Post 5 - Self Regulating Students

Description

Constructivism is a theory of learning based primarily on the work of Jean Piaget and Leo Vygotsky.  The theory holds that human beings learn through experience, “constructing” knowledge through exercises with their peers.  Constructivist classrooms value collaboration and student-centered lessons.

Analysis

Leo Vygotsky’s theories focused on four key principles: social learning, the zone of proximal development, cognitive apprenticeship, and mediated learning.  “Social learning” is the observation that humans learn through interaction with other human beings.  This interaction functions most efficiently in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), the middle area between what students can do independent and what they cannot do even with help.  The ZPD is the skills that students can do with the aid of a more experienced person.  Inside the ZPD, the more expert teacher guides the learner in “cognitive apprenticeship,” a process where the learner uses less and less aid from the expert until they can accomplish the skill independently.  Vygotsky’s theories encouraged teachers to give students difficult situations and have them work though the solutions with aid, this process is known as “mediated learning.”

Constructivist classrooms rely heavily on peer interaction during discovery learning.  In discovery learning, students are given a complex problem to solve and they work collaboratively with their peers to learn the basic skills need to solve the complex problem.  Teachers create experiences and have the students engage in experiments that lead to the discovery of the desired information (Slavin, 2015, pp.193).  The students are empowered as learners so as they guide their own development and are self-motivated.  This “self-regulated learner” is the goal of a constructivist teacher.  The self-regulated learner has the problem solving skills needed for success in life outside of high school.

In order to bring students to the end result of being self-regulating learners, teachers must use scaffolding.  Scaffolding is a term derived from engineering.  When a building is being constructed, temporary supports and structures, called scaffolding, are built to aid the workers.  Once the work is complete, the scaffolding is removed and all that is left is the finished product.  Just like the building, a student’s skill set is a thing constructed over time.  And like the building, the student needs temporary supports until he can master the skill independently.  The educational scaffolding is slowly removed as the student shows increasing independent skill.

Reflection

I developed a new model for my classroom for another graduate level course.  Problem Solving Communities (PSC) are a strategy that strategically groups students of varied ability levels to solve problems communally with the teacher serving as a facilitator, would “awaken a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is interacting with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers. Once these processes are internalized, they become part of the child's independent develop­mental achievement” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.35). PSCs consist of four or five students, intentionally grouped so as to counter certain weaknesses in a student with strengths in another. In the PSC environment, the classroom becomes a common area in which references and technology are used to collectively work together towards a common goal. Cell phones, rather than being seen as a distraction and discouraged, now are freed to be used as the productivity tool they are. No longer are desk aligned in rows, but rather tables with chairs allow for more group discussions. Durmus (2016) noted that the teachers insisted that space was needed for “walking, lying and reading books or drawing” (p.190). Instead of isolating the students in individual desks and insisting they remain passive while the teacher lectures the material from the front of the class, a PSC environment would have no “front,” rather it would be an open space in which the students are free to move and interact with one another.

Throughout the term, the PSCs would be assigned a similar standards-based problem or situation, on which they will work on for a period of time. The time frame would vary based on the intensity of the problem and the standards being addressed. PSCs would be assessed as a team based on the thoroughness and appropriateness of their solution. The team dynamics of the PSC would promote individual validation, thereby increasing student engagement which has been shown to lead to academic progress (Moreira et al., 2015, p.370). Once engaged, the PSC would elevate the students with low levels of achievement by using their higher achieving group members to support them in the ZPD, thereby helping them internalize the skill.

References

Durmus, Y. T. (2016). Effective Learning Environment Characteristics as a requirement of Constructivist Curricula: Teachers’ Needs and School Principals’ Views. International Journal of Instruction, 9(2), 183-198.

Moreira, P., Bilimória, H., Pedrosa, C., Pires, M., Cepa, M., Mestre, M., …Serra, N. (2015). Engagement in School in Students with Special Educational Needs. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 15(3), 361-375.

Slavin, R.E. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. (11^th ed.). Boston, MA. Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between Learning and Development. In Cole, M. & Gauvain, M. (1997). (2^nd Edition), Readings on the Development of Children (29-36). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. 29-36.