>My question is who is this most desirable for, the student, or the teacher?
Both and the rest of the class.
>
>I can understand this atmoshpere you write of as being very desirable for the
>adult who is in 'charge' of the learning. But is this really the most
>beneficial way for individual students to learn. Many times I have witnessed
>constructivist minded teachers try and mediate the process of having an
>intelligent student share their discoveries with the class and the result has
>been alienation on the part of the unenlightened students and frustration on
>the part of the enlightened students.
The class, school, and on must learn and then and expand, Eric. Many times
the problem may be that we in classrooms expect this kind of learning and
development to emerge neatly and immaculately. We also seem to expect
students to travel through a
zpd in 20-30 min periods at the elementary school level and in 50 minute
periods at the upper level. Publishers and test developers and testing
programs arbitrarily break up learning units (these are not zpds when
students engage in the learning)
I also think the kind of teaching you might be thinking about often forgets
that a zpd is not the property of the student or teacher. It is social
construction among the participants. Classroom teaching and learning can
be modeled with the elements of LBE.
Bill Blanton
>I will go back to my point that
>academia is good at devising thoeries, but not so good at providing solid
>methodology for implementing them. Now granted there are times when a
>classroom just clicks and there is shared discoveries and collective
>understanding, for the teacher in these classrooms this is a fabulous and
>self-sustaining learning environment.
Sure. It might just be that when a classroom really clicks, there is LBE
present.
>Does this mean that ALL classrooms need to operate this way?
No, Eric, just those teachers who choose principles of teaching and
learning derived from this theory.
>Granted , Bill you did use the term desirable
>which I am assuming (yeah I know) means there is also an alternative method
>which could be used in a pinch.
Well, theis might be the problem. We respond to pinches and prepare
teachers to do so.
Bill Blanton
>Positively thinking aloud,
>Eric
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 01 2001 - 01:02:04 PDT