Download - Learning Theory Statement 2
Learning theory statement:
It’s important in a classroom to encourage students to be actively involved in
their learning. Our ICT project aims to engage students to construct their own
understandings and meanings through providing students with hands on
activities, which will encourage the students to collaboratively work with their
peers to collect their own research and information and resolving problems.
According to Woolfolk (2008), “social constructivism focuses on maximising
student understanding, it is a type of instruction that emphasises the active role
of the learners in building understanding and making sense of information.”
Through out the four-lesson sequence the students are working together to
construct their own understandings of a particular subject through the use of
authentic, hands on and interactive resources and activities.
Our first lesson aims to encourage the students to use their prior knowledge and
understanding of ANZAC History to form and create new information and
understanding of this particular topic. We do this at the beginning of the lesson
by asking the students what they already know about ANZAC, as we brainstorm
this information on the smart board. According to Arends (2009) “the school’s
curriculum becomes a set of learning events and activities through which
students and teachers jointly negotiate meaning.” It’s important as a teacher to
not just pour information into the students, rather cooperatively work with the
students to negotiate and create meanings. Through constructing an
understanding in active and cooparatively way encourages the students to be
actively involved in their own learning.
According to Marsh (2010) “constructivism encourages learners to engage in
dialogue with the teacher and other students are learning is more effective in
‘communities of learners’.” The second step in the lesson provides students the
opportunity to engage in dialogue with their peers by working together in small
groups of four to answer the quiz questions. Before they get into groups the
teacher will provide the students with the important facts and dates of ANZAC,
which the students can recall from when they are answering the questions from
the quiz. According to Marsh (2010) “it’s important for the teacher to provide
assistance or scaffolding to help the students progress in their learning.”
Through the students working in small groups will encourage them to form
relationships with their peers, as it’s just as important for the students to work
collaboratively in constructing knowledge as it is to learn independently. When
concluding the lesson the students will have the opportunity to share their
answers on the smart board, this will allow the students the opportunity to an
open discussion so they can each reflect on what they have learned.
Students need hands on and physical materials when they are solving problems
and forming their own knowledge and understanding. It’s important for students
to use and test their skills, information and knowledge, therefore authentic and
hands on activities will allow this to happen for the students. “Learners engage
with concrete tasks rather than the abstract” (Marsh, 2010), therefore it’s
important to provide students with the opportunity to solve problems and form
their own understandings through the use of authentic and physical materials
and activities. This is provided for the students in lesson three, when the
students have the opportunity to cook their own ANZAC cookies as well as
making their own cook books through the use of the iPad app “book creator.” The
students will work in groups of four; so they can each have a designated role in
the group when they are making the ANZAC cookies. During the cooking process
they will take photos of each step and upload each photo into their own cook
book, this will allow the students to each have a copy of the cook book so they
can make ANZAC cookies whenever they would like. The cookbooks created by
the students also allow the teacher the opportunity to easily assess the student’s
learning process. This authentic activity of cooking is very relevant to the
student’s life, as they have the opportunity to use their skills and knowledge in
their home environments. The cook books also provides the students the
opportunity to describe each step in detail whilst they are cooking, as they are
discussing, explaining and recalling their knowledge and information which
helps build the student’s language and writing skills.
The cooking experience for the students also strongly supports Gardner’s
multiple intelligence theory. As Gardner’s theory is described as “a set of
intelligences based on studies in child development and cognitive science.”
(Marsh, 2010). The cooking experience provides the opportunity for the students
to explore and use multiple intelligences, as every student are unique and
different therefore it’s important to students to explore and discover their
multiple intelligences not only just their mathematical and language skills. The
cooking experience also allows the teacher to easily assess the students on their
strengths and weaknesses, as some students might be very good at following
directions and instructions in comparison to a student who finds it difficult to
follow instructions although enjoys being creative and coming up with their own
ingredients and recipes when cooking. According to Gardner (1993) there are
eight intelligences, as this particular cooking project explores certain
intelligences such as intrapersonal intelligence, bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence,
linguistic intelligence and logical-mathematical intelligence.
Intrapersonal intelligence: Students are learning about their own their
capacities, as they are learning about what they can or can’t do when they are
learning how to cook.
Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence: Students are using parts of their bodies such
as their hands to solve problem (putting ingredients together to cook biscuits).
Linguistic intelligence: Students are using their language skills when they
discussing the recipe when they are writing the cookbook. They are using new
terminology such as bake, blend, knead, grease, stir, whisk and measure when
they are cooking the ANZAC biscuits with their groups.
Logical-mathematical intelligence: Students are creating quantities, numbers
and measurements when they baking the cookies to make sure everyone receive
an even amount of cookies to eat.
(Marsh, 2010, p.261).
Through this particular lesson will allow all students the opportunity to explore
their strengths and weaknesses, as they will time to explore the different types of
intelligences (as seen above).
Vygotsky strongly believes that learning begins in the social world. “As children
learn language and ways of thinking from others, they transform their
knowledge of what they have heard from others and put into their own personal
context and language” (Marsh, 2010, pg.47). Through the use of the teacher
working cooperatively with the students to learn and understand the history of
ANZAC as well as the students to work in small groups to form their own
understandings and meanings. Vygotsky believes teachers should:
1. Present challenging tasks for students within cooperative learning
frameworks.
2. Assess students’ abilities under a variety of work conditions.
3. Provide opportunities for students to engage in authentic activities.
(Marsh, 2010, p.49)
In our ICT project we demonstrate all three of these steps. As ANZAC History
is quite a broad topic with a lot of material for the students to learn therefore
we are providing students the opportunity to work cooperatively within
small groups to learn about such an extensive and important topic. The
teacher has the opportunity to assess all of the student’s abilities and
knowledge through a variety of different activities and tasks. Finally the ICT
project provides the opportunities for the students to engage in hands-on and
authentic tasks, as they are using different resources, ICT equipment and
activities to form their own understanding of the importance and relevance
of ANZAC. According to Vygotsky’s “cognitive development is essentially a
social process” (Marsh, 2010, p.48), therefore we must provide students the
time to learn and develop through their peers and their teachers. Once they
have made this development, it’s up to them as individuals to construct their
own understandings and meanings.
After the four lessons have concluded the students have the opportunity to
reflect and summarise on what they have learned, as it allows the students to
reflect on how much they learned since the beginning of the ICT project.
In today’s classrooms it’s important to not just deliver and provide students
information in a conservative way, instead we must make sure students form
their own understanding, opinion and questions towards any given topic. As
teachers we can facilitate this unique learning opportunity by providing
students with opportunities to work within small groups, work with
authentic and hands on tasks and use their prior knowledge and skills to
form new information and understandings to a particular topic.
References: Woolfolk, A (2008) Educational Psychology, (11th ed), Alyyn & Bacon. Boston.
Arends, RI (2009), Learning to Teach, (8th ed), McGraw Hill, New York.
Marsh, C. (2010). Becoming a teacher: Knowledge, skills and issues. (5th ed.) Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.