Throughout his paper, von Glasersfield gave different ideas and points to what constructivism is. The main idea that he followed and presented throughout the paper was the idea of construct knowledge. Construct knowledge is the idea that all knowledge we obtain is built upon previous knowledge that we have: it isn't created or acquired. He then describes how knowledge is constructed by the experiences we have in our life. Through these experiences we go through, there is then a truth to the knowledge that has been constructed. This truth is the reality of life around us. It can only be changed or our opinion of this knowledge being true only changes when we go through other experiences to counteract the truth that has been made by previous experiences.
In taking constructivism as a true idea and correct perspective of knowledge, an implication in teaching situations that could be used to teach mathematics would be the importance of creating experiences or life situations in the classroom These children then will use those experiences as truth for ideas and concepts in math. Besides creating experiences (such as different problems or examples) to acquire knowledge, one should also build on the experiences one is having in the outside world around them. By looking at mathematics in the world outside the classroom, children would then create a sense of truth to concepts and laws given them. It also would be important to build on knowledge and understanding the children already have constructed, such as in other mathematics classes. In doing all this, constructivism is being used by knowledge being built on knowledge that has already been created as true through prior experiences and then new experiences are being created or brought to one's attention by seeing them inside and outside the classroom.
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Hmm, I wondered a little bit about your use of the term "construct knowledge." I'm worried that one of the questions that I asked in class might have given you the wrong impression. In particular, I hope that it didn't lead you to believe that "construct knowledge" is a particular type of knowledge. That's not what von Glasersfeld had in mind. He was talking about the act of "constructing" knowledge. Your understanding that knowledge is created through experience coincides with von Glasersfeld's thinking. von Glasersfeld believes that through our interpretation of experience, we construct theories about how the world works. However, he refers to these as "viable" theories rather than "true" knowledge, since they may not be true at all. Because our theories are a result of our interpretation of experience, those theories are "constructed."
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure if your second paragraph outlines an exact implication or if you are simply expanding on the idea of Von Glasersfeld's theory. If you are indeed talking his theory about constucting knowledge, it's probably best not to use the word aquire since his article argues against such verbs when considering knowledge.
ReplyDeleteYou seemed to understand the article well and in your second paragraph demonstrated clearly that in your classroom you will promote experiences in which students can construct knowledge. I would have liked to see a more specific idea that you had for your classroom. You clearly feel passionate about it, so you could maybe share a specific idea as to will show your students math outside the class and how you will build on the knowledge they already have. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on your second paragraph that teaching children mathematics through life situations will help them to construct knowledge becauset they can build off of their experiences in the outside world. I feel that it could have been a little more specific on what those situations would be. Well written, great job.
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