I. What is the constructivist view of learning?

SELF-CHECK ITEM: Write a short essay explaining how each of the following terms is related to constructivist theory: (1) cooperative learning; (2) discovery learning; (3) self-regulated learning.

POSSIBLE ANSWER: Constructivism encourages students to construct their own knowledge by direct interaction with a dynamic environment. Cooperative learning is a strategy encouraging students to work together in order to achieve individual, cooperative, or even competitive ends. Cooperative learning encourages advanced students, through modeling and helping directly or by scaffolding, to help less advanced students. Cooperative learning in itself is not sufficient to construct knowledge; discovery learning is also important. Teachers can place students in environments designed to encourage discovery learning. For instance, placing moderately difficult puzzles on a play station table encourages students to attempt to solve the puzzles. Another example mentioned previously is hands-on museum displays, such as those allowing students to experiment with gravity, texture, or sound. Some public aquariums, for instance, have touch tanks that provide children opportunity to touch starfish and other non-dangerous marine animals. Finally, self-regulated learning is related to constructivism in that to construct one’s own learning, mastery of self-regulation skills like self-reward, goal setting, organization, and time regulation are critical. Self-regulated learners have knowledge of effective learning strategies and know how and when to use them, like rewarding oneself for a job well done when others are not around to provide feedback.

SELF-CHECK ITEM: Explain how each of the following cooperative learning methods encourages student development of critical thinking and problem solving: (1) Jigsaw; (2) Learning Together; (3) Group Investigation; (4) cooperative scripting.

POSSIBLE ANSWER:

• Jigsaw: In the Jigsaw method, students are placed in groups of four to six, depending on the type of Jigsaw strategy employed. Students are then assigned a specific topic or section on which they become experts. Experts from each group meet to discuss their assigned material. These discussions encourage critical thinking because different students have different perspectives on the material, challenging each other’s thinking. Therefore, Jigsaw learning encourages cognitive development. Finally, students bring their expertise back to their group for integration into a final product, an act of group problem solving. The hope is that student motivation is facilitated, as students are motivated to learn from experts.
• Learning together: This strategy is ideal for encouraging social development and self-regulation, as students must learn to work together, managing group processes with the goal of producing a final product. Learning together can be very difficult, as maturation is a critical factor. However, once group processes are streamlined, learning together encourages critical thinking and problem solving in a group environment. More advanced students challenge the thinking of less advanced students, scaffolding higher levels of understanding. Students are also motivated to problem solve creatively by using strategies like brainstorming.
• Group investigation: This strategy involves students, choosing subtopics of a class topic to discuss, investigating the subtopic, and presenting findings to the classroom. These small groups of two to six students learn important group processes like problem solving, having to assign subsections of the group topic to students, and motivation. Development of social processes is encouraged as leadership skills are enhanced and those motivated to lead are encouraged to take their place as leaders. Critical thinking is encouraged as students present their findings to the group for evaluation and integration.
• Cooperative scripting: This is a formalization of an age-old strategy in which pairs of students get together to study material. In the formalized version, students get together in pairs and summarize, alternatively, sections learned. The benefit of this method is the enhancement of cognitive development through pushing teachers to achieve expertise (and cognitive flexibility to produce real world examples that enhance understanding) so they can teach material to learners. Critical thinking and problem solving are encouraged when students evaluate each other’s understanding and explanations. Problem solving occurs when students encounter material not readily understood and when students encourage each other to provide examples.

SELF-CHECK ITEM: Explain how Mr. Dunbar, the teacher in the chapter-opening vignette, incorporates the problem-solving process into his lesson. Give an example of an obstacle to problem solving that students in Mr. Dunbar’s class face.

POSSIBLE ANSWER: Mr. Dunbar incorporates problem-solving into his lesson by asking students to figure out the volume of a cylinder from scratch, incorporating only the knowledge they learned previously from solving the volume of a cube and the volume of a circle. One example of an obstacle to problem solving faced by Mr. Dunbar’s class is learning to set up a problem before solving it. For instance, Bransford and Stein’s (1993) five-step IDEAL strategy is applicable for such tasks. IDEAL involves identifying problems and opportunities, defining goals and representing the problem, exploring possible strategies, anticipating the outcomes and acting, and looking back and learning. Although the Master Minds finally figured out the problem, they did so quite haphazardly, rather than in an organized fashion.

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