Personal learning experiences
My college experience of learning computer programming is an example of Constructivism.
- Teachers acted as guides as they presented new programming concepts.
- I constructed new knowledge by building on previously-learned concepts.
- Teachers provided problems to solve through computer programming.
- Advanced students acted as teaching assistants and helped debug programs.
My middle school experience of learning about World War I is another example of Constructivism, in that as a class, we constructed a narrative about the war through each student’s presentation. However, I don’t remember any of it. The experience would have been more memorable if the teacher had incorporated additional demonstrations or activities, such as cooking a stew that the soldiers ate in the trenches, or making war bond posters (Rasmussen, 2014).
References
- Berkeley Graduate Student Instructor, Social Constructivism, http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/social-constructivism/
- University College Dublin, Constructivism and Social Constructivism in the Classroom, http://www.ucdoer.ie/index.php/Education_Theory/Constructivism_and_Social_Constructivism_in_the_Classroom
- American Montessori Society, Introduction to Montessori Method, https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori
- R. Kent Rasmussen, World War I for Kids, Chicago Review Press, 2014
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