While
teaching, I guess I might have been using constructivism, without realizing it.
Because when trying to solve an exercise, and not succeeding on it, instead of
telling my students the right answer, I always had the tendency to pull the
answer from them, by mentioning synonyms, other forms of the verb, directing the
way the said thing must come up from, depending on the situation. I always
found this the right method to use, because this way they would feel like they
are accomplishing it themselves, working for it and getting rewarded with a ‘Bravo’
from me.
Using
constructivism in teaching, in this case - helping solve problems, helps the
students memorize the form, structure, etc. of the exercise better for later
use, and it will be way easier to recall the same information in another
situation. And I used to do the same things while teaching the lesson itself. Continuously
reminding students of past situations, to help build up and store the new
pieces of information. Obviously in a lower scale, because I was not aware of
the benefits of it or either the existence of constructivism as a concept. It was just my
way of learning, and I wanted to reflect the same thing while teaching.
From
past classes of other subjects, I remember missing the class or not paying
attention to some information, and immediately feeling lost trying to catch up
with everybody. As a rational person, this is where I figured that if you have
information gaps, the new knowledge given has a difficult time trying to stay
in your brain, and it just won’t make sense until you connect it with somethings else. In my mind I always imagined it this
way: the knowledge in your brain is like a chain, where every information is a
ring that has this great importance to keep everything tied strong together. This
is why I found it crucial to ask for the missing piece of the puzzle. It’s not that I would ever ask the teacher for explanations, I was to too shy for that, but that’s not the point.
To
conclude, I simply must state how important it is for us as future professionals, to make sure that our students have a complete comprehension of what
we are trying to convey. Because at the moment, you may think they understand,
THEY may think they understand, but is our job to analyze whether the
information we are giving has strong foundations to stay and grow in.
Song of the day: Alt-J (∆) - Taro
I enjoyed reading your post and I read it with a great pleasure.What I always like about your posts is your unique way of treating them.I liked this sentence because at the moment, you may think they understand they may think they understand ,because was just what our Math teacher did.Congrats
ReplyDeletesad but true xp yet, thank you for the lovely lovely words Fatjona :D
DeleteSo now that you have a better grasp of its principles you'll do great
ReplyDeleteI read your post very carefully because of your original way of dealing with the topic.You have included your example of how unconsciously you used this theory with students.You have also explained how important is to make use of this theory in the classroom.I really liked your original and comprehensible reflection.Well done!
ReplyDelete