Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Social Constructivism
Social Constructivism plays a vital role in the classroom of today. Working cooperatively is a crucial skill to be taught. When students learn to work together in groups, they are being set up for a lifetime of social skills that they will need to survive. In this week's learning resources, I enjoyed reading about the Problem Based Learning strategy. By giving students a problem to solve together, they are able to each use their strengths to bring to the table endless possibilities. Students who can work with others who are not neccessarily like them are better able to succeed. It is important for the teacher to always choose the cooperative groups to make sure that students are working with a variety of people. By doing so they are not only learning acceptance of others but also that it is important to be able work with others to achieve a common goal. Peer collaboration is something that they will not be able to avoid once they are in post secondary schools and also in the midst of their careers. The sooner this skill is taught, they better off our students will be.
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Oletha,
ReplyDeleteYes, collaboration is so important for students to learn especially since many of them will be entering into jobs where they have to work on teams. Schools, insurance companies, and many corporations are arranging their employees into teams and working collaboratively is a key skill that our youth needs to develop.
Great point!
Marcella Pugliese
Oletha,
ReplyDeleteYou are right in saying that people will need to work collaboratively for the rest of their lives, so students of different abilities, values, hobbies, etc. working together provides for some real life situations. I also think it is important for teachers to do two other things (occasionally) when having children work collaboratively: 1) sometimes let students choose their partners/groups, and 2) assign pairings of friends. I’ve found interestingly enough that sometimes friends have a much more difficult time working together than children of uncommon interests, and they need to work harder to be productive. Not that I want to frustrate my students, but I think it is good when they see that sometimes working with someone who is just like you can be tough and make you (hopefully) a stronger leader. This has lead to some creative project results and also desk arrangements!
~Erica Stianchi
Erica, I never thought of having friends work together would make a challenge for them. I have always found in the past that they do too much socializing and would grow frustrated. However, I see your point that this is a great experience for them.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of collaboration projects do you currently use with your students? One of the great factors about working with groups or partners is that it doesn't matter what grade level or subject, there are always opportunities for students to work together and learn from each other. The sooner they start learning how to work together, the more prepared they will be for the "real world"!
ReplyDelete~ Brooke Sieg
I try to implement collaboration in every project based learning unit. One example is I have the students conduct a debate on hate crimes and whether or not the government should enforce special laws. The students research together and then plan their strategy together.
ReplyDeleteOletha
ReplyDeleteI too liked the idea of grouping students together to work on a problem. The students I work with (emotionally disabled) seriously lack in the social skills department and teaming them together allows them to practice the skills we work on in class and allows them to use each others strengths to complete the task. I usually have the students work together when doing an online scavenger hunt for social studies or science. They have to decide who will work the computer and who will take notes. Then they have to work together to complete the scavenger hunt to receive credit.
Rachael Threadgill