Stepping Stones: My Journey to Becoming a Literacy Consultant Step Three

From the desk of Hope…

One very important thing I remember doing as a “baby teacher” was deciding what I believed in as it related to teaching and learning. Believe it or not there are quite a few philosophies floating around the world of education. I made a decision to become a constructivist teacher many, many years ago.

Let me share some information about constructivism with you. Constructivism is a theory about how people learn. The basic idea of this theory is that people construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world, through experiencing things and then reflecting on the experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience. We may change or adjust what we believe, or we may discard the new information as irrelevant. The bottom line is that constructivist believe we are active creators of our own knowledge – learning by doing.

Now doesn’t this just make sense and seem natural to you? You may be asking yourself, how could there be any other way to learn?!?

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning  means encouraging students to use active techniques, simulations of real world tasks, to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing.

I didn’t learn how to drive a car by reading the driver’s education manual. The manual helped me to build some background knowledge about driving a car but I really learned how to drive a car when I got behind the wheel and started practicing. This idea holds true with any content you are learning. If you want good readers in your classroom, your students have to engage in reading. If you want good writers in your classroom, your students have to engage in writing. Again, this is learning by doing.

A pretty simple idea, right?

Figuring out what I believed in made my job easier. My belief system guided my room set up and materials I provided, the lessons that I planned, conversations with students, and the way I assessed. It also guided my growth as an overall educator. I teach teachers now and nothing has changed with my belief system. I teach them the same way – as a constructivist!

Step Three: Figure out what you believe in as it relates to teaching and learning.