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"plaintext": "The best learning situations are not the ones where the teacher talks the most. They are the ones where learners are actively building understanding for themselves."
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"plaintext": "Constructivism is based on this idea: the teacher does not simply transfer knowledge. Instead, the learner constructs knowledge through experiences, associations, connections, perspectives, and insights formed during the learning process."
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"plaintext": "As explained in Organizing Content for Constructivist Learning:"
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"plaintext": "“The teacher is the facilitator to a learning environment, but the teacher doesn’t transfer the knowledge. The student constructs the knowledge through experiences, associations, connections, perspectives, and other insights that he or she formulates while in the learning environment.”"
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"plaintext": "This technique is referred to as inquiry-based learning, the Socratic method, or maieutics"
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"plaintext": "“As a graduate instructor at Columbia, we were trained to teach in a specific way. Rather than lecturing students about writing principles, we asked them constant questions. About all we did was ask questions. When a student responded, we tried to get other students to respond to the student’s response, directing the conversation from student to student rather than from teacher to student."
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"plaintext": "At a minimum, I like to use it as an introduction, before exposing learners to “official bodies of knowledge” — top-down transmission, frameworks, theory, and so on."
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"plaintext": "This helps learners understand the material better by projecting their own experience onto it."
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"plaintext": "I also like to use it as a debriefing technique after new material has been introduced. It helps learners connect the dots between what they already knew and what they have just learned."
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"plaintext": "This is how I usually do it:"
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"plaintext": "Clarify your objective.\n What result would you like to reach at the end of the constructivist situation?"
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"plaintext": "Start from what learners already know.\n Think of your sequence as if you were writing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. What is the very first question you could ask so that learners start from familiar ground?"
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"plaintext": "In this manner, question by question, your learners start constructing their own knowledge — knowledge they will actually be able to remember and put into action."
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"description": "To optimise active learning, engage your audience by giving them the microphone as often as possible.",
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"publishedAt": "2023-05-29T00:19:00+00:00",
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"textContent": "The best learning situations are not the ones where the teacher talks the most. They are the ones where learners are actively building understanding for themselves.\nConstructivism is based on this idea: the teacher does not simply transfer knowledge. Instead, the learner constructs knowledge through experiences, associations, connections, perspectives, and insights formed during the learning process.\nAs explained in Organizing Content for Constructivist Learning:\n> “The teacher is the facilitator to a learning environment, but the teacher doesn’t transfer the knowledge. The student constructs the knowledge through experiences, associations, connections, perspectives, and other insights that he or she formulates while in the learning environment.”\n⸻\nThis technique is referred to as inquiry-based learning, the Socratic method, or maieutics\n> “As a graduate instructor at Columbia, we were trained to teach in a specific way. Rather than lecturing students about writing principles, we asked them constant questions. About all we did was ask questions. When a student responded, we tried to get other students to respond to the student’s response, directing the conversation from student to student rather than from teacher to student.\nIf no one answered a question right away, we waited — sometimes a minute or more — until someone offered a response. The idea was that asking questions in a Socratic method could increase critical thinking and reasoning more than explaining and lecturing.”\n⸻\nWhen to use inquiry-based learning\nAt a minimum, I like to use it as an introduction, before exposing learners to “official bodies of knowledge” — top-down transmission, frameworks, theory, and so on.\nThis helps learners understand the material better by projecting their own experience onto it.\nI also like to use it as a debriefing technique after new material has been introduced. It helps learners connect the dots between what they already knew and what they have just learned.\n⸻\nHow to prepare an inquiry-based learning situation\nThis is how I usually do it:\n- Clarify your objective.\n What result would you like to reach at the end of the constructivist situation?\n- Start from what learners already know.\n Think of your sequence as if you were writing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. What is the very first question you could ask so that learners start from familiar ground?\n- Anticipate possible answers.\n For each likely answer, what would be your follow-up question?\n- Reuse the learners’ answers.\n For every question, find a way to bounce back by using the learners’ own answers to formulate the next question.\n- Build your tree of questions.\n Continue building this tree until you reach the final question, which should directly refer to your objective.\n\nIn this manner, question by question, your learners start constructing their own knowledge — knowledge they will actually be able to remember and put into action.\n⸻\nYour role is not to perform expertise\nA final note about you in an inquiry-based learning setup: it is important that you position yourself not as the expert, but as the facilitator and enabler.\nYour official attitude is: there are no wrong answers.\nIf the audience is way off, adjust your next questions to find the basic solid ground where their answers are correct. Build from there.\n⸻\nRead more\n- Constructivism as a Theory for Teaching and Learning\n- Constructivism Learning Theory\n- Socratic method — Wikipedia",
"title": "Constructivism as a teaching strategy"
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