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.