This week's lecture on pedagogy drew together concepts that have been examined in previous weeks and other units, and for me, partially closed a void between the constructivist pedagogies that have been put forward and my memories and impressions of the practices implemented by my teachers. Until now, the concept of constructivism seemed completely removed from my school experience, because the authority and specific direction with which we were taught seemingly contradicted the concept of students constructing their own learning and knowledge. However, the introduction of authentic pedagogy and productive pedagogy has allowed me to reflect on the practices of my teachers, and realise that despite the generally authoritative nature of the teaching, I was often taught in ways consistent with constructivist concepts. Certainly, when I reflect on the most valuable things I learned at school, my understanding is tied to my own and often unique experiences within the class room, something that would not have been possible without the teacher providing an appropriate environment.
I feel this reflection is strongly connected to the provocations I identified last week. What kind of teacher do I want to be? What will students want and need from me? and should we teach students or subjects?
I'm studying a Grad Dip Ed too, and when I was thinking about if my teachers used constructionist pedagogies a particular lesson from year 9 science came to mind.
ReplyDeleteWe had been studying food... I think... and had completed a number of practicals investigating different things. Then one lesson our teacher presented us with a whole bunch of resources including food types, indicators, acids, etc. and told us to create our own experiment or investigation. Well, that lesson was a complete disaster! As I recall, my prac group combined everything together and threw it out the window. Also, one of my friends nearly poured acid on me.
So what went wrong? Well firstly this teacher did not have good classroom management skills. We were the top stream science class, so we shouldn't have been too hard to handle... right? But the specific issue for this lesson was one of scaffolding. The teacher did not build us up to creating our own experiment. She did not provide a guide in the way of a worksheet or instructions on the board.
Having students construct their own knowledge and understanding is what education should be about, but for this to be done they need guidance and support. They need to be given a framework from which to work from and road signs giving them directions.
So to relate this all back to your post Michael, I also had the 'void' between constructionist theories and practical teaching and for me it was closed by this idea of scaffolding.
It is great that you are tying your current learning back to your own experiences Michael! Great stuff
ReplyDeleteKerrie