Monday, August 26, 2013

Constructivism


Paper instructions:
You have been hired for your ideal teaching position, in your ideal school district.
Living up to your “ideal” expectations, your new school district has been selected to host a panel discussion among a number of leading, world renown, scholars in education. Leading this panel discussion will be Eric Von Glasserfeld, L. S. Vygotsky (miraculously brought to life and speaking fluent English through a new procedure developed by NASA), and Jerome Bruner.

To your dismay, you find that your excitement about this opportunity is not shared among your colleagues. Upon a meeting with your principal, you learn why – Unfortunately, your colleagues are not well-informed on the insights that these famous scholars have contributed to our understanding of constructivist-based teaching and learning. You begin to realize that while your colleagues speak of constructivism regularly, they are not well-informed of its foundations or the various perspectives from which constructivism is often interpreted.
Given your insights and interest in this area, your principal has asked you to assist her in preparing your colleagues for this “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
This brings you to your 4th case assignment…

Your Task
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation* that illustrates the following different perspectives of constructivism:
Radical Constructivism
Social Constructivism
Cognitive Constructivism
To “illustrate” each perspective, address each of the following:
Who is the key theorist associated with each perspective?
How does each theorist believe knowledge is constructed and/or learning occurs?
Supplement your presentation with a narrative depiction of what you will be “saying” for each slide. ?Depending on your skill and comfort level with PowerPoint, you may choose ANY ONE of the following formats for your supplement:
A separate word document; OR
The “notes” feature of the PowerPoint software.

*If you are unfamiliar with PowerPoint altogether, and do not wish to use this as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with this tool – No Worries. Simply, address these same concepts in a written report / essay.
Assignment Expectations
The content of your presentation and supplement (or report) is to demonstrate your understanding of the assigned readings.
Remember, your slides are to highlight your insights in a clear, yet succinct manner. Your supplemental narrative is to communicate these insights in a “conversational tone”.
Length: 10-12 slides w/ supplemental file, notes, or audio.
As always, any references used should be properly cited and listed.

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