A disadvantage would be the time constraint. It takes so much longer for the students to learn constructionally. The teacher must give the students' adequate time to figure out the problems. It is also difficult time wise for the teacher to get the students used to thinking constructively. especially if the students has never had to think constructionally before.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Warrington
A huge advantage to teaching mathematics with constructivism is that students think for themselves. The students use their logical skills to solve problems on their own. Based on the ability to do similar problems the students can figure out how to do more complex problems. For example, in Warrington's paper her students had already done fraction addition, subtraction, and multipication. Warrington began her lesson with easy fraction division problems the students could easily do on their own and gradually increased their difficulty. Using the students' previous knowledge of fraction math she built on it and added more.
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Good use of topic sentences. They fit the paragraphs well.
ReplyDeleteIt does take longer to learn a concept in this classroom. However, once learned in this manner, the concept would not have to be retaught again and again. Also, students can apply what they've learned to new situations. Both of these will save time.
I think you are right on with the advantages. The students are able to think critically for themselves so that they can continue onto harder problems. I think that perhaps another disadvantage might be that if the students are not told the correct procedures, they may make some up on their own that are incorrect. So maybe it would be better to teach the students methods that work best for solving certain types of problems. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteI think this is how our professor teaches and why he doesn't give us a schedule. Because it does take more time and it's hard to gague how long it's going to take for the students to get it. I'm just glad that he tells us when we get it wrong because if he didn't we'd keep making the same mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about the time constraint disadvantage, but that is so true. It would take quite a bit of time for the students to even adjust to thinking on their own and discussing their ideas, let alone actually figuring out the problem. You made a good point about that. One concern I had was if there were a few students who didn't understand or couldn't come up with a way to solve the problems. I feel like they could become lost in the discussion and never really learn. Warrington most likely did something to combat this, but it is not mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your last point - in our current class, I have had to work really hard to even start to understand all the fraction concepts rationally, just beacuse I naturally turn to the old procedures which have basically been embedded in my brain from continual use. Without the motivation I have, as an aspiring teacher, to really UNDERSTAND these concepts, I'm not sure I would have been successful. I really like this new understanding I have, and I definitely believe it to be preferable, but the students' minds aren't just a clean slate we can easily build upon. All their past experiences in school will affect their ability to think and rationalize.
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