community building. Students bring different sets of problem solving skills based on personal experiences. Application of their problem solving strengths highlights students individuality. Encouraging development of their weaknesses helps build the learning community.

Educators can "reconsider their culture as a source of knowledge, strength, and having something to offer schools" (Leonardo, 61). Perhaps culture and respect plays more of a role in the way the classroom teacher works with her students. Knowledge of different norms and expectations that each student brings to the classroom impacts their learning style. Here, culture becomes a tool for the teacher- they can quickly adapt how to provide each student with individualized support.

"The class was never an individual effort!" 

(Gay, 163)- and nor should it be. Inquiry is community learning.

Guidelines and Goals of Observation- Ethnographic Eyes

"Ethnography helped us ask critical questions about supervision, classroom observations, lesson plans, reflections, interviews, data collection, and case studies" (Frank, 2)

In order to fully embrace inquiry learning, I plan to approach my classroom observations with an inquiry based model of ethnographic observations. I will become a learner in the classrooms, rather than simply an observer. My questions, observations, and inferences will help to grow and develop my own understanding of inquiry in the classroom and increase my own experience with the learning model.

What to look for?

• patterns and routines that impact the learning community
• student's role, and how it changes with the topic, lesson, and time
• teacher's role, how and when questions are asked to further student learning
• "suspend judgement" in order to take in authentic information from both student and teacher
• environmental factors that allow for inquiry to occur

Dewey's Suggestions... (177)

Serving as a rubric for my own observations and inferences

"It is organized as a social community; children are learning in the active setting of a miniature community"

"The social significance of subject matter is brought out in instruction"

"Children are involved in solving real problems, past and present. The subjects in the curriculum are integrated in the way that they work and are synthesized in the real world"

"Teachers confer frequently, informally and formally"

"Children are free to move around the room and seek help from others"

"The school takes advantage of cultural and educational institutions in the community to enrich the curriculum and children's lives"

"The children are happy"

Dewey's Laboratory School: Lessons for Today

"Always the spirit of service involved thinking, not just doing" (4)

In his analysis of his laboratory school, Dewey brings forward the importance of thinking in learning, rather than just learning by doing. This has shifted the language with which I associate inquiry learning. Prior to reading, the first think I think of with inquiry is 'doing'. Dewey makes it clear that this learning is actually most successfully described with the word 'thinking', connecting to making observations, inferences, and asking questions.

"Its purpose was not teaching but learning" (15)

Dewey's Ingredients and Conditions for Effective Inquiry (85-86)

Ingredients:

1. Lessons match students developmental level
2. Prep students to become citizens
3. Skills based on observation and inference

Conditions:

1. Student interest
2. Engaged thought
3. Increases new curiosity and questions
4. Time spent on effective development and connections

Big Ideas

• Students are learning and acting as effective, active, and involved citizens
• Cultivate skills to achieve this goal: problem solving, questioning, social/conversation (2-3)
• Big ideas > general knowledge of content
• Broad knowledge and citizen development connect strongly to the activation of culturally relevant teaching
• Students come to school without similar problem solving skills (3)
• Learning identifies commonalities in communities and groups of citizens
• Learning model impacts classroom community/dynamics and classroom management (122)
• Education which meets diverse needs, addressing each student's skills rather than mastery of specific content (129)
• Students think of themselves as learners, active and involved (161)
• Teachers learn theory before skill (165)
• Curriculum is infused with teaching and learning goals; pedagogy comes first (24, 31)
• Construction of lessons and activities
• Stimulus Response Theory- using student's interests as a tool (43)
• Construction of lesson plans allow students to approach and apply mathematics learning (70)
• problems are authentic and applied to student's lives
• Lessons and activities build on each other, not repeat (161)

Questions for Further Reading

How does inquiry address higher order thinking, beyond observation, inference, and questioning?

How does this model correlate with teaching organized bodies of knowledge?

How does our current curriculum and learning model in mathematics limit knowledge and experience?

How does math education become authentic and effectively applied?

What does learning in a circuit model look like?

Are these ingredients and condition currently applied in elementary math curriculum? Will I observe these conditions?

What is Inquiry?

Samantha Lee

Westfield State Elementary Education Student

Runner

Big Sister

Future Teacher

         When I become a classroom teacher, I want to encourage my students to be active in their learning. Learning by doing will encourage my students to retain important information and experiences. My classroom will be centered on student's experience, using effective questions to guide my students through discovery. 

Inquiry based activities give students an opportunity to take ownership of their learning, constructing knowledge through questioning and exploration. Lessons are student centered, holding each student to a high expectation of involvement and responsibility. An initial interest in an inquiry learning style developed early in my college education experience, sparking my desire to develop my own engaging teaching style. I believe that students should be immersed in their learning, asking questions and making discoveries in order to construct understanding. Based on my research, I hope to prove that inquiry is an effective method to reach these goals for student achievement. My work will uncover how teachers implement this style. As I research, I will search for techniques teachers use to ask expert questions and make decisions each moment about what questions will probe student’s thinking and abilities. A goal for my research is to determine what teacher skills are necessary to reach success within inquiry teaching. In addition, I will determine how student expectations and classroom communities impact the effectiveness of inquiry.

I hope that this research project will allow me the opportunity to discover effective methods and pedagogy that support inquiry based learning.

Photo Link: http://www.mrsplemonskindergarten.com/2014/09/positively-pinspiring-inquiry-and.html