This week I explored learning, failing, and making in education as well as within my own professional context. After exploring readings, different perspectives, and research I have considered different approaches to learning in the context of schooling. As an educator and student, I have made reflections and connections to how maker education relates to my own teaching practices and personal experiences.
21st Century Learning emphasizes creativity and our students must be provided with opportunities to create. This week, I realized that as a classroom teacher I struggle to give up control when allowing students to create. While I do allow opportunities for students to create, I need to foster an environment that provides students with more opportunities to express their knowledge through making and innovating. Resnick (2017), argues that if we want children to develop as creative thinkers, we need to provide them with more opportunities to create and digital technologies can play a transformational role in learning and education. At my first school, we had a makerspace which involved classes attending the maker space twice a month. The space was filled with resources and technology for students to explore and innovate including cardboard, styrofoam, craft supplies, Spheros, Ozobots, Osmos, coding, magnetic sand and MUCH MORE!
Failure was constant and I often participated alongside my students exploring, failing, and succeeding at times. However, looking back as a first year teacher, I was not aware of the maker movement and I failed to take advantage of the provided resources to incorporate this style of learning. At my current school, students struggle with basic technology skills and I am guilty of relating to many of the preconceptions and misconceptions Cohen et al., (2018) includes in Preservice and Early Career Teachers' Preconceptions and Misconceptions About Making in Education. However, personally understanding preconceptions is a necessary first step for effecting conceptual change and I am determined to shift my teaching practices because I agree with many of the findings I researched this week. For example, making is critical to the learning process because it is a representation of ideas in an individual's head. Therefore it allows learners to play with ideas and to gain a better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of ideas (Resnick, 2017). My learners are fortunate to have 1:1 technology and I agree “technology creates creators” (Culatta, 2013). Therefore, as an educator I will provide my students with more meaningful digital technologies to transform individual learning.
As I was grappling with maker education, and how I can implement this learning into my own classroom and school, I also learned more about Constructivism and Constructionism. For example, I learned that Piaget’s Constructivism views learning as an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge (Akerman, 2011). As the English Language Arts teacher, my readers are always activating background knowledge when making inferences. With a large population of English Language Learners, I see how students construct new knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and building upon old and new knowledge while interacting with each other. On the other hand, I also gained more knowledge regarding Papert’s Constructionism. Papert advocated that learning is most effective when the learner designs or constructs a tangible or meaningful product as part of an educational activity (Akerman, 2011). Therefore, construction of knowledge occurs when students build, make, and publicly share objects (Cohen et al., 2018). I believe Constructionism is more prevalent in our school because students are constantly engaged in learning by doing with tools to build their understanding. For example, students participate in a variety of hands-on and inquiry based projects in all content areas across grade levels.
Fifth Grade students create personal African Musical Instrument to participate in song for Social Studies
This week has given me the opportunity to connect and reflect on my own teaching practices and personal experiences. Although I am guilty of misconceptions like many other teachers, I am determined to change my practice to incorporate tools that get students thinking in different ways to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Check out my self-reflection infographic below!
Self-Reflection Inforgraphic by Jenna DeVoursney
References:
Ackermann E. (2001). Piaget's constructivism, Papert's constructionism: What's the difference. Future of Learning Group Publication. http://www.sylviastipich.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Coursera-Piaget-_-Papert.pdf Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368. Cohen, J. D., Jones, W. M., & Smith, S. (2018). Preservice and early career teachers' preconceptions and misconceptions about making in education. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/doi/pdf/ Culatta R. (2013). Reimagining Learning. [video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/Z0uAuonMXrg DeVoursney J. (2018). Maker Space. [video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/ojy5Ch2lm3U DeVoursney J. (2018). Spheros. [video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/c6D9wb6TZHs DeVoursney J. (2018). African Musical Instrument. [video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/lnkLThBkE6w DeVoursney J. (2020). Amelia Earhart. [image]. DeVoursney J. (2020). Self-Reflection. [image]. Canva. Resnick M. (2017). Lifelong kindergarten: Cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers, and play. The MIT Press. http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/CulturesCreativityEssay.pdf Comments are closed.
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