David Jonassen's constructivism is associated with mental constructs or principles and how they are developed. Children are an integral part in the learning process with this style. An example of constructivism is a lesson where the students take the information presented to them and then do something creative with it in order to teach it to the rest of the class. By contributing to the class, the children are more likely to understand the material as opposed to just remembering it. Wrong answers are always welcome and helpful because they become memorable teaching opportunities. The overall quality of construction depends on the range and quality of information available to the student, or constructor, and while all constructions are to be considered meaningful, not all are complete or well done.
Albert Bandura, on the other hand, believed that social learning was best done with a model of the behavior that the student would emulate. This is called behaviorism. The student's observations of the model are mentally organized, memorized, and recalled when similar situations arise. This style is lecture based, and it is assumed that the teacher has all the information and the students do not contribute. While constructivists are mainly concerned with the process, behaviorists are mainly concerned with the results. The disadvantage to this is that sometimes the students don't quite understand the meaning or explanation behind what they are doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment