Constructivist Planning

When you think of planning, do you think of planning in a way where your students are able to fully grasp what they are learning?

I think it is important to place a priority on understanding when we are planning because with this understanding comes the ability to use math in real world applications, and not just in math class. 

Finding Math (symmetry) during free-play in Grade 1

The Constructivist Approach to planning and instruction connect with the priorities of understanding in that we are giving our students the concrete foundations and the “big ideas” and they are given the ability to apply these ideas to real life math: “Students need to construct their own understanding of each mathematical concept, so that the primary role of teaching is not to lecture, explain, or otherwise attempt to 'transfer' mathematical knowledge, but to create situations for students that will foster their making the necessary mental constructions” (Constructivism in the Classroom). To me, that means that instead of the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, we are merely guiding them to seeing the bigger picture so that they can have their “aha moment” and realize how to use these concepts in everyday situations through connections made through discovery.

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We can make understanding happen by allowing our students to discover ways to solve through big ideas in math using manipulatives, by having group activities (learning through other strategies fellow classmates might use), and giving real life “problems” to solve. I highly enjoy the mathematical questions that are asked at one school I frequent every Friday – they are always made to go along with an educator at the school, the students themselves, or something else happening in the school community. The students enjoy trying to figure out the answers to the questions, and I find it interesting trying to figure out how to bring the questions to that grade’s skill level. The last one I did had me and a class of 20 grade ones counting by 20s using the squares on the carpet to figure out how many students their teacher had taught in her 32 years before retirement!  It was real-life, and it wasn’t just a matter of the answer is around 640, it was that their teacher had taught over 600 students and they were just 20 of the over 600 she had met. They fully connected with that, and we had fun getting up and moving around rather than counting out over 600 manipulatives!

Grade Twos having fun playing around with symmetry

Do you agree with the Constructivist approach to planning, teaching and learning?

What kinds of real-world activities do your students get the most excited about? Do you think they've learned the Big Ideas better thanks to that real-life connection?

Resources Consulted: 

Constructivism in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved July 3, 2018, from http://mathforum.org/mathed/constructivism.html

Small, M. (2013). Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8 (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education. Retrieved July 6, 2018, from http://www.nelson.com/pl4u/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/making_math_meaningful_chapter_1.pdf?e1d0f5

Steen, L. A. (november 2007). How Mathematics Counts. Making Math Count, 65(3), 8-14. Retrieved July 6, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov07/vol65/num03/How-Mathematics-Counts.aspx