Chapter 2, page 59
are immersed in the practices of their cultures, students learn through interactions with other members of
their culture as well as with members of other cultures (Rogoff & Angelillo, 2002). Social constructivists
point to the importance of interactions both with those who are more experienced as well as one’s peers.
Those who are more experienced (parents, other adults, older students) can provide assistance based on
their expertise. Peers can also challenge each others’ ideas, which in turn, allows students to consider and
create new ideas.
Rachel may profit from working with peers on a project in many different ways. One group
member’s enthusiasm for the crabs may engage her own interest in crabs. Different students learn about
different ideas and share these ideas with each other. One classmate helps Rachel learn more about plant
life in the ocean. Another helps Rachel learn about fishing. Rachel helps her classmates learn about sea
birds, which she has become interested in. In this way, Rachel learns a great deal beyond what she can
read about by herself. Rachel also learns from occasions when her classmates disagree with her. When
Rachel states her position that there will always be lots of fish because fish lay lots of eggs, her classmate
Saari argues, based on her research that most of the eggs get eaten by other animals. Rachel revises her
own ideas in response to this challenge.
Teachers facilitators and orchestrate student learning. In the transmissionist model of learning,
teachers are information providers. In constructivist environments, the teacher’s primary role is that of a
facilitator or an orchestrator (Windschitl, 2002). Teachers carefully plan activities that can drive students’
thinking forward. They organize needed resources and help students learn to work effectively with these
resources. They help students as needed, but they do not provide answers.
As Rachel’s teacher works with Rachel’s group, which is investigating population changes in
Chesapeake Bay, much of her work consists of organizing a broad range of materials for students to use.
She provides brief mini-lectures to help students with key points, but her input is usually in response to
needs expressed by groups. When she works with groups, she may provide hints, but she does not tell the
students how to think about the problem.
Problem 2.6 Evaluating Teaching: Using Constructivist Methods
Janice Craig is a fifth grade teacher. She is a self-proclaimed constructivist. Her principal even asks
her to mentor other teachers on constructivist methods. Here is the beginning of one of her inquiry
lessons in history.
Teacher Today you are going to investigate how Lewis and Clark felt as they traveled
through Montana. Look at the handout I gave you. Lena, could you read what it
says for us?
Lena Read the five diary entries you see below. Next to each one, write the main
emotion that you think that the writer felt.
Teacher Very good. Now, you can work in pairs on this. Read each one, and then write the
one emotion that you think is most clearly indicated by the diary entry. That will
tell you about the emotions that Lewis and Clark experienced during their travels.
When you’re finished, we’ll see whether you got the right answers.
Would you evaluate this as a constructivist task? Why or why not?Response: Examination of diary entries is certainly something that constructivists teachers would
do, but this task is not designed as a constructivist task. There is no problem that students are
trying to solve. There is nothing authentic about this task. (Who in the real world ever writes down
the main emotion experienced next to a diary entry?) The students have been given little choice in
how to tackle the diary entries, and the teacher implies in her last line that there may be a right
answer that students are supposed to arrive at. Constructivists would say that on anything as