Constuctivist teaching

"Piaget's approach is central to the school of cognitive theory known as "cognitive constructivism": other scholars, known as "social constructivists", such as Vygotsky and Bruner, have laid more emphasis on the part played by language and other people in enabling children to learn."

ATHERTON J S (2009) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm Accessed: 12 January 2010

Evidence Based Teaching

My notes on research by Hattie and Marzano cited in 'Evidence Based Learning', Geoff Petty

We know more about neural physiology and cognitive science, we understand a great deal more about how and why we learn. We need to know why strategies work in order to use and evaluate them effectively rather than relying on tradition and unproven strategies.

In order to manage our time wisely and deliver teaching and learning with more success, focus on strategies that have been tested and shown to work - this is known as 'Evidence Based Teaching'.

Such a research review was conducted by Hattie and Marzano in the nineties. Research reviews only tell us about how the average student learns however, we need to consider learning strategies in the context of our own teaching situation. Lets find the problems and fix them. No matter what methods you use, if the context in which you teach is faulty, no strategy will work. We need to find the MAIN contextual factors that most contribute to success as well as diagnosing the MAIN problems to be fixed. The main principles of Evidenced Based Learning:

1. We need all the evidence to make sound decisions

• compare the alternatives
• the views of experts

2. It's not enough to know what works, you need to know why it works

• to get the best out of teaching strategies
  
• it's your understanding of the teaching strategy that guides

3. Find the critical success factors that are failing in your teaching context and fix these first

• context is everything when understanding what inhibits attainment

4. Review your teaching constantly in the light of the evidence above

• what works in your classroom?
• do it and learn - experiment and take risks
  
• keep your teaching practice always under review

Evidence based teaching is not a how-to, rather it provides the evidence to enable you to focus your efforts on what's most effective. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. No more 'snake-oil', old school, traditions and following the crowd!

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