Technology and Constructive Learning

Constructivism is an educational philosophy that deals with students learning only from active problem solving and discovery from which they can "construct" meaning based on their experiences.

I am a strong believer in constructive learning and I am working on trying to create a more constructivist atmosphere in my classroom. It is sometimes difficult in lower-level high school mathematics classes to try and get the students to "discover" math concepts. It is also difficult because math has traditionally been taught through direct instruction followed by independent, individual practice. Therefore, I have not discovered much already-prepared material on creating constructivist math lessons.

There are software packages such as Geometer's Sketchpad which lends itself to constructivist activities. I was excited to try some of these activities, imagining how rewarding it would be for myself and my students when they had all those "aha!" moments of discovery and complete comprehension. I quickly discovered that although the students went through all the steps, created all the diagrams, and answered all the questions, they did not always make the connections between their actions and the intended learning. They were so focused on creating the diagrams and "finishing" the required worksheet for in-class points, that they did not allow themselves the time and patience necessary to play around with the diagrams until they were able to construct their own mathematical conclusions. There is definitely potential in this type of software but it does take a lot of planning and preparation time in order for the activities to be effective.