Reading the ellaboration on the theories of constructivism was interesting. It was nice to get a review of Piaget, whom I learned about in high school psychology class. I remember learning about the developmental stages-preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. It was neat to compare him to Vygotsky who had a theory with people learning socially, and by using signs and psychological tools. I liked learning about the assimiliation and accomodation when learning through Piaget's eyes. I think it's true that when we learn we build what we're learning onto our present knowledge, and sometimes we adjust our schemata to add new information, and sometimes we have to readjust our schemata to make sense of incoming information new to us.
I think that as a science teacher, it'd be good to incorporate both Piaget and Vygotsky's theories of constructivism along with observing the individual needs of your students, which is most important. Everyone has different learning styles, and though it is likely true we all learn socially as well as with signs and go through different learning stages, each child will experience this in his or her own unique way. As the text says, understanding your science curriculum as well as your students should help you be a wise teacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment