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Educational Phrases Cheerfully Explained

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CONSTRUCTIVISM: The primary educational theory that guides our choices

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Learners create knowledge and understanding through dynamic and purposeful activities.

Those activities include explorations, experiences, and interactions with which the student developmentally engages and processes.

The student reaches conclusions about how the world, individual systems, and tools work. So, the better the teacher curates and guides the learning activities, the better the student will learn.

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How that looks in a classroom:

Feature

Traditional Classroom

Constructivist Classroom

Objective

Teacher transfers information to the student accurately.

Student engages in multiple ways that best suit child to intake, adapt, and use information.

Working Style

Teacher gives assignment for individual or group work.

Student voice and choice: student is given both boundaries and expectations with different paths to success (groups or individual work).

Assessments

Assessments and learning are separate. Performing well on assessments is the way to demonstrate accurate information transfer (called summative feedback or high stakes testing).

Assessments are part of learning. Inculcating the teacher’s constant, accurate feedback is the way for the student to demonstrate progress (called formative feedback).

Independence

Fosters an understanding of the dynamics of the classroom and the skills to succeed at the “game.”

Fosters independent skills, knowledge base, and reasonable risk taking.

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  • Benefits of Constructivist Learning
  • Develops:
    • Critical thinking
    • Analysis
    • Evaluation
    • Strategic thinking
    • Communication skills
  • Both utilizes and encourages
    • Intrinsic motivation
    • Positive risk taking
    • Enjoyment of learning
  • Requires teacher to learn about each individual student

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WORDS YOU WILL HEAR CONNECTED TO CONSTRUCTIVISM PART 1

Student centered

Motivation for the students comes from what and how they are individually learning. So, the teacher tailors the learning and feedback to the student needs.�

Student led

Motivation for the students comes from what and how they are individually learning. So, the student in conjunction with the teacher decides the learning and feedback that best fit that student.

Montessori

This is a set system that incorporates elements of constructivism and independence building within a set of rules and classroom designs that are less transferrable out of Montessori classrooms. The teacher assigns daily goals and the student figures out how to accomplish them.

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WORDS YOU WILL HEAR CONNECTED TO CONSTRUCTIVISM PART 2

The teacher designs activity that aims to customize learning for each student's strengths, needs, skills, and interests. The learning plan depends on what the student knows and how they learn best as motivation.

Personalized learning

The teacher allows the needs, pace, methods, and autonomy of the student to define the student activity in the classroom. The teacher prioritizes a high-quality feedback loop for the student to develop for motivation.

Individualized learning

The teacher creates adaptations and incrementally fading scaffolding (support mechanisms) that could include peer support. This method includes fading slowly to shift the responsibility of learning and developing coping skills from the teacher to the student.

Differentiated learning

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For further assistance making the pieces fit,

please contact

Sharon Freundel, Managing Director

Shmuel Feld, Founding Director