Secondary School

What does constructivist learning style look like at Secondary? 

Instead I offer a quick example of constructivist pedagogy video found online:

In the video, you notice the professor connect multiple aspects of teaching while connecting the knowledge to a practical skill. This project can easily be used in secondary education for physics or math classrooms.

Secondary constructivist pedagogies differ from elementary and college level teaching. The following is adapted from research by Lew (2010) and Dagar & Yadav (2016):

Constructivist Learning Strategies (Lew, 2010, p. 11):

  1. Teachers should encourage and accept the student’s autonomy, initiation, and leadership;
  2. Teachers should allow students thinking to drive lessons and adapting content and instructional strategy based on student responses
  3. Teachers should ask students to elaborate on their responses
  4. Teachers should allow wait time after posing questions
  5. Teachers should encourage students to interact, both with the teacher and with one another
  6. Teachers should ask thoughtful, open-ended questions
  7. Teachers should encourage students to reflect on experiences and predict future outcomes
  8. Teachers should ask students to articulate their theories before requiring them to present an understanding of the concepts
  9. Teachers should look for students’ alternative conceptions and designing lessons to address misconceptions.

General examples as follows (Dagar & Yadav, 2016):

  • Provide experience with the knowledge construction process
    • A teacher can discuss a topic with the students and guide them to explore the topic through experimentation by framing their questions and teacher scaffolding.
  • Experience in and appreciation for multiple perspectives
    • Students are unique in their cognition and understanding; this offers an opportunity to look at, experiment, and discuss a problem from multiple perspectives.
  • Provide social and emotional learning
    • Teachers should promote the social and emotional aspects of learning in an integrated manner by focusing on the development of self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
  • Use multiple modes of representation
    • There are multiple forms of media outlets, and teachers should promote these multiple representations of knowledge to increase informational resources.

A combination of the following learning strategies can be used by the teachers to create constructivist learning environment (e.g., scaffolding, group discussions/group activities (reciprocal Learning), use of multimedia/teaching aids, case studies, role-playing, storytelling, probing questions, use of learning strategies for social and emotional learning of students and, most importantly, project-based learning; Dagar & Yadav, 2016)

What is a great example of learning style at Secondary?

The following example is adopted from Murphy (1997):

  • Highschool geometry:
    • School project on area and perimeter analysis with cost product analysis.
    • Student Scenario:
      • “A local company has contracted with your company to design a prototype deck that could be mass produced at their manufacturing facility, assembled on site, and sold to homeowners in the Sun View subdivision. There are 300 homes in this subdivision and most have east or west exposure. Corner lots are allocated for recreation space. Your task is to assemble groups of 4-5 learners to prepare group designs for the prototype deck. Each group will need to make a presentation to the client to promote its design. The presentation must include the following”
    • Students will complete
      • A scale drawing of blueprint containing specifications for each deck.
      • A cost estimate or materials.
      • An estimate of assembly time.

Step 1: Discuss with students each of their qualifications for the problem by solving and discussing with them prior knowledge and limitations on resources. Ask students where they can get more information or what part of the class can be used for this project.

Step 2: Form groups of 4-5 students and ask them to prepare a list of tasks and projects.

Step 3: Have the work groups assemble to discuss and refine their lists.

Step 4: Encourage groups to follow through with projects and scaffold where needed.

Step 5: Present projects in conference style arrangement with a client to evaluate (Use a real engineer to add depth to the program)

Step 6: Have Students reflect and discuss the problem.

Develop Evaluation Rubric with class. (This is key for a constructivist class!)

Other great resources I have found:

The following programs allow you to pick constructivist ideas based on grade level for math:

http://mathalicious.com/

Hopefully, this is a great starting point for many of you. Otherwise, like always add some resources in the bottom you have found to work in the past.

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