The misuses and effective uses of constructivist teaching

Gordon, Mordechai

doi:10.1080/13540600903357058

Cited by 43 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Because content acquisition largely takes place outside of the classroom, this assignment can be used to either add novel content to the curriculum or to support content given in the traditional lecture. This however raises a critical point: constructivist pedagogy involves student-inquiry guided by the instructor (18). As students engage in knowledge-acquisition there is the opportunity for them to make improper assessments or conclusions based on their findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Constructivism as a theory of learning and teaching is sometimes misunderstood and misused (18). Active student participation is a necessary component of constructivist pedagogy; however, student participation should be placed in a rigorous context that promotes the understanding, analysis, and application of ideas and concepts (18, 11).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Active student participation is a necessary component of constructivist pedagogy; however, student participation should be placed in a rigorous context that promotes the understanding, analysis, and application of ideas and concepts (18, 11). In the sciences, active learning in the teaching laboratory has been shown to be an important method for evoking students’ higher-order cognitive skills in an applied setting (1, 22, 23).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oxford-Style Debates in a Microbiology Course for Majors: A Method for Delivering Content and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills

Boucaud

Nabel

Eggers

2013

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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Developing scientific expertise in the classroom involves promoting higher-order cognitive skills as well as content mastery. Effective use of constructivism can facilitate these outcomes. However this is often difficult to accomplish when delivery of content is paramount. Utilizing many of the tenets of constructivist pedagogy, we have designed an Oxford-style debate assignment to be used in an introductory microbiology course. Two teams of students were assigned a debatable topic within microbiology. Over a five-week period students completed an informative web page consisting of three parts: background on the topic, data-based positions for each side of the argument, and a data-based persuasive argument to support their assigned position. This was followed by an in-class presentation and debate. Analysis of student performance on knowledge-based questions shows that students retain debate-derived content acquired primarily outside of lectures significantly better than content delivered during a normal lecture. Importantly, students who performed poorly on the lecture-derived questions did as well on debate-derived questions as other students. Students also performed well on questions requiring higher-order cognitive skills and in synthesizing data-driven arguments in support of a position during the debate. Student perceptions of their knowledge-base in areas covered by the debate and their skills in using scientific databases and analyzing primary literature showed a significant increase in pre- and postassignment comparisons. Our data demonstrate that an Oxford-style debate can be used effectively to deliver relevant content, increase higher-order cognitive skills, and increase self-efficacy in science-specific skills, all contributing to developing expertise in the field.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oxford-Style Debates in a Microbiology Course for Majors: A Method for Delivering Content and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills

Boucaud

Nabel

Eggers

2013

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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“…According to Easley (1978) Piaget assumed that people had changed their views, behaviors and processes, so that they could adjust through a deeper understanding of the reality. Therefore, knowledge creation is based on individual investigations and thinking processes and on collaboration with the environment (Gordon, 2009). Therefore, the cognitive development process states that individuals must ensure the balance of assimilation and accommodation in order to make effective understanding and to regenerate the existing problem (Je Brophy & Jere Brophy, 2002).…”

Section: A Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Thinking as a Dimension of Constructivist Learning in Social Studies Education: A Study of Teachers’ Attitudes in Secondary Education

Muhammad

2020

JSE

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This study examined social studies teachers’ attitudes towards critical thinking as a dimension of constructive learning. The purpose of this study was indeed to develop a better understanding of the use of instructional approaches by experienced teachers to enhance critical thinking skills and improve student learning of social studies. The study was conducted in the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan with 20 experienced social studies teachers in 8 public secondary schools. Qualitative approach was preferred for this study. The interview with each of the 20 teachers was conducted individually and their social studies classes are observed separately. The results of this study revealed that teachers have little knowledge and understanding of instructional strategies that foster critical thinking. The teachers believed that students can benefit from using self-learning, self-assessment, involving in peer learning, meaningful and reasonable response process and express curiosity through questioning how and why. This study also explored some obstacles when teachers practice instructional strategies that enhance critical thinking in learning social studies.

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“…According to this tradition, teachers are conceptualized as keepers of what Cohen (1988) calls a "scholastic inheritance," which they are responsible for transmitting to their charges through a process of "teaching as telling." This vision flies in the face of contemporary theory, which has established that students learn best when they actively engage in the process of meaning-making and focus on depth rather than breadth (Erdogan & Campbell, 2008;Gordon, 2009), but it remains pervasive-in part because most teachers emulate the ways that they themselves were taught (Lortie, 1975). Emphasizing content mastery also serves to reinforce the message that schooling is merely a means to an end; the payoffs in terms of being able to engage deeply in "real work" begin only after years of closed-ended tasks.…”

Section: Disheartening Realitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“A Slow Revolution”: Toward a Theory of Intellectual Playfulness in High School Classrooms

Fine¹

2014

Harvard Educational Review

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In this essay, Sarah M. Fine explores the misalignment between instructional practices in secondary classrooms and the interests and capabilities of adolescent learners.Drawing on a series of ethnographic cases, she explores the potential consequences of this misalignment and attempts to conceptualize an alternate reality in which high school classrooms could become places where cognitive rigor and deep engagement function as mutually supportive priorities. Fine theorizes that a promising path forward would be pursuing instruction that involves intellectual playfulness-a construct that marries open-ended problem solving with opportunities for risk taking and flow. These same cases, however, illustrate that this pursuit would require profound transformations in the policies, practices, and perspectives that currently dominate the field.

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The misuses and effective uses of constructivist teaching

Cited by 43 publications

References 11 publications

Oxford-Style Debates in a Microbiology Course for Majors: A Method for Delivering Content and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills

Oxford-Style Debates in a Microbiology Course for Majors: A Method for Delivering Content and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking as a Dimension of Constructivist Learning in Social Studies Education: A Study of Teachers’ Attitudes in Secondary Education

“A Slow Revolution”: Toward a Theory of Intellectual Playfulness in High School Classrooms

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