[quoting Vanhala, 12 Apr 95] How is learning handled in a public school setting using a constructivist approach?
There are probably many ways, but you may be interested in hearing about one that is modeled after a class that I teach at the graduate level. One of my students last fall was a middle school history teacher whose reaction to my class was to completely redesign her 7th grade history curriculum. Here are some of the things she did.
First she examined the major areas of history that she was expected to cover in 7th grade and determined that they all shared a common, overarching theme having to do with conflict. Then she arranged a variety of resources to be made available to students on these major areas (two of the topics were the American Revolution and westward expansion--I don't recall the others), including textbooks, historical novels, videotapes, reference books, newspaper clippings, and the like. She developed a set of questions that students were to answer regarding each conflict, such as, Who was involved? What precipitated the conflict? How was the conflict resolved? What customs or beliefs of the era could have influenced the conflict and how? If this same conflict were to occur today, how might it be resolved? Etc. The questions are designed to assess students' understanding of each conflict from a multiplicity of perspectives.
Now here's how the class works. The teacher assigned students to cooperative learning groups (I believe four students to a group). Students first read their textbook chapter on a given conflict and answer the question set (as a kind of pretest). Then, they explore the conflict using any resources they want. The teacher requires students to keep a log of what resources they consult and what information they find from each resource that pertains to any of the questions. They also record any other questions that come up during their group discussions, as well as "hot trivia topics," which are interesting facts they run across that pique their curiosity. Classes consist of small group and whole class discussions on the things they are finding out, with the teacher acting as facilitator. The teacher particularly encourages examination of conflicts from a wide variety of perspectives, including a view from the modern world. The teacher also models strategies, such as how to select resources that may help in answering particular questions.
Eventually, the students write new answers to the original question set to demonstrate what they have learned. The teacher reports that, for the first time in her experience (and she's been teaching for a number of years), students have actually become interested in history, even those students whose achievement in the class has been low until now. Classes are active, students are consulting sources they never used before, and the changes in students' answers to the questions appear to reflect an increase in both knowledge and thinking. Answers on the "posttest" are considerably longer than on the "pretest," more in-depth, and more aware of differences in ways a conflict can be viewed and understood. Evidently, the other history teachers in this school are now planning similar changes to their practices to incorporate some of these ideas.