Saturday, March 13, 2010

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a social contructivist pedagogical approach?

A social constructivist approach when teaching children means that the teacher sets the scene for children to solve problems and find out answeres for themselves, relying on their social interaction and learning from each other. The main advantage is that children take responsibility for their own learning and it is more experiential, therefore they are more likley to remember what they find out, as opposed to being spoon fed all the information.
The disadvantage is that it can be more time consuming, requires children to have good interpersonal skills and communicate well with each other. Children with commicaiton difficulties, such as deafness can potentially be at a disadvantage. Without having explicit instruction on the scope of what they are to do, and if there is insufficient monitoring and supervision by the teacher, potentially children may go off in tangents.
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5 comments:

  1. Mark PegrumMarch 15, 2010 at 1:18 AM

    Averil, this is a good overview of some of the key plusses and minuses of social constructivism. To what extent do you think it's desirable to balance a social constructivist approach with more traditional pedagogical approaches? Do past educational methods still have something to offer us?

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  2. SJMarch 15, 2010 at 11:29 PM

    Hi Averil
    You have some good points about the constructivist approach in teaching. Due to how time-consuming it would be to set up such a lesson (and how hit and miss) I'm worried when I get out there in the teaching world that I will fall into the trap of preparing the same sorts of lessons for every topic. What kind of topics/concepts do you think would most benefit from the social constructivist approach?

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  3. Averil Mae RileyMarch 16, 2010 at 1:34 AM

    I think it can be applied to all topics and concepts and probably the only subject that I cannot see it applying to is Phys Ed - but then with team sports, reviewing the teams performance and getting feedback would be social constructivist! Learning a skill, such as driving, learning and instrument - might be other examples where it is practice that is the main way of learning.

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  4. Averil Mae RileyMarch 16, 2010 at 1:43 AM

    Just getting back to Mark's comment. (I thought this was like a discussion board where I could reply under the author's comment! Oops!) The behaviourist approach still has merit, especially in teachig maths and concepts such as multiplication and division, which takes heaps of practice.

    Social constructism blends well with many learning theories, such as the humanist's approach, as there is an overlay of being student centred and focusing on social/language/interaction skills.

    Gardner's multiple intelligence theory is probably one that is not so well linked. There is an absence of body kinesthetic awareness involved when working in web 2.o environments.
    This is something I am worried about, I don't want students to be sedentary for long periods of time and addicted to the computer. There is talk on the web that "sitting is killing us", and I personally agree!

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  5. Mark PegrumMarch 18, 2010 at 6:10 PM

    Interesting point about multiple intelligences ... and kinesthetic intelligence. What about the fact that more and more web resources require (or at least allow) users to manipulate things on the screen? This obviously entails a certain level of motor skills to use a mouse (and/or touch-screen) but there is also the possibility of arranging objects in what appears to be a 3D environment, and even of using an avatar (or character) which you move through that environment with the use of the mouse and certain keystrokes. How do you think that might relate - if at all - to kinesthetic intelligence?

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