Chapter 7

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student's individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles? 

For my example, I am going to use a math lesson on capacity. In order to achieve ultimate mastery of the content in this lesson, the students must be able to correctly identify which cup has the largest capacity and explain why. Below I will outline a list of skills needed to achieve ultimate mastery of the content.

• First, I am going to activate my students' prior knowledge of capacity by showing them two different sized cups and saying, "Ms. Hallock is thirsty! Which cup should she use? Why?" I would then listen to what my students say about which cup I should use and why. (The obvious answer to the question is that I would use the blue cup because it holds a smaller amount of water.) This part of the lesson involves whole class discussion and exploration of the concept of capacity therefore lending itself to group construction. 

• After discussing which cup they think I should use, I am going to add in another cup to challenge their previous answer. I will then ask them which cup they think holds more water and will ask them to discuss it with a partner. I will then have us discuss as a whole group which cup holds more and why and will listen to my students' answers in order to identify any misconceptions they may have about capacity. Having students discuss with a partner promotes individual construction and discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. (Students will more than likely answer that the green cup holds more because it is taller...this answer demonstrates a misconception) 

• Next, rather than telling my students the correct answer of which cup holds more, I want them to explore for themselves with a partner. I will provide each group with a green cup, a red cup, some small dixie cups, an empty container, and a bucket of water. (this way they can explore with a variety of materials different ways to solve the problem) I will then tell my students that they can use whatever they want to try and figure out which cup holds more water. In addition, I will encourage them to discuss various ideas with their partner about how they should approach this problem. Working together with a partner and discussing their individual ideas promotes individual construction. It is important to remember that children learn a lot from one another maybe even more than they do from us. In addition, having the students explore their own way to solve the problem also promotes individual construction. Furthermore, I am pushing them in the direction of conceptual change by allowing them to see hands-on that their existing belief that "the green cup holds more water because it is taller" is incorrect therefore addressing their misconception about capacity. 

• While the students are working together, I will walk around to each group and act as a guide to push them in the right direction, if needed. I will ask questions such as "Tell me what you are doing?" "Why did you decide to do that?" "What are you going to do next?" and if I see that they are stuck I will ask "What would happen if...?". This lends itself to the student's individual construction. 

• After my students have had plenty of time to test which cup they think holds more water, we will come back together as a group for a whole class discussion about the results they found. We will first talk about what each group did to find out which cup holds more water and what method they think worked best and what method they think did not work the best. We will discuss what their prediction was and then discuss what they learned through this lesson about capacity. This will once again address their misconception about capacity and then show how their existing belief about capacity was reconstructed through what they learned. Discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. 

• At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to see that the red cup have the largest capacity and explain that this is because it is wider than the blue and green cup. 
• At the end of the day, I will have students right what they learned about capacity in today's math lesson. This will promote individual construction and provide me with a formative assessment on how well my students understood the lesson. 

This is a great website on how to apply constructivism in the classroom. It provides detailed steps on how to implement constructivism in your classroom environment. In addition, it discusses challenges that you might face, how you can assess your students' progress using this approach, how constructivism aligns with state and national standards, and how to use technology to complement constructivism. You should check it out!

Constructivism in the Classroom