Constructivism is a theory of learning by von Glaserfeld where knowledge is not simply received by the senses but is built up on an individual basis by the learning person. It is also the idea that the world we live in may not be reality, but is merely the creation of the subject's experience and observation; when one finds something to be 'true', it enforces the concept that it is real, however there is no way to prove that it is indeed reality. This is why it is theory rather than fact, indeed Glaserfeld points out his own paradox by saying, "to asses the truth of your knowledge you would have to know what you come to know before you come to know it." So you build knowledge upon experience and accept it as truth, whether it is fact or not.
von Glaserfeld then turns to the teacher and states that, "two things are required for the teacher [to build conceptual knowledge in students]: on the one hand, an adequate idea of where the student is and, on the other, an adequate idea of the destination." What Glaserfeld means by this is that teachers must be cognizant of each student and how their progress in understanding the mathematics is going for it is the student who has to do the conceptualizing and operating not the teacher. So the teacher's job is to generate understanding, rather than train specific performance. Because of this if I were to teach using a constructivist method I would encourage and accept student input and participation. I would also encourage students to inquire about what they are learning by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask questions to each other. By promoting individual involvement and interaction each student will learn their own way and will see the perspectives of others further solidifying the understanding of the concepts.
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You have a really good topic sentence and your paragraphs are very well written. The way you would teach using constructivism is very similar to my opinion. You really put some good things in your blog. I think you did a really good job. :)
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of encouraging student participation. This is the only true way to test what students know. I can see your connection between this method and constructivism, that through participation students are building their own knowledge, but this sentence was absent from your paragraph. It would be a nice tie in to the whole paragraph if a connection sentence was added.
ReplyDeleteYou identified an important point that von Glasersfeld made, which is that knowledge is constructed from experience. von Glasersfeld does not, however, take a stand on whether or not there is an external reality. What he does say is that we can never know for sure if our interpretation of reality actually matches reality. This is because the only way that we can know reality is through our experience. Furthermore, our experience does not come with innate or embedded meanings. Instead, we must interpret our experience to make sense of it. From this we create theories about reality, but we can't be sure that those theories are indeed correct. It may be that we just haven't interpreted our experiences correctly.
ReplyDeleteI thought your blog was very clear and I was able to understand what van Glasersfeld was trying to portray. I thought you picked good quotes to express your thoughts but I would have liked to hear more of your interpretation of the article, rather than quotations from the article. I also would have liked to hear more of your opinions in the second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteNice job on this post; it was very readable and understandable. I thought it was interesting the point made by von Glasersfeld about how one can never come to know what truth is, yet one can come to know what truth is not. I liked your ideas of how to assess students understanding, but I also am a little uncertain if asking for participation and thoughtful questions would really do the trick to make students truly understand. It is quite common in classroom settings that only a handful of the same students will participate or take on challenges to ask more in-depth questions. What about the rest of the class?
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