Constructivism in Practice

In reviewing the instructional strategy: Generating and Testing Hypotheses, there were several focal points that drew my attention. One of the recommendations for using the strategy was to, "make sure students can explain their hypotheses and conclusions" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). When students are able to clearly articulate their thoughts, it demonstrates a deeper understanding and broader knowledge of what they are speaking about; Constructivist would call this Schema. Teachers that employ this strategy allow students to manage or work toward managing their Equilibration. Hypothesizing and testing allows students, "balance between differences in external reality or current beliefs and understanding" (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). With the technologies available students are able to use various spreadsheet software and other web resources to create graphs, charts and diagrams to serve as artifacts that they personally constructed to strengthen knowledge.

As students knowledge increases and the ability to think and elaborate in more complex and detail ways, instructional approaches such as Project-Based Learning become vital for students. This approach centers on, "authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation" (http://pbl-online.org/about/whatispbl.htm). With PBL' s students are often challenged with questions or problems that deal with actual daily occurrences or situations that happen in our world. The fact that students often work together in Project-Based Learning is a benefit to this approach because communication skills and presentation skills, among others, are considered 21st century skills that students will need to be competitive in the work force.

Teachers today face the challenge of becoming as technologically savvy as their students, and then seek ways to embed the technology into their lessons. The encouraging news is the resources are available and ready to be used. I am excited about the possibilities that exist with educational technology and look forward to putting the strategies and approaches to use.

Cognitivism in Practice

This weeks learning resources provided a multitude of great resources for strengthening understanding of information presented. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) describe excellent examples of “Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note Taking.” These examples instruct teachers on how to implement these strategies, using technology, into their lessons. Cues and questioning relate to what the Cognitist Theorist would call, "Elaboration Theory", they seek to help students form connections with information. The connections could be from prior knowledge to prior knowledge or prior knowledge to new knowledge. Advanced Organizers help to activate the Dual Coding component of Cognitive Learning Theory. Students not only receive new information (text), but they also utilize tables and charts (pictures), facilitated by technology, to help them organize information they will soon learn about. Multiple components of the Cognitive Learning Theory are often engaged when considering the strategies from this weeks learning resources. The strategy of Combination Notes, "which utilize outlining, webbing, and pictographs in addition to words" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and malenoski, 2007) employ Elaboration Theory, Dual Coding Theory, as well as Network Model of Memory Theory. Being able to use technology as the catalyst to bridge what we know about how the brain learns best and wonderful strategies such as these, makes education an exciting profession to be in these days.

Behaviorism in Practice

The instructional strategies, "Reinforcing Effort" and "Homework and Practice" are fairly common practices until spiced up with technology; they then become incredibly innovative practices. As a Physical Education major and P.E. teacher and football coach for several years, I was thoroughly impressed by the collaboration of Coach Turnage and Mrs. Baker. What an creative way of bridging the worlds of academics and athletics and using technology as the catalyst. I was equally impressed with the idea of having students use the "research" tool as a word processing application as opposed to using other search engines. What a great idea for all students, but particularly those students who are new to research and could benefit from a reduced number of findings to select from.

I really feel like both of these strategies are greatly enhanced by technology and serve as positive reinforcement for learning. Most times students are simply told about the value of education as opposed to being provided experiences where they can clearly see the benefits of education. Both strategies discussed give students an opportunity to enjoy the educational process because the strategies lend themselves to a deeper level of engagement which often produces a greater level of understanding of the subject matter.