Posted on 01/29/2010 1:48:10 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
Parents need to know about something called Constructivism. Coming soon to a school near you.
Constructivism is the unseen sophistry that is oozing into every corner of every classroom. Bottom line: Constructivism promises a lot, teaches a lot less.
Of all the sophistries pushed by modern education, Constructivism may be the champ for pomposity, pretentiousness, and impenetrability.
And it's expensive if advocates get their way--they want to "revamp" schools, textbooks, and teacher ed.
So here's a little video that lays out the main features.
Recreating knowledge from the ground up—constructing, as it were.
AKA, reinventing everything.
The opposite of ‘study’.
Ping!
The term was used to describe early Soviet avant-garde art.
The greatest damage to our Republic by Ayers is being inflicted now; moreso than in his Weatherman days.
All need to research the word Constructivism and education. This is a nation-wide trend now corrupting teaching programs and filtering into high and elementary schools public and private.
I know this because the Catholic school where I teach is now launching such a program, and in my research, lo and behold, Ayers pops up everywhere as one of the prophets of Constuctivism.
Philosophically, it is a descendant of Deconstruction (Foucault, Derrida, ad nauseum) and it drinks from the spring of relativism.
Fuzzy math, creative spelling, emotion-based instruction, non-competition, all-values-are-equal, group learning - you know the sad refrain.
One more thing: content (what is actually taught) fades away to relative unimportance.
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This is my idea of a gimmick- a student graduates high school and is barely able to read, write, or count.
Let them gimmick. I’ll stick with a classical education for my kids.
All by myself, with only Dad to help.
They’ve been doing this for the past I don’t know how many years. Now it’s called “Constructivism.” What did they call it 20 years ago? There is nothing new under the sun. This is just another recycled, tired, failing idea.
Have you noticed how many Christian schools and public charter schools are now using a classical curriculum? A public classical charter school in my state (with a majority of minority students whose first language is not English, poverty level, students eligible for free lunch, $7,000 per year spent on each student, etc.), just beat my neighborhood middle class and above middle school with its progressive ideas and $14,000 expenditure per student, on their state tests.
It’s amazing isn’t it?
Does anyone have an essay or article to explain this? I don’t really like watching videos, my mind wanders too much.
Public School Education????/ Jk....couldn’t resist with the topic.
Homeschooled with no tv allowed - I don’t process information on video very well. Give me a 500 page book with footnotes ;-p
You’re right.
20 years ago, heck even 40 years ago, it was still called constructivism. This news is not really new. It was pioneered by Jean Piaget. Education majors in colleges all over the United States get Constructivism jammed down their throats at every turn as THE way to educate children. It is not really a curriculum, it is more of a method of learning.
You can have schools using a classical curriculum and still be constructivist.
It’s less than five minutes. A graphic video, fairly easy to understand, and you’d probably enjoy it.
The companion essay is a little denser. Please note that educators like this gimmick precisely because it’s murky. See “34: The Con in Constructivism” on www.improve-Education.org.
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Your post caused me to do some looking around on youtube last night. There are some truly idiotic things passing as education on there. It makes me feel sorry for the kids that are “taught” this way. We use Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri. Love that program!
I thought classical education was subject centered, not child centered. This sounds as if the kids run the show.
Constructivism was mainly developed in the 1990’s. Professors liked to talk about it. What’s new is that schools might now tell parents, “We’ve adopted a Constructivist approach,” as if this is good, as if nothing else needs to be said, as if all debate is now over.
I guess parents have to say, “Oh, really? What’s a Constructivist approach?” Then they can make a decision.
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