Constructionism in Practice

This week’s instructional strategy was generating and testing hypothesis. I believe that this goes along with construtionism because you are building to your conclusion by testing you hypothesis. By testing their hypothesis the students can build upon the information that they have gathered to support their conclusion.

There were six tasks that were given to help students generate and test their hypothesis. The first one was system analysis; examine a situation if one of the variables was changed. The second was problem solve; look at different methods to solve a problem. The third was historical investigation; create a solution for occurrences were there was no clear cut solution. The fourth invention; study a problem then create a solution for the problem. The fifth was experimental inquiry; observe a situation and create a hypothesis and experiment to test the hypothesis. The last was decision making; take a problem and change the variables to create the best situation. All of the tasks have the students building on an idea or problem and with each step having to build more on the findings.

I really liked the spreadsheet project that was described in the reading. The project had visual representation of the investment and could be manipulated into different graphs so the students could see the growth of the money. I also liked the fact that project could be related to real world situations that the students could possible deal with as they get older.

I also liked the multiplayer game created to help the students understand the political and economic conditions that lead to war. Many students already enjoy playing games on systems like Xbox and Playstation. It allows the students to study using technology that they are already comfortable with.

As a student continues their education they are always going to be growing. The hope of the teacher is to challenge the students enough to keep them interested and to build on past knowledge to help the student to continue to grow.

Rick Orr

Cognitivism in Practice

In this week’s reading of instruction strategies, I read about cues, questions and advanced organization and summarizing and note taking. Both of these instructional strategies can be utilized in the cognitive learning theory.

Cues, questions, and advanced organization can allow the students to focus on the important information that is being presented. As questions that have clues are asked to the student, the student can reflect on information that they have stored and create a network to the new information. This will help the student’s link information together. In math many times if I ask a student a question that they have mastered and connect that information to what is being learned, the students have a better understanding because they are remembering what they did in the past and creating a new connection.

Summarizing and note taking allow the teacher to control what the students are hearing and seeing. I try to limit the notes for the student to the information that is most important. If I have my students take notes for a whole period many of them will stop taking notes and nothing will be accomplished. If I can control the amount of information that the student is learning and the next day link new information to the old information, the student will have a better understanding of the information. Many times I try to find ways to relate information that is being learned to something that the student enjoys. They remember more this way then if I tell them just to work on the work.

I feel that students do better when they can see the link from one topic to another. Math allows me the freedom to do this with many different topics. I can always be building on what was learned previously by the students.

Rick Orr

Behaviorism in Practice

Behaviorist Learning Theory incorporates two operant conditions. One of the conditions is reinforcement, the other is punishment. I feel that the both aspect was present in both of the instruction strategies from this week’s reading. Punishment was not talked about but a student’s failure to attempt an assignment needs to be followed with some sort of repercussion for their actions.


The first was topic included reinforcement in the title, reinforcing effort. The recommendation was to teach students the importance of effort and have the student track their effort and achievement. By having the students monitor how they feel their effort is the teacher can supply the student with positive reinforce from their actions. The students can then see the importance of effort. It allows the student’s to control the outcome of their learning. It is frustrating to hear a student say they cannot do the work because they just cannot. They mentally feel they are inferior. If the student does but in effort and tries to achieve they will find that they can do the work, the student cannot compare themselves to anyone else because the amount of effort for each student is different.

The other topic was homework and practice. I feel that by doing homework the students can receive positive feedback for correct work. Another point that liked was when the math teacher and football coach worked together on a project. I feel that when the students can associate what they are learning with things that they like to do, the better the student is going to behave because they can see a real world application of what they are learning.

Anytime a teacher can incorporate learning with technology or other activities that the student enjoy the more positive the students will be about learning.

Rick Orr