EDLD 5364 Week 1 Reflection

In conjunction with this weeks study, I can see that I agree more with the constructivism learning theory. This theory conveys that "we learn in a variety of ways. The more opportunities we have, the richer our understanding becomes" (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1999). When learning new material, students bring prior knowledge with them and in turn uses that prior knowledge as a way to connect new concepts with the old. John Abbott described it well, "When you have a new idea, you hsee how it relates to something you've already got in your brain and you sort of construction your framework and you add a bigger framework then a bigger framwork" (Abbott, nd). I can attest to this in my own classroom. I teach business classes and have students ranging from ages 14-18. When talking about topics that convert to real world situations, inevitably the older students comment and add in the discussion. I can tell this is so because they have 'been there, done that'. The younger ones who have never been in a business situation don't grasp the business concepts just as the ones who have or had a job do. Honestly, this is the reason I would rather have upperclassmen in my business classes than the younger students. I taught finance last semester that included balancing your checking account and the positives and negatives in credit. Out of all the lowerclassmen, not one fully understood this concept. The upperclasmen had more experience with handling money and some even had their own accounts. This situation just reinterates the theory of constructivism. Abbott, J. (nd) Building Knowledge: Constructivism in Learning. Youtube.com. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F00R3pOXzuk Southwest Educational Developmental Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on February 27, 2011, from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html