Teaching, Learning, Technology & Reflection

I am writing my teaching philosophy and remember this site that I have ignored for some time. Constructivism is forever confusing to me. Some quick ideas jotted down here: 1. Constructivism as a theory claims that the way for people to learn is for them to construct knowledge. Knolwedge does not exist outside and beyond a learner. 2. Constructivist approach to teaching can vary. These approaches should best facilitate learners to construct knowledge. If constructivism as a learning theory holds true, students will construct the knowledge which ever approach we use to teach them. However, there are approaches that most effectively faciliate knowledge construction and these are called constructivist approaches. These are the prescriptive theories.

Quotes “at present the constructivist model is descriptive, not prescriptive.” (Airasian & Walsh, 1997, p. 444) "application of constructivism in classrooms is neigher widespread nor systemic." (Airasian & Walsh, 1997, p. 447) "Students construct their own knowledge and interpretations no matter wht instructional approach is implemented and no matter what name is given to it." (Airasian & Walsh, 1997, p. 444) "I agree with the observation that the great philosophers have tried to find a way to integrate the mystical and the scientific. But from my point of view it was precisely the preoccupation with mysticism that blocked their progress in epistemology. The attempt to analyze the mystic’s wisdom with the tools of reason invariably leads to a twofold failure: on the one hand it destroys the mystic’s vision of unity because it segments experience into separate, specifiable parts; on the other, it compromises the rules of rational thought because it a...