Lesson Plan
By Daya Kaur
Department of Education
EDUC 5210 - Learning Theory
Dr. Maura Hobson
Feb 16, 2022
Constructivism is ‘an approach to learning that holds that people actively
construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the
experiences of the learner’ (Elliott et al., 2000, p. 256). Learners understand
what they can relate to and build on that learning the most. This means that
learners construct knowledge instead of just imbibing what is given to them.
Learners or people reflect on their experiences, build their own representations
and incorporate knowledge into what their prior knowledge. This is also the
foundation of Vygotsy’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
Learning is most effective through the constructive approach. However
there are aspects of the Social learning Approach that cannot be overlooked.
The initial years of a student, basics are taught through modelling and
repetition. This is how the alphabet, and numbering systems are learned.
Nonetheless the remaining aspects of early learning have a combination
approach. Teachers take objects from the learner’s environment or regional
objects for language development. Only post this can a more Constructivist
approach be taken.
“The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover
pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of
meaning, joy, or passion.” (Terry Orlick, 2007). ZPD provides learners with an
opportunity for conceptual understanding and transfer of knowledge through
personal inquiry. As Guy Claxton describes in the foreword to The Power of
Inquiry, Learning is like a river that is choppy and fast moving on the surface,
but moves more slowly in its depths, Activity on the surfaces easy to see;
activity lower down is harder to see, but just as influential. On the surface of a
classroom there is acquisition of knowledge that is ensured by both the
approaches. However, lower down is the development of skills, techniques and
strategies which help us do not only interesting but useful things.
As a facilitator of upper elementary and middle school students I prefer
the constructivist approach. My Agenda is to build on their conceptual
understanding and explore ways that they can apply their learning. An ideal
session in my class would begin with a quick 5 minutes circle time for sharing
what the students have been doing. This helps me make lessons more relevant
based on their interests and experiences. Following which I start with a
provocation. In an upper elementary class about writing fairy tales, I would
want the learners to guess the topic. This piques their interest and is the first
step of engagement. I would show the covers of three fairy tales. This would
lead to the students guessing the topic. Following which, I would want the
students to break into groups and write the plot of the fairy tale using a story
mountain. This would showcase their prior knowledge about the components of
a story and the fairy tales they know. It is a scaffolding strategy.
When scaffolding the delivery is not that I put up the components but
want the students to take charge. Students would share the components and as
their facilitator I would jot the points on the board. This chalk talk would be
student led and my role would be to question them so any missing components
can also be added. While facilitating a class, students need to know the
objective of a session. In my experience, it is most beneficial if the teachers
co-create the learning objective. This empowers the students and helps them
understand the objective better. As a result, the students are relatively more
engaged. Once they have done so, I would have a quick discussion about the
components of a fairy tale. These would pertain to reciprocal teaching.
I would model a part of a tale as an example. Post this, I would again
divide students into small groups. The task I would be to use the characters from
different fairy tales and create a new fairy tale. The persona of the characters
cannot change but the story has to be original. As students work in groups they
are learning from each other as well as apprenticing. Groups would then in a bus
stop activity give each other’s stories feedback on post it. To enhance their
learning, in the next session, each group would be given 5-8 minutes to perform
their story in any way they like. This not only keeps them engaged but also
provides an opportunity to showcase their story building skills beyond writing.
In conclusion, “A person’s interest often survives when a reward is used
neither to bribe nor to control but to signal a job well done, as in a ‘most
improved player’ award. If a reward boosts your feeling of competence after
doing good work, your enjoyment of the task may increase. Rewards, rightly
administered, can motivate high performance and creativity. And extrinsic
rewards (such as scholarships, admissions, and jobs that often follow good
grades) are here to stay.” -David G. Meyers. Psychology: Eighth Edition in
Modules.
References
Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Murdoch, K., & Claxton, G. (2015). To teach their own. In The
Power of Inquiry. essay, Seastar Education.
Darrin, D., & Darrin, D. (2017, July 29). Behavioral vs cognitive
perspectives on learning theories. educational research techniques. Retrieved
February 10, 2022, from
[Link]
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20behavior.
