a) What are the elements of authentic learning?
1.0 Introduction
In this 21st Century, learning has become an important tool for a person to success in his or her life. Therefore, every academic institution such as school, colleges and University has found all the means and ways to cater the best education for the 21st century learner. Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful product to be shared with their world. Once an educator provides a motivational challenge, they nurture and provide the necessary criteria, planning, timelines, resources and support to accommodate student success. The teacher becomes a guide on the side or an event manager, a facilitator not a dictator. Processes become the predominant force and the content collected is organized appropriately into portfolios. According to Herrington & Kervin 2007, stated that the authentic learning also known as experiential learning has created a new paradigm shift for students because it dismisses rote learning. The principles of authentic learning promote learning knowledge and skills useful in real life (Collins, 1988), link the classroom theories with real world practices (Bennett, Agostinho & Lockyer, 2002; Borthwick, Bennett, Lefoe & Huber, 2007), develop problem solving skills and construct knowledge (Hui & Koplin, 2011) during the authentic activity learning process. There are 10 elements of authentic learning summarized by Lambordi 2007. According to her, these elements are main checklist for the educator who wishes to adapt to any subject matter.
1) Real world relevance
Real-world Relevance Authentic learning enables learners to undertake real-world tasks that provide them the opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge to scenarios that are similar to those found in reality. Learners work actively with abstract facts and concepts in a highly social context, build concrete connections between the new materials and their prior knowledge, and discover what these new knowledge can do for them, making learning meaningful and relevant to their real lives.
2) Ill-defined problem
Authentic learning engages learners in complex problems that cannot be solved easily. Learners have to practice higher order thinking skills, such as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information in order to solve problems. As the problems are relatively undefined, learners are also required to identify the tasks and subtasks needed, all by their own, in order to complete the major task. Thus, authentic activities 2 usually open to multiple interpretations and better prepare learners to deal with ambiguity.
3) Sustained Investigation
Authentic learning involves complex tasks that require learners to take longer time, may be in few days, weeks or even months to explore and solve the problem. Learners have to invest not only significant amount of time, but also lots of intellectual resources in order to complete the tasks. Portable skill such as patience can be cultivated among learners through sustained investigation.
4) Multiple Sources and Perspectives
Authentic tasks encourage learners to explore a variety of resources, examine the problem from various points of view based on different perspectives, and ‘criss cross’ the learning environments repeatedly (Herrington, 2006). The use of multiple resources also helps to cultivate learners’ judgment by requiring them to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information.
5) Collaboration
Collaboration is integral to the authentic tasks. This means that tasks are addressed to a group rather than an individual learner. Learners are provided opportunities to collaborate with each other by working together through idea sharing and thinking in order to unravel the problem and accomplish the common goal. Thus, teamwork and complex communication such as explaining, persuading, negotiating, and building understanding which are required of them as professionals can be practiced and learned.
6) Reflection
To enable meaningful reflection, learners have to be provided an authentic context and task. Learners are allowed to make choices, exercise higher levels of thinking, and reflect on their learning, both individually and socially. Learners are provided opportunities to compare themselves with other learners and experts in varying stages of accomplishment (Collins ; Brown, 1988).
7. Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Authentic tasks must be integrated and applied across different subject matter specialization. The tasks should not be confined to a single domain only. Instead, authentic tasks should lead beyond domain specific outcomes and enable students to adopt diverse roles and expertise and think in interdisciplinary perspectives.
8. Integrated Assessment
Assessment is not solely summative in authentic activities. Instead, assessment of activities is seamlessly integrated with the major task. By this way, the integrated assessment reflects real world assessment, rather than separate assessment removed from the nature of the task (Herrington ; Herrington, 1998).
9. Polished Products
Authentic tasks are different from exercises. An exercise is always used in support or preparation for something else. However, authentic activities are not same as exercises which serve as opportunities to practice a skill. Instead, authentic activities result in whole, polished products which have value in their own right. It also means that the product created by authentic activities is an end-product that can stand on its own. The product can either be used in presentation or for sharing and publishing.
10. Multiple Interpretations and Outcomes
Authentic tasks allow for competing solutions and multiple interpretations. Authentic tasks favour diversity of outcomes that open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct answer obtained by the application of procedures and rules. By this way, learners are engaged in divergent thinking. They are exposed to the messiness of real-life problem solving and decision making which better prepare learners to deal with ambiguity.
In my opinion, the theory stated by Herrington ; Kervin 2007 regarding authentic learning really motivate the 21st century learner whereby they do not listen to the learning but doing it. Besides that, the memorizing method doesn’t work anymore. Students need to do hand in work in order to experience and learn through it.
For example: During my writing class, I planned to give topic on the advantages of owning a pet. Therefore, I have conducted a short trip to SPCA and carried out activity such as cleaning the kennel, bathing the dogs and cats, feed them, bring them for a walk and more. This short trip took a couple of hours, so the students able to experience what are the benefits will they get through this pet. On the next day after the trip, the students would be able to write the essay based on their experience at SPCA.
b) How would you apply authentic learning in the subject you teach?
For the following essay, I will describe and explain how I will apply authentic learning in teaching secondary English lesson through activities such as role-playing, simulation, inquiry-based learning, field trip, and portfolio building. For each activity, I will explain from the aspects of its connection with authentic learning and the specific examples on how I will use them in my English lessons.
Role-Playing
Role-playing exercises is one of the examples of authentic learning (Lombardi, 2007). Craciun (2010) states that role-playing is able to prepare students for dealing with the challenges of the 21st century by helping them to develop essential skills such as communication, self-awareness, initiative, and collaborative. Role-playing also engages students in dealing with problems, examining alternatives, and seeking creative solutions. Therefore, role-playing enables students to integrate the knowledge in action. There are two ways a role play can go: scripted and non-scripted. With a scripted role play, the teacher might use an example in a text book. This is a good idea for a warm up exercise, by getting everyone to split up into pairs and allow them to speak to their partner, taking on different roles. Non-scripted ones are when students are given a role each and must use whatever knowledge they have in order to speak with that partner.
For Example: During the Speaking class, I have conducted a telephone conversation whereby students will be speaking on the phone is different to a face-to-face conversation because one relies solely on language to communicate. Get the students who are practicing to sit back to back in order for this to work properly. There is a whole range of ideas which one can use to act this out. For examples include: phoning to make a complaint, speaking to a friend or inquiring about a job position.
Simulation
According to Bell and Smetana (2008), simulation enables the visualization of three-dimensional representations that help students to think about, describe and explain phenomena, processes or objects in a more true-to-life form. By this way, students are engaged in authentic learning in which they learn to make decisions and solve problems instead of just learning right and wrong answers (Akpan & Andre, 2000). In other words, simulation engages students in learning about possibilities (what-ifs), but not about certainties.
For example, when teaching grammar and vocabulary in the English class, as a teacher I will develop a series of contexts based on the real world tasks that students will need to perform using the language, and then teach grammar and vocabulary in relation to those contexts.
For example, students who plan to travel will need to understand public address announcements in airports and train stations. Teachers can use audiotaped simulations to provide input; teach the grammatical forms that typically occur in such announcements; and then have students practice by asking and answering questions about what was announced. This would be better way to prepare students practice grammar and vocabulary on situation that they will face in future.
Inquiry-based Learning
Callison and Lamb (2004) and Renzulli et al. (2004) both state that authentic learning in English must involve true inquiry. The basis of inquiry can be best explained through a Chinese proverb, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand”. When students are involve in inquiry-based learning, they take active roles by diagnosing problems and posing questions, then planning and implementing experiment or exploration to investigate the problem that they are interested with (Bell et al., 2010). So, in order to engage students in the inquiry-based learning, I can always start the lessons with an interesting demonstration or a video clip on the writing topics such as global warming to attract their attention and arouse their curiosity. Students will identify causes and effects of global warming and ask questions about the demonstration or the video clip. I tried to stimulate the students to think critically on the video shown. I applied all of the teaching procedures related to the inquiry method. I wrote some questions based on the global warming. In order to collect data, I put students in a group of 4 and gave classwork to list down 3 causes and 3 effects of global warming. Through the listed causes and effects, the students need to write complete essay of causes and effects of global warming. Testing the hypothesis, in this stage the teacher checked the students’ work and corrected the essay wrote by the students. Formulate conclusions, the teacher reviewed the material and explain about the global warming. Bell et al. (2010) states that by making their own observations and proposing possible explanations for the problem investigated, students are able to study and learn the real world, making learning authentic and meaningful. Bybee (2000) also states that students involved in inquiry based learning not only develop the process skills of doing tasks and solving problems, but also the abilities of critical reasoning and thinking.
Field Trip
Martin (2012) declares that students are able to reap the benefits of authentic learning when they are actively 6 interacting with the world around them. Field trips help students gaining first hand experiences using all their five senses that go beyond reading about a concept within the four-wall of a classroom. Behrendt and Franklin (2014) also state that field trips enable students to observe natural settings and create personally relevant meaning to the experience. For example, when learning about the reading topic of community service, I can organize a field trip to old folks home where students can see and experience by their own on how they can perform their community service. When planning the field trips as authentic learning activities in my reading lessons, I should consider the three stage approach suggested by Myers and Jones (2009). Before starting the field trip, I should provide students with verbal clues on what to look for during the activities in order to help them to stay focused on the educational objectives of the trip. For example, asking students to observe the environment of old folks home and the activities that they can carry out there. I will also have to assign students into groups of two or three and explain to them each of their specific role such as cleaning the old people’s room, feed and bath them in advance. During the field trip, I will ensure that each pre-assigned group is completing an activity such as a short worksheet that is related to the objectives of the field trip. During the post-trip stage, I will encourage students to share their experiences during the field trip and discuss the results of assigned activity. To help students to assimilate new understanding, I will engage them in a culminating activity such as creating a poster or writing a report to present the topic of Community service. By this way, students can apply the knowledge gained during the field trip.
Conclusion
Authentic learning offers students learning by doing. It bridges the gap between the learning experience in the classroom and the complexity of the real world. When delivering successful authentic learning events, elements such as real-world relevance, ill-defined problem, sustained investigation, multiple sources and perspectives, collaboration, reflection, interdisciplinary perspective, integrated assessment, polished products, and multiple interpretations and outcomes should be included. When applying the authentic learning in the classroom, activities such as role-playing, simulations, inquiry-based learning, and field trip can be adopted to provide students a relevant and meaningful learning.
Part B: How Children Learn
1.0 Introduction
In the article “How Children Learn”, Stella Vosniadou has explained twelve principles that can be applied in classroom instruction or educational practices aimed for improving students’ learning. These principles are based on the recent research on learning and thus offering us new perspectives of the development of knowledge in many subject matter domains. These principles should be used to complement each other, forming a comprehensive framework for the curricula and instruction design, rather than adopting each principle in isolation. These principles can be categorized into three groups, focusing on different factors, namely learning environment, cognitive factors and learning and instruction.
2.0 The Role of Prior Knowledge in Learning
In the article, Vosniadou states that new knowledge is built on the basis of what is already understood and believed. ‘What is already understood and believed’ in the sentence refers to prior knowledge. Every student comes to our class with knowledge gained through daily life or from other lessons. So, it is important for teachers to understand the role of prior knowledge in learning.
First, prior knowledge acts as a starting point or a prerequisite for subsequent learning. Students need some prior knowledge in order to understand the task at hand. Without mastery of a prior knowledge, students are unable to make further progression in the subsequent steps in the learning (Gagne, 1968). In such a situation, teachers may have to go back to cover necessary prerequisite materials or else students may struggle and suffer from learning new information. For example, in the subject of Mathematics, students need to have a solid grounding in the four arithmetic skills before proceeding to algebra learning which requires them to perform the operations to solve equations and simplify expressions. So, the curricula and instruction should be designed and organized in a manner which the content is introduced from simple to complex, from concrete to abstract, and from general to detail in order to help students to acquire prerequisite knowledge and skills. In essence, prior knowledge can make learning easier and help students gaining access to new knowledge. Hence, prior knowledge is considered as foundation for subsequent learning which influences the readiness and effectiveness of students to learn. 10
Besides, prior knowledge plays important role in aiding students’ understanding and retaining of new knowledge. Teacher should help students activate prior knowledge by asking questions or providing analogies. According to Hammond, Austin, Orcutt and Rosso (2001), learning with understanding occurs only when students are able to draw connection (activating) between what is already known (prior knowledge) and new information. This connection can take various forms, namely assimilation and accommodation. Heick (2014) also states that students will fail to understand the new information if they do not assimilate and accommodate new information. According to Piaget (1973), assimilation is the process by which students integrate new information into existing schema or cognitive structure. It is somewhat like a process of addition or absorption of new information with the prior knowledge. For example, students who already know the characteristics of mammals will classify all animals that produce milk to feed their babies as mammals even though they have never seen those animals before. However, when the new information cannot be assimilated into the existing schema, the process of accommodation occurs. For example, students know that fish is an animal with fins and a tail which lives in the water. When they are taught that dolphins and whales are not fish but marine mammals, they accommodate this information by creating the new schema of ‘mammals’ and altering the existing schema of ‘fish’. Connecting prior knowledge with new information through assimilation and accommodation helps students to make sense of information and to retain and use it more flexibly.
Vosniadou in her article also states that prior knowledge may stand in the way of new learning despite its role in enhancing learning. This is supported by Campbell and Campbell (2009) who state that prior knowledge in learning is paradoxical as it can lead to success and failure in the classroom. If students’ prior knowledge is inappropriate for the context, it may hinder new learning. For example, some of the students may apply the grammatical structure of their mother tongue when learning a new language. This can hinder new learning as the new language operates with completely different grammatical rules. In addition, Chinn and Malhotra (2002) state that inaccurate prior knowledge or misconceptions can hinder new learning as students tend to resist or ignore evidence that conflicts with what they believe to be true. For example, students always have misconception that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones based on their daily observations. This misconception makes learning of free fall in physics difficult for them. So, teachers should help students to identify incomplete or inaccurate understanding and restructure their prior knowledge. This can be done by providing clear explanations through experiments and observations as well as models.
3.0 Emphasizing Understanding Rather Than Memorization
Vosniadou states that learning is better when students are able to understand what they are learning instead of just superficially memorizing isolated facts. To her, the essence of understanding is that students are able to see solitary facts in relation to a general principle and organize them accordingly. Research shows that when students memorize information, they tend to forget it easily. Meanwhile, students tend to retain the information when they learn with understanding. They are also able to conduct knowledge transfer through learning with understanding. So, as a teacher, we should move students beyond memorization by emphasizing learning with understanding.
In order to help students understand what are being taught, students should be engaged in meaningful activities. Learning activities are meaningful when students know clearly the purposes and usefulness of doing them. They are more likely to be excited about the learning and to pay attention to the lesson which leads to a better understanding of learning when they perceive activities as relevant and meaningful to themselves. In order to make activities meaningful, students should be the centre or agent of learning. Students should take the active roles to explore and understand new things instead of just being passive listeners and fully relying on teachers’ explanations. For example, students should be given hands-on activities such as observations and experiments which they can learn through discovery and inquiry learning. Through the completion of hands-on activities, students are able to construct meaningful knowledge as they are allowed to make some decisions and take some control over their own learning. By this way, students learn and understand the content better. Moreover, authentic context is an important component that makes learning activities meaningful. Students should be situated in such context which they can apply theoretical knowledge to scenarios that are similar to real life. For example, students understand better about the concept of 3R when they participate in organizing 3R campaign for other students in the school or for local community. Students can practice with money and making change by having classroom sale which they sell or buy things from their classmates. Students should also be provided opportunity to have school visits or field trips to museum, laboratories, technological parks or other destinations that enable them to create personally relevant meaning to the experience. These meaningful activities are important as they promote students’ deeper understanding of learning.
Social participation is central for learning to occur. In order to help students learn with understanding, students should be involved in collaborative and cooperative learning. In collaborative learning situations, students do not simply listen and memorize new information taught by teachers. Instead, they work actively with the new information and skills in purposeful ways. They interact with each other, and express their views and opinions. When they talk with each other in collaborative learning, it is in this talking that much of the learning and understanding occur (Golub, 1988). For example, three-step interview technique can be used to reinforce important science concept-related information. Students work in pair and take turn to interview each other by asking questions related to the assigned readings. They then share the insights or information gleaned from the interview that helps them to build deeper understanding and internalize information. Peer tutoring is also an effective collaborative technique to enhance students’ understanding. Weak students receive more time for individualized learning from higher performing students, leading for better engagement. Moreover, weak students share a similar discourse with peer tutor and feel more comfortable interacting with a peer. This allows for greater understanding. On the other hand, higher performing students who face with the task of explaining a concept in their own words to weak students will find gaps in their own understanding and tend to fill them in. In addition, students are provided opportunity to share opinions and to evaluate each other’s arguments and statements in collaborative learning situation. For example, when students are involved in think-pair-share technique for writing activity, students are able to be exposed to multiple perspectives and responses. This meaning-making, mutual exploration and feedback among themselves usually leads to better understanding of students (Smith ; MacGregor, 1992).
In order to emphasize understanding rather than memorization in students’ learning, students should be taught about knowledge and mastery of a wide variety of strategies. In this article, Vosniadou states that being strategic helps people to understand reason and solve problems. Students who are strategic learners know and use appropriate strategies for the situation at hand to solve problem. So, we should help our students to develop strategies by teaching them directly or indirectly. When teaching the strategy explicitly, teacher should explain to students how and why the strategy will help them to learn the material. Teacher should also describe for what kinds of tasks and when students can use the strategy. To avoid confusion, teacher should give the strategy a name and consistently refer to it by that name. It is better for the teacher to model how to use the strategy with a specific academic task so that students can gain insight of the strategy.
For example, when teaching reading, teachers can explicitly show students how to skim and scan the text step by step for getting main ideas or locating a specific fact. Students are then given a text to demonstrate the skimming and scanning strategies. Teacher can facilitate students by asking questions. Some strategies also can be taught to students indirectly through providing opportunities for strategy practice. This strategy practice can be conducted through activities such as science experiments, projects, mathematics word problems, and process writing. For example, students can acquire strategies such as careful observation technique and systematic ways of recording data after conducting experiments for several times. Teacher can also develop students’ awareness of which strategies work for them through self-evaluation activities. For example, teacher can have a debriefing discussion with students after using strategies. During discussions, students describe and evaluate their strategy use. Teacher can also provide feedback to reinforce their strategy use. Through direct and indirect instruction of strategy use, students are able to be strategic learners to learn with understanding instead of just superficially memorizing information.
Learning with understanding can be emphasized by forging connections between the new knowledge and what the students already know. It is easier for us to learn something that we already have some background rather than something completely new. For example, good readers are able to draw on prior knowledge to help them understand what they are reading and use that knowledge to make connections. On the other hand, struggling readers do not activate their prior knowledge when reading the text, causing them unable to understand the text. So, teacher should help students to grasp relationships and make connections. Using examples and analogies is one of the effective ways to help students to actively connect the new information with prior knowledge. For example, when teaching about an animal cell and its parts, teacher can use analogy by comparing it to a factory with different people doing different jobs in it. Besides, summarizing and paraphrasing is also another way to help students understand new learning (Cross, 1999). For example, teacher can ask students to write a brief answer about what is the most important thing that they have learned for the lesson today. When students paraphrase or summarize, they are making the connections between what they have learned that leads to understanding. In addition, students should be provided opportunity to look for similarities and differences when going through the learning materials. When they able to compare and contrast, they make connection and build deeper understanding for learning.
4.0 Engaging Children in Self-Regulation
Self-regulation can be defined as one’s ability to regulate his own learning by being self-aware, self-disciplined, and reflective. Self-regulated learners are able to set their own learning goals, to select and adapt strategies, to monitor progress, to evaluate their learning, and to correct errors. When children are engaged in self-regulation, they are in charge of their own learning (Paris & Paris, 2001). Self-regulated learners are more likely to be effective learners as they have developed the necessary study skills and learning habits, besides being diligent and persistent. These skills help them to perform better not only in schools but also later in life. So, we should engage our children in self-regulation through some strategies.
First, we can use direct instruction to explain self-regulation and different strategies explicitly to students (Zimmerman, 2008). Research has shown that this type of instruction is the best initial strategy for engaging students in self-regulation (Levy, 1996). Students need to be clear about the definition of self-regulation before they can be engaged in it. Besides, teachers have to offer explicit instruction about specific learning strategies to students. So, students become aware of when these strategies should be applied, how they operate and why they are selected. In such situation, students acquire a rich variety of strategies that can be applied on academic task. They can be further trained to be strategic learners who are aware of potential strategies, attribute success to good strategies as well as choose and use appropriate strategies. According to Zumbrunn, Tadlock and Roberts (2011), when direct instruction is adopted for encouraging self-regulation in the classroom, students can be best instructed through demonstration and modeling. For example, teacher should model and demonstrate to his students about his own thought processes involved when completing assignments or activities such as writing an essay. With the demonstration and modeling of the practice of thought processes, students gain better understanding and are more likely to use those same processes by themselves. Moreover, teacher can also model skills such as note-taking and appropriate reading strategies during read-aloud class session so that students know how to put those skills into practice.
Besides, students should be allowed to set their own learning goals. Schunk (1995) in his research has found that allowing children to set their own goals enhance self-regulation. This is mostly because self-set goals produce higher goal commitment. Locke and Latham (1990) state that individuals who make higher commitment are more motivated to exert effort to attain a goal and persist over time. Goal setting also help individuals to engage in self-regulation by staying focus on the task, choosing and using appropriate strategies, and monitoring progress to achieve the goal (Schunk, 2001). However, he also states that goal setting does not automatically or simply enhance self-regulation. Instead, teachers should guide students to set effective learning goals following few ways. First, students should break their long-term goal down into proximal, short-term sub goals. This is because proximal sub goals can be achieved more quickly than long term goal which result in better self-regulation among students (Schunk, 2001). Second, the goals must be well defined and have clear standards. Specific and well-defined goals help students be clear about the amount of effort required for success which make it easier for them to gauge their progress. Third, students should set goals that are moderately difficult for them. This means that students are still able to attain the goals as long as they put forth effort. Too easy goals do not motivate students while too difficult goals will be overwhelming for students. So, as an example, when a student who usually scores B in his English paper set a long term goal which is scoring A for his final English exam paper (moderately difficult goal), he can set specific proximal goals such as studying for an hour a day to ensure good result on the final exam.
Third, students should be given opportunity to participate in practical activities that require them to solve problems and design experiments. We all know that practice makes perfect. We cannot deny the importance of practice in helping us to get better at something. So, students should be involved in both guided and independent practice in order to engage them in self-regulation. For example, when teaching mathematics, teacher may first model how to solve a problem, then asking students to deal with a similar series of problems either individually or in groups. At this stage, teacher can guide the students whenever necessary. When students work through the problems given, teacher should observe carefully the ways they use and address misconceptions. Teacher should also praise students for the success or motivate them to have a next try in order to maintain their interest and motivation in learning. Teacher releases the responsibility of the learning and thinking gradually to students through the completion of the guided practice. So, Lee, McInerney and Liem (2010) state that guided practice is an effective way to engage students in self-regulated learning. After having gone through guided practice, students can be engaged in independent practice. According to Schunk and Zimmerman (2007), independent practice helps reinforcing students’ autonomy in learning which students practice the strategies or skills themselves without teacher’s guidance. For example, when learning science, students should be given opportunity to design experiment to find out the solution for certain problem or make clear of the relationship between variables on their own. They identify the problem, make the hypotheses, control the variables, design the experiment, set up the procedure, carry out the experiment, record the observations, interpret the data, and draw the conclusion all on their own. Through the completion of this independent practice, they will more likely to master science process skills and scientific concepts as well as becoming better self-regulated learners.
According to Richard (2016), we learn more from reflecting on our experiences than we do from the experience alone. Training students for being reflective is important to help them become self-regulated. When they reflect, they are more likely to practice self-regulation by managing their feelings, changing their behaviours, and thinking about how to make positive changes for the future. Teacher can help students to do reflection by guiding them to ask themselves questions such as ‘what I am doing?’, ‘how well am I doing?’, ‘why am I doing?’ and ‘what else can I do? By asking themselves questions, they are checking their thinking and understanding. They will develop realistic knowledge of themselves through self-reflection. They will notice their own strengths and weaknesses and at the same time producing a capability to operate more effectively in the future (Kolb, 1984). For example, a student may notice that he is good in reading and writing, but need to work more on his listening and speaking. So, he plans to improve himself by listening more English songs and talking to his peers using English language after undergoing self-reflection process. Teacher can also promote reflection among students by engaging them in reflective activities such as discussions, conferences and written self-reflections. For example, during discussions, students are encouraged to sound out their views and defend them. Meanwhile, students can be provided opportunity to evaluate solutions to problems of others and provide feedback on each other’s work through conferences. This can help students to develop judgment skills which are also important in regulating their own work (Gibbs, 1999). In addition, teacher can ask students to write self reflection report by reflecting on what they have learned, what they need to work on, and how they can achieve goal. When students are engaged in these reflective activities, they are more likely to be self-regulated learners.
5.0 Conclusion
In this essay, three aspects of learning are being discussed. First, teachers have to take note of the role of prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is a prerequisite for subsequent learning and aids in students’ understanding and retaining of new knowledge. However, prior knowledge may stand in the way of new learning if it is inaccurate or inappropriate. Second, in order to emphasize understanding rather than memorization, students should be engaged in meaningful activities as well as in collaborative learning. Students should be taught to make connection between prior knowledge and new learning. Students should also be strategic to foster understanding in learning. Lastly, students can be engaged in self-regulation through direct instruction, goal setting, practice, and being reflective.
Part C:
Brief description of the Principles of Constructivism ; the Scholars who proposed Constructivism.
1) Philosopher Giambattista Vico (18th Century)
He defines that humans can only clearly understand what they have constructed themselves.
He also commented that; “one only knows something if one can explain it”.
2) Philosopher Immanuel Kant (18th Century)
He elaborated the concept of Giambattista Vico by asserting that human beings are not passive recipients of information.
He also defines that; human beings not depend or believe in whatever information given. According to him, human beings think back to get better understanding.
3) Advocate Dewey (1916)
He defines education depends on action. Knowledge and ideas emerged only from a situation in which learners had to draw them out of experiences that had meaning and importance to them.
According to him, these situations had to occur in a social context, such as a classroom, where students joined in manipulating materials and, thus, creating a community of learners who build their knowledge together.
Dewey also make a simple conclusion by saying; (i) Education is connection with society, outside world, life (ii) What we learn should have meaningful relevancy (iii) Instruction should center on the child’s experience.
4) Advocate Piaget (1930)
He defines, the growth of human thought occurs through the construction of knowledge through assimilation and accommodation.
According to him, knowledge is not something that individuals gain from the outside rather it is something that they gain through their own active experiences, their own ` acting on the world physically or mentally to make sense of it.
5) Advocate Jerome Bruner (1960)
He defines constructivism as a learning theory in which learning is sees as an active process in which learners construct new ideas of concepts based upon their current and past knowledge.
Learning by discovery through development stages.
6) Advocate Lev Vygotsky (1962)
This Russian scholar defines that a person constructs knowledge through social interaction in the context of a culture. Culture and social interaction teaches a person both what to think and how to think.
Vygotsky introduced “The zone of Proximal Development”. Problem solving skills of tasks can be placed into three categories (zone):-
(i) Those performed independently by the learner.
(ii) Those that cannot be performed even with help.
(iii) Those that fall between the two extremes, the tasks that can be performed with help from others.
7) Advocate Von Glaserfeld (1984)
He sees knowledge as being actively received through the senses or by way of communication and actively constructed by the subject. The subject interprets and constructs a reality based on his or her experiences and interaction with his or her environment.
8) Cunningham and Duffy (1996)
He defines that learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge.
According to him, instruction should be directed towards supporting that construction of knowledge rather than communicating or transmitting knowledge.
9) Merrill
He defines knowledge is constructed from experience and learning is a personal interpretation of the world.
Besides that, learning is an active process in which meaning is developed on the basis of experience.
Conceptual growth comes from the negotiation of meaning, the sharing of multiple perspectives and the changing of our internal representations through collaborative learning.
According to him, learning should be situated in realistic settings; testing should be I integrated with the task and not a separate.
2.0 Part B
Following are specific examples illustrating how constructivism principles are used in the classroom.
1) Philosopher Giambattista Vico
Principles – Humans can only clearly understand what they have constructed themselves. One only knows something if one can explain it.
Example; In my English lesson, I taught “Present Simple” topic. I explain to them. Later on, I open some activities related to Present Simple on smart board. I call out few students randomly to do the exercises. Some students can do it and some students had problem. Then, I try to help the students by showing the key words to get the answer. So, from there, students can understand. Later on, I want to make sure they understand well, I ask my students to write their mother’s daily routine on their exercise book. Here, I can understand whether they can do it or not because to write daily routine, they have to use “Present Simple Tenses”. Upon completion, I call out some students randomly to present their work. After presentation, I ask few questions to the students who presented and also to other students who listen to the presentation. For Example, why did he/she use (“brushes her teeth every morning”) on the sentence. So, my students able to explain clearly. They said, because “mother” is a singular noun. And to change the base verb ‘brush’ to present simple tenses because it is daily routine, they need to add (es) after the last two consonant ‘sh’ (brush). From here I understand that my students understand to construct and explain about “Present Simple” topic. And I did ask few questions for better understanding.
2) Philosopher Immanuel Kant
Principles – Human beings are not passive recipients of information. Human beings not depend or believe in whatever information given. Human beings think back to get better understanding.
Example; Last year, I taught Science for Remove students. All Chinese students. Age group between 12 – 13 years. Knowledge level; poor. I taught about growing bean sprouts. I explain to them the method to grow and things used to grow it. I explain all these using power point slides with images. Yet, some students have doubt and ask me how bean sprouts can grow from mug beans. So, during the following lesson, I brought all the necessary things to do the experiment. There are about 18 students. So, I make them into two groups. I distributed necessary things equally and open my slides again. I ask them to refer to my slide and follow the steps. They did as what I have written on the slide. Then, I ask them to keep it at one corner and do not disturb it. Then, I inform them to write daily progress of the bean sprouts plant on their Science journal. It is easy for them because the plant at their own classroom. They record down and observe the growth. At last, when bean sprouts plant grown, they felt very happy and excitedly showed that to me during their Science lesson. They told me, they couldn’t believe bean sprout plant can grow from mung beans. So, I have understand that students are not passive recipients of information. Students don’t believe in whatever information given unless as a teacher we proven it.
3) Advocate Dewey
Principles – Knowledge and ideas emerged only from a situation in which learners had to draw them out of experiences that had meaning and importance to them. These situations had to occur in a social context, such as a classroom, where students joined in manipulating materials and, thus, creating a community of learners who build their knowledge together.
Example; I’m teaching Geography for Secondary 2 students. I taught them about “Global Warming” topic. My students have prior knowledge about the topic. So, I break them into groups of six students. Here, I didn’t provide any material. I ask them to use their peers as resources (collaborative learning). I ask them to list down the causes, the effects and the way to overcome “Global Warming”. They started the discussion among their peers and I just monitor them. I even saw students arguing about their peers opinion and also praise others idea. Earlier, I already mention the duration for the discussion. So, once time over, I ask them to present. During presentation, students are free to add ideas or ask questions. So, here students add information (their ideas) and even some criticize on their friends’ opinion. From here, students learn and understand better. So, at last, I notice that, students really come out with good points. I believe that knowledge and ideas emerged only from a situation in which learners share each other about their opinion.
4) Advocate Jerome Bruner
Principles – Learning is seen as an active process in which learners construct new ideas of concepts based upon their current and past knowledge.
Example; I am teaching Form 3 History. During form 1 and 2, they study world History generally. So, they have basic knowledge of world History. Now, there are in form 3 and they need to study only Chinese History throughout the year. So, when I ask questions before each lesson to brainstorm their understanding about Chinese countries, they have limited information due to their general understanding about world history during their form 1 and 2. To make sure all understand about the topic, I used “inquiry method”. It means prompt students to formulate their own questions to the related sub topic and get answer for it. I have assigned sub topic to each group and ask them to form few questions which related to their sub topic to get information. Then, I go through the questions which form by students. Some can form good questions which really useful for their topic. While, there were few groups, face difficulty because they don’t know what information to get for their sub topic although they have some basic knowledge about their sub topic. So, I guide them by asking them few questions which is related to their sub topic. From there, they understand what to do next. Example; one of the group got the topic about “Emperor Qin”. Students don’t understand what a necessary point for this sub topic is. So, I ask few questions like “what was his great achievement in his life”. Some students just know few things about him. So, I ask them to get more information. Besides that, ask students to form questions about Emperor Qin’s life history like countries he conquers and so on. Once questions ready, I took them to computer lab to get necessary information and told them to compile all the information by next History lesson for class presentation. During next lesson, students ready with the necessary information. So, when they start to learn and focus on Chinese History, they start to gain more new knowledge with their existing past knowledge. And by group discussion, and finding information through online (active process), the students master in particular topic. Besides that, when students form their own questions and find answer by themselves also help them to have better understanding rather as a teacher I pass all the knowledge to them.
5) Advocate Vygotsky
Principles – A person constructs knowledge through social interaction in the context of a culture. Culture and social interaction teaches a person both what to think and how to think.
Example; At my school, once a month (every last Friday of the month) students have to go for cooking and gardening lesson. During on my cooking lesson, I explain basic cooking method of “Ayam Masak Merah”, Then students started to cook, I just observe what they are doing. All of them utilize but in different amount the ingredients at the school kitchen. Once ready, me together with students tasted the food. 3 of the groups did well. It was delicious. Other 2 groups’ food not so good. Everyone tasted the food and start to give comments to each other. I just observe to what they saying. One of the girl asked, my cooking and yours look the same and why mine too hot and spicy. So, the other girl giving answer, I used dry chili and removed the seeds and add some carrots to make this color. And she continue to say, my mother said, if we use only chili to make gravy, it will too hot and spicy. So, the one who start the question said, “Now I understand why my chicken is too hot and spicy, it’s because I only used dry chilies and didn’t remove the seeds. So, next time I know how to make “ayam masak merah”. Later on, after cleaning the kitchen, I asked few questions to the students about their cooking and ask students to give feedback on their cooking and their friends cooking. At that moment, I heard students start to give ways for better cooking. They also explain why some of their friends cooking taste bad. Anyway, what I notice was, they can accept and share their ideas among their friend. So, I did ask them, to make good “ayam masak merah”, what are the necessary method to follow. And surprisingly, I can get good answer from all my students (included the 2 groups who not cooked well). When I ask them, they can explain the reason well. So, I understand that a person constructs knowledge (although earlier not so good) through social interaction. When interact to each other, people able to exchange or share their knowledge.
3.0 Part C
Lesson Plan Based Principle of Constructivism
Introduction
Topic of my lesson plan is ‘Global Warming.’ I use iPad, multi resources from internet, e-class function and projector screen in my teaching. Nowadays, students prefer to use multimedia functions to complete their task. The reason I choose this topic is to make students aware of causes and effect of Global Warming. Besides that, practice coherency in writing using the topic. Besides that, I want to conduct my lesson base on collaborative learning. Encourage group work and the use of peers as resources (share ideas and opinions). Students full participation; like hands-on using technology to search information is necessary. My current employer (school) encourages teachers and students to use multimedia applications in teaching learning process. All these done by using technology like iPad, internet connection and other sources.
Lesson Plan Based Principle of Constructivism
Subject: Geography
Topic: Global Warming
Component: Writing Using Multimedia
Date: 03/04/17
Teacher: Lalitha
Class: Intermediate A / Form 5 / Secondary
Students: 24 Students / 4 Groups
Duration: 1 hour/60 minutes
Sources: iPad, e-class learning, internet, websites, projector screen
Note: Teacher use projector screen which has been connected to teacher’s tablet. By doing so, teacher can show necessary things to students.
Each group has an iPad with high speed internet connection. / Sitting in a group of 6 students.
Aims / General Objectives
– To understand or aware of Global Warming. Make students aware of what they are going to learn so that they are aware and prepared to share and receive information.
– Know the importance of learning or knowing the causes, effects and ways to reduce Global Warming.
– To practice coherency in writing. Practice to write essay or draft in order by using graphical organizer.
– To encourage collaborative learning.
Goals / Learning Outcomes
– Students get better understanding on Global Warming.
– Able to use the knowledge in the future.
– Able to use or share the knowledge and practice in their daily life.
– Help the students to show care towards environment.
– Students able to apply coherency in writing.
