Constructivism in Practice

Being a social studies at the high school levels allows me to use many of the resources we discuss in these technology courses as Walden. I have learned so many great teaching skills that keep my students engaged in the material and really "buy in" to what we are doing in the classroom. They do this because how my students are learning in mainly through interaction and involvement in the class. Dr. Oley discribes constructionism as the process in which people are involved in the knowledge building process. Using technology can truly get the students involved and excited about learning if you are using constructionism theory.

Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works talks about working with spreadsheets and how even young elementary students can experience can learn by using technology and practicing constructionism theory. In the past, teachers who are education their students in testing hypothesis in different subjects would have to allocate a lot of time for the testing aspect of the lesson. By incorporating technology students can spend more time interpreting the data rather than gathering the data-a process that can be tedious and error prone. (2007) This is what technology has done for us. It makes things happen quicker, more effifient and more accurate. These are the type of activities our young students so desperately need. The ability the create something from nothing but your own knowledge is key for students. It allows them to see the progression of what they have learned over time.

Behaviorsim in the Classroom

I believe that the "drill and kill" method of teaching in the classroom is a great way to get the students to fully grasp the idea of the content that is being covered in your class. I think that too many times teachers are trying to be too detailed and do projects or assignments that are too difficult and too in depth for students. I know I have made this mistake in my few years of teaching. I assign too much for each student and sure they may complete the assignment, but did they fully understand what was happening. Another issue teachers face is trying to cover too much material in a short amount of time. The "inch deep and a mile wide" idea of teaching lends itself to favor because they students are not getting the full context of the material and just the basic ideas. I have the theory that you need to teach "an inch wide and a mile deep" in order for your students to fully understand. The issue with this is that there will not be enough time to cover areas you may like and also if some of your students are getting it and others are not, it may become repetitive for those students.

Behaviorism as a classroom management tool is very necessary for most teachers. The reason you are punishing a student is because of undesired behavior and the best way to fix it is to take away privileges and choices of that student. The "experts" who claim that the behaviorist theory of teaching is dead must not be teachers themselves. They are using scientific theories that state that children do not respond, yada yada yada... I agree with Dr. Oley that these behaviorist theories are alive and well in our classrooms today.