1: Read this excerpt which describes a Constructivist classroom:

A Classroom Example of Constructivist Teaching

As a researcher of constructivist teaching, I visited Pat Gray’s classroom. His secondary language arts programme exemplified the attributes of constructivist teaching: learner-centered instruction in a democratic environment; active learners who build and create meaning and knowledge; learners who hypothesize, question, investigate, imagine and invent; learners who reflect and make associations with prior knowledge to reach new understandings.

Colourfully illustrated children’s dictionaries, student-created serial postcards storying imaginary holiday adventures, and visual responses to poetry decorated the hallway leading into Pat’s classroom. In the classroom itself, an abundance of student work was displayed throughout the room. Posted on all available bulletin board space was an uncommon and diverse array of written and visual student productions, sometimes several revised drafts of a written creation being exhibited to demonstrate the process involved in the product. In one corner of the ceiling was a compelling mobile, an imaginative and sensitive response to literature, as evidenced by the representation of characters, Laura, Amanda, Tom, and Jim, the characters from Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. There they hung, delicately suspended in their own separate worlds, connected only by a thin filament of thread, the infrangible ties of family and past history. And at the back and center of the room was an imposing five foot tall oak tree! With some ordinary construction paper, marking pens, and an interesting and resourceful treatment of various other types of art materials, an inventive group of students had depicted an intriguing and fascinating response to To Kill A Mockingbird . The oak tree was, in fact, a museum to house important artifacts from the story.

A number of years prior to this visit, I had been a guest in Pat’s classroom, and the same kind of richness of student work and activity had greeted me at that time, and a warm image of an elementary classroom had been brought to mind. I remember the room was filled with red geraniums in terra cotta pots and contained round tables instead of the usual student desks, and although the first class of the day hadn’t yet begun, the room already contained many configurations of grade nine students with an obvious sense of ownership of the classroom as they engaged themselves in an assortment of activities. One student busied herself watering the geraniums while two students, contorted faces pressed close to the aquarium glass, tried to engage the goldfish (Oscar and Syd Fishes, I was later informed) in a conversation. At a corner table, a huddled couple intently examined a Life magazine while next to them, a lively group of three or four students was occupied in transforming a rather large chunk of white bristol board into a lively looking collage. Their teacher was surrounded by a small group of laughing students involved in some discussion, and I remember I was impressed by the ease and comfort with which they interacted with him, and the affection they seemed to have for him, it being only the second week in September and Pat being new in the school. It was obvious to me that people enjoyed living there!

And now, as a graduate student, my research took me back to Pat’s classroom where the experience, once again, was memorable.

A class of grade ten students arranged themselves in the groups in which they had been working the previous day. They were involved in a group translation into contemporary English of Julius Caesar, each of five groups translating a different act. In their attempts to modernize and present Shakespeare’s work, students were required to come to an understanding of characters and events in the play, which would determine verbal and nonverbal representations. Later, the students would enact, in full costume, one scene of their choice from their contemporary constructions, with the remainder of the scenes to be presented in a readers’ theatre. While the costumes for the enactment would be contemporary, the students had to make decisions regarding the most appropriate costumes for each character based on their own interpretations of and transactions with Shakespeare’s text. The exercise was, as Pat later told me, an experience from which they would come to an understanding of linguistic evolution and character development. As I wandered from group to group, I encountered interesting and often entertaining discussions as students in the groups negotiated interpretations of Shakespearean discourse and debated how particular characters might say their new constructions. In the meantime, Pat was visiting each group, providing assistance where necessary, and probing to elicit personal responses and to encourage depth in their discussions.

Source: Constructivist Teaching and Learning, by Audrey Gray http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/old/ResearchAndDevelopment/ResearchReports/Instruction/97-07.htm

2: Watch this video which gives a brief introduction to the Constructivist approach (4:23)

And/or read this introductory article on constructivism: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/

3: Make summary notes for yourself in which you outline the key aspects of a constructivist approach to education.

When you are ready to continue to the next activity, click on the Mark Complete button below (first time) and Next Topic on subsequent visits to this page.