Constructionism in the Classroom

     There are many connections between the many instructional strategies and both the constructionist learning theory that I explored this week. In the media piece shared by Walden University (2015), Dr. Orey explains that to use the constructionist theory correctly in the classroom, educators have to ask students to create some sort of item or model they can share with their peers. The idea is that students would take their previous and new content knowledge and demonstrate their understanding by “doing” (Pitler et al., 2012).  In this case, strategies would include discovery-based activities and student-centered instruction where they are given a task and allowed to engage in this mental process on their own through their creation. Technology would also be a useful instructional and learning tool to support these theories. 

           Depending on the activity at hand, “modern technology has a lot to add in terms of efficiency, accuracy, analysis, and presentation” (Pitler et al., 2012, p. 115). This can be utilized in the classroom through the constructionist theory by engaging students in analyzing a data set, creating some type of mathematical representation of their findings and analysis, and then using technology to present that information to their classmates (Pitler et al., 2012). I envision using this theory and instructional strategies in my mathematics classroom in a similar way.

    As my ESL I Foundations class begins a unit on money, I plan to present my students with the task of going “shopping” with a set amount of money to prepare for different events. Each student would be given a scenario, for example, planning a birthday party, going out to dinner, going back to school shopping with a specific shopping list, or building something. The variation in the task would be one way to engage students through their personal interest, given then an event to prepare for that is relatable to them. Students would have to complete an online research to justify the item process and their decision to shop at certain stores rather than others. They would then “create” the event or item they were set out to complete, make an itemized list of their purchases, and create a final product to share with their peers. As they will be set on a budget, prior research will be necessary to complete their task successfully. Students will utilize some form of technology, whether it be a presentation, a compilation of FlipGrids, videos, or a combination of a few, to then present their project digitally to the class. While at first a challenge, this opportunity would promote computational thinking to solve their overall problem and engage students in the digital design process to share their findings and creation (ISTE, 2008). 

    By giving my students a larger task with set parameters and expectations, I foresee this assisting them in preparing their Genius Hour project.  My students will be able to apply the learning they acquired from completing this real-world digital task in future learning and other learner-driven activities they are presented with (Mohammad, 2018). By choosing the correct digital tools to plan and manage their design, my students will also be presented with considering constraints they are given for a task and calculating the risks that making certain decisions would affect (ISTE, 2016).  

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). ISTE standards for educators. Retrieved from  https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). ISTE standards for students. 

Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-forstudents

Mohammad, R., & Farhana, R. (2018). Dilemma between constructivism and constructionism : Leading to the development of a teaching-learning framework for student engagement and learning. Journal of International Education in Business, 11(2), 273–290. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1108/JIEB-01-2018-0002

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Walden University. (2015). Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video]. In Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction and Technology. Walden University Blackboard. https://class.waldenu.edu