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Artifact: professional development proposal
As the culminating project in ETEC 530 Constructivism Strategies for E-Learning, I created this professional development workshop for English teachers to learn constructivist teaching practice as applied to literature circles in an English or Language Arts classroom. The literature I reviewed on the subject of constructivism in the English literature classroom all agreed that one must experience it to learn to teach it.
Reflection:
This paper includes a rationale for the construction of the workshop which is constructivist in nature because learning is situated for teacher-learners as well as student-learners; the individual and the group are important to the learning process as each learner individually engages in minds-on activities but share knowledge with the group to arrive at a shared understanding (Cobb, 2005). In any learning situation, learners elicit prior knowledge to make connections with what they already know; then a sense of cognitive dissonance must occur as learners realize a perturbation in their current understanding (Baviskar, Hartie & Whitney, 2009). Through their natural curiosity, they seek to find equalibrium by assimilating or accomodating new knowledge. Finally, reflective practice in all learning is extremely important. Meta-cognition is necessary to the process of knowledge transformation (Noel, 2000). Blogs, wikis and forums are useful tools for ongoing reflection while gaining deeper understanding of content (Matthew, Felvegi & Callaway, 2009; Miyazoe & Anderson, 2010).
constructivism
The concept of constructivism was introduced to me in my first course, ETEC 512 Application of Learning Theories to Instruction, but I did not realize then how much of an effect it would have on my teaching practice. In the beginning of the program, I was focused on what I knew best - transmission teaching with activities when time allowed; I was not convinced that constructivism resulted in meaningful learning because it appeared too loose and unstructured. By my ninth course, ETEC 530 Constructivist Strategies for E-Learning, I realized that the program and the individual courses were designed from constructivist learning theory. I now have the perspective that all learning is rooted in constructivist learning theory. The Statement of Education that I developed at the end of ETEC 530 greatly contrasts with the transmission focus of my Learning Theory (ETEC 512 Beginning; ETEC 512 End) in my first course.
How does the theory of constructivism translate into classroom practice?