• assure the students draw from their experience to relate to the poem
• keep a larger context, where they don’t just break down the poem into small pieces but keep the ‘whole’ in mind
• somehow, someway learners get involved in constructing their own poems and through them, find a way to relate to the poems being taught

This activity is easier if students are allowed to select their own poems. Ideally students would be offered a large variety of poems to choose from so they could select the ones that most relate to their experience. If the poems of Shakespeare were the subject, then perhaps students can draw from Shakespeare the poetry that best matches their lives. Students interested in leadership might select Henry V, and the romantics might choose from Romeo and Juliet or the sonnets. 

Let’s make it harder though and assume that you want to teach the famous ‘To be or not to be….” soliloquy from Shakespeare. If you want to try a constructivist approach, what you don’t want to do is dissect the passage, explaining each line as you go. A more constructivist approach might be to:

1.  ask students to describe a situation in their life where they felt alone and at conflict
2. have each student write about that feeling
3. work with students to convert their passage into something that matches a shared understanding of ‘poetic.’
4. then describe for them what Hamlet was feeling just before the speech begins, and ask the students how they feel Hamlet might react
5. review the students posts and challenge them to revise the passage to get either closer to Hamlet’s, or to at least understand how their version is different than his

Recognize that steps 4 and 5 above in particular could take a long time to work through. The teacher’s goal is to guide the student into discovery. Hard to do, and time consuming and standard curriculum don’t often allow this luxury. If you have limited time, adapt what you can.

And remember, constructivism is an excellent approach to learning but not the only approach. As an instructor you are an artist, tasked to come up with the best method to teach a topic at a given time. 

Thoughts? Other ideas?

A passive approach

A bell rings. The professor stands before a podium with a sheaf of lecture notes. Facing her is a roomful of banked seats filled with students, notebooks open, pens poised. An hour-long lecture on photosynthesis begins, during which the instructor delivers reams of facts and the students busily record them. The students learn these bits of information and recall them at exam time. The professor grades students on their ability to do this.

A more active approach

Students gather around a table. The professor begins class with a 5 minute discussion on plants. Then, the professor divides the class into groups of three and gives each group a plant. The students are challenged to design experiments that determine how plants get nutrition. The professor walks around the class, providing guidance to each group.

Our current educational system was developed at a time when assembly line workers were in demand. Today’s workers need to be creative, agile thinkers who understand processes, not just facts. This requires a different set of skills. A number of current learning theories suggest ways to nurture the kinds of creativity and flexibility that enable people to thrive in the rapidly evolving work world.

LEARNING A HOBBY

Consider your favorite hobby. Perhaps you are a Pogo Stick enthusiast. It’s unlikely you were born with the innate ability to jump around on a Pogo Stick. But somewhere along the line you mastered this art. How? By getting on your Pogo Stick and jumping…and falling off…and getting back on…and jumping…and falling off… (you get the picture).

Gradually, during this iterative process, your brain and your body (which are accustomed to negotiating the world on two legs) developed a sense of how to balance while bouncing around on a stick. Although you may not have been aware of it, you increased your Pogo Stick expertise by developing and testing theories about how to stay on the stick. You made countless mistakes. And you used each mistake to examine what made you fall off.

The dialogue in your head may have gone something like this:

Okay, if I wait too long to start jumping after mounting the stick, I fall off. So I’ve gotta start jumping right away.

Okay, now I’ve gotten the hang of jumping as soon as I get on the Pogo Stick. But if I lean too far to the left or the right, I lose my balance. So I need to stay centered.

It seems that if I push off from the ground with the same amount of force each time, I can develop a rhythm and build momentum. Hmmm….How can I do that?

What made this learning situation work?

• You were motivated. Pogo-sticking wasn’t part of an established curriculum, but it was on your list of personal goals.
• You practiced in a safe environment. No one was testing or grading you, and it was okay to fail.
• You constructed your own knowledge about how to use a Pogo Stick.
• You learned how to use a Pogo Stick by pogo-sticking!

Welcome to the death defying Funderstanding Roller Coaster!

This simulator is designed for people who want to design their own thrilling coaster and educators who want to use a cool activity to simulate the application of physics by using an exciting interactive tool and access to a wonderful reference source.

It is your mission to design the coaster so that you can achieve maximum thrills and chills without crashing or flying off the track (unless that’s how you like your coaster to work!).

If you accept this mission you must decide on a number of factors. You are responsible for setting the controls for the height of hill #1, hill #2, the size of the loop, the initial speed of the coaster, its mass, the gravity at work and the amount of friction on the track.

This tool offers a great way to play a roller coaster game, and learn while doing it. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this simulation and it will encourage you to think about how simulations can help you improve the way you teach.

If you need help, click on the ‘?‘ that relates to each slider. A second browser window will open to display the information. You can also get help on the topics listed below.

• Acceleration
• Centripetal Force
• Energy
• Force
• g’s
• Inertia
• Momentum
• Sir Isaac Newton
• Velocity
• Weightlessness
• Weight
• Work

Contact us for more information.

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