Saturday, March 27, 2010

Constructionist theories of Learning

When students build on their learning they are constructing new experiences. Through these new experiences they are are engaged and learning. Project based learning is a great one to use for this because students are actively engaged in the lesson. They are designing how and what they will learn. Rubrics are a great way for students to monitor their learning. The student can use a rubric to determine their grade and keep track of what they need to do to get the best grade.

Computers can be used in so many different ways to help students find information and make presentation. I have also learned that we have a distance learning program where students can be taught a lesson by someone in another part of the country or the world. My advanced art class is going to learn about puppetry in other lands and get to make a pole puppet as part of the class. I have not told them about this yet, but I think it will be a very fun experience for them and me as well.

1 comment:

  1. Karen, I think most of us would agree that being actively involved is the best way to learn and comprehend something new - even before we heard it coined as "constructionism". Many of the old sayings like - "You learn the most from your mistakes" or, "the best teacher is experience" are true - why? Of course, because we tried it and have a better understanding of what it takes to be successful. There are people who can discuss a subject all day but have never actually tried to apply their learning. I think these peoples understanding is incomplete and falls short.
    Therefore whenever we can engage students in active learning the benefits are tenfold.

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