Constructivist Cautions

I very much enjoyed reading this article. If anyone is on the fence regarding Constructivism in the classroom, this article may help you explain to others why. I appreciate what people are trying to do, fix our schools. It’s easy to look down on our educational system and say “yeah. There are a lot of things that are wrong so we should change it.” I would love to see those people try and change it first hand in a classroom setting. The authors put it very well, “that there is a crucial difference between evidence that documents the need for change and evidence that documents the efficacy of a particular strategy of change.” This line affected me the most. Although we need to change how we teach and learn, it is important that our first choice of change is not the first option, and that we consider every approach available.  I like the point they make regarding the responsibility of the teacher in a constructivist classroom. Constructivism puts an emphasis on student directed learning, taking weight off the teacher’s shoulders, but the teacher will have just as much work as he or she did before. The third point I enjoyed was the caution that talked about how students make their own meaning from any kind of instruction. The difference is making a meaning that has either nothing or something to do with the context.