Contructivist Teaching in the Classroom
Rich Contexts for Learning
Social Interaction
Valuing Differences
Providing Time for Deep Understanding
Integrating the Curriculum Around Big Ideas
Teacher as Facilitator
Building on Student Interests and Strengths
Assessment that Supports Teaching and Learning
Teacher Learning for Constructivist Teaching
Learning Through Inquiry
Learning Through Collegial Conversations and Reflections about Teaching
Learning Through Research
Learning Through the Process of Setting Standards
Learning in the Context of Practicing Schools
Learning through Networks of Practicing Colleagues
The Content of Contructivist Learning
Clarifying Values and Purposes of Teaching
Learning About Human Development and Learning Theory
Conscious Attention to Issues of Diversity
Learning to Assess and Research Student Learning
Learning to Communicate Teacher Knowledge with Families and the Community-at-Large
New Directions for Student and Teacher Learning
"Teaching the Way Students Learn," by Dr. Beverly Falk of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), is about constructivism, and constructivist teaching. Dr. Falkís work builds a strong case for the constructivist approach which she says "calls on teachers to be learners themselves, revealing how, embedded within constructivist teaching experiences, are continual opportunities for teachers to learn about student learning and about the very nature of the learning process itself."
Dr. Falkís work is not about arts education only, but about changing the paradigm for all education. However, much of what is described will be familiar to most arts educators because for many, it is the way we already teach.
While I was preparing for the first Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts (CLIA), I learned much about constructivism. Another author, C. T. Fosnot, describes Constructivism as a "self-regulated process of resolving inner cognitive conflicts that often becomes apparent through a concrete experience, collaborative discourse, and reflection." This is an accurate description of the CLIA experience. For example the demonstration lesson, which is at the heart of the learning experience, includes:
n a presentation which is the concrete experience; n the discussion of the presentation, which forms the collaborative discourse; and
n the writing exercise which follows the discussion involves reflection.
The constructivist view emphasizes the process by which individuals make meaning out of their experience. Mark St. John, of Inverness Research Associates, notes that in shifting from a behavioristic to a constructivist paradigm we are "seeking ways to help teachers make their instruction more active and less passive, more student centered and less teacher centered, more involved with primary sources, materials and phenomena, and less dependent on the textbook."
The Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts Project is pleased to be able to present this document for study by those in the CLIA. We are indebted to Seymour Simmons for bringing the manuscript to our attention and to Beverly Falk for giving us permission to use her excellent discourse.
In permitting the South Carolina Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts (CLIA) to distribute "Teaching the Way Students Learn," Dr. Falk made one request: tell her what you think. Send you comments to her at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027. Her E-mail address is bff2@columbia.edu. Contact Dr. Seymour Simmons at the Department of Art and Design, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29733, phone 803/323-2126, or E-mail simmonss@winthrop.edu.
Ray Doughty, Director
ABC Project
CLIA Project
December, 1995