PME 811- Blog Post #3

My questions: 

How can I create a virtual student-centered classroom that will engage all learners? With my classroom being virtual and students attending my school from all over the state of Michigan, background knowledge and experiences vary. How can I develop relevance for all my students by purposefully designing classroom activities with the student‘s needs in mind and am able to guide the differentiation of individual learning? 

Breaking down the 5 attributes of a student-centered classroom discussed in blog post #2, I will start with unraveling the construction of learning. 

“Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in (Literature Review, page 2).” Brooks and Brooks (1993) stated that this philosophy will result in a deep understanding of which problems are focused around the big idea and students have to gather information and build upon knowledge. With this philosophy in mind, connecting it to a student-centered classroom means teachers will develop relevance by creating classroom activities and lessons around the students’ needs and differentiate instruction. 

But, with so much pressure on the teacher to differentiate instruction and develop relevance, and high standards set on the children to be able to discover and learn on their own, what happens when we design activities but students don’t master the concept? Rallis (1995) reminds us, “―if a child does not meet a ̳standard,‘ the child is not dismissed as a failure; rather the teacher considers what can be done to enable this child to learn.”

A common misconception of a student-centered classroom is that teachers should never tell or teach the students directly. Bransford et al. (2000) explains, “Adopting a constructivist theory does not imply that all learning is discovery learning and that direct instruction of basic skills are not incorporated into the classroom.”

With Bransford’s advice, I have been reassured that my whole lesson does not have to revolve around student discovery. I can still teach a mini-lesson as new knowledge can be gained and does not have to be constructed only from background knowledge and self discovery. I have learned that students can still engage in student-centered activities during a lesson even if I use direct instruction to teach them new content. It is allowing them to discover on their own how the new content connects with the world we live in or background knowledge they have that allows them to be at the center of the learning. 

Sources:

Bransford, J., Brown, A., Cocking, R., & Donavan, M. S. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Rallis, S. F. (1995). Creating learner centered schools: Dreams and practices. Theory into Practice, 34(4), 224–229.

Literature Review: Student-Centered Classrooms, Iowa Core, Pages 1-12 

http://web1.gwaea.org/iowacorecurriculum/docs/StudCentClass_LitReview.pdf