Tailor teaching to your students

Professor Christine Schwarz:

When you know what you want to achieve in the long-term, you

then break down those goals for short-term goals. So the

purpose of your assignments and pedagogy must fit what you

want your students to know, think and be able to do.

A new book (2009), Constructivist instruction: Success or

failure? Tobias, Sigmund (Ed.) and Duffy, Thomas M. (Ed.)

explores the ideas we’re discussing this week. In the

chapter by Richard Mayer, constructivism as a theory of

learning versus constructivism as a prescription for

instruction is examined. Mayer argues that “it is

inappropriate to assume that active cognitive learning

requires teaching methods that promote hands-on behavioral

activity during learning—such as discovery methods.

Similarly, it is inappropriate to assume that passive

instructional methods— such as multimedia presentations—

cannot promote active cognitive learning.” So the moral of

the story is to tailor your pedagogy to the needs of your

students relative to the learning objectives that you have

for them.

Constructivism produces uneven results because it doesn't

always suit the problems you're trying to address. For

example, you might like a particular screw driver an awful

lot, but it will not cut wood as well as a saw. There are

certain kinds of problems that are better suited to

constructivism than others. According to Spiro et. al.,

teachers "need to treat complex, ill-structured knowledge

domains differently from simple, well-structured domains.

Examples of ill-structured domains such as history,

medicine, law, literary interpretation, and teacher

education are prime targets for flexible instruction, in

part because learners must apply what they have learned to

novel and unique situations.”