A topic in teaching science
In order to teach, there must be a learner or (more often) several learners. Teaching (as an activity) however does not necessarily lead to learning. The constructivist model of learning sees learning as a process that involves the learner making sense of information in terms of existing 'interpretive resources' – such as their prior knowledge and understanding, past experiences they can relate to what is presented in teaching. The teacher has to represent what is in her head in a form that the learner can make good sense of.
The teaching-learning system relies on cognitive processes at both ends of the communication channel (From: Debugging teaching. Improving the teacher's mental model of the learners' mental models.)
Effective teaching therefore requires the teacher to anticipate how learners can make sense of teaching, and fragment and sequence material accordingly, supported by devices to help 'make the unfamiliar familiar' -such as models, analogies, similes and the like. The teacher relies on a mental model of the learner – prior learning, available vocabulary, familiar cultural references etc. – in order to formulate a presentation that will be understood as intended.
The teacher works with a model of the learner's current state of understanding of a topic which helps plan teaching. (From: Debugging teaching. Improving the teacher's mental model of the learners' mental models.)
Clearly, this is asking a lot of teachers – especially when many teachers are working with a number of different classes, each with many students. So, there is much to go wrong – not because teachers are unskilled or students are lazy, but because the system of teacher-learner requires a very good match between the way teaching is presented and what learners are equipped to reconstruct into intended understandings. Commonly, things do go wrong: and learners do not always understand and learn target knowledge.
Learners can interpret teaching as intended, but can also fail to make sense of it, or, indeed, understand it quite differently to how the teacher intended.
Luckily, teachers are able to monitor learner thinking if they set suitable classroom tasks that offer formative assessment opportunities. Indeed, teachers can develop diagnostic skills (spotting missing prerequisite knowledge and alternative conceptions) to become effective 'learning doctors'.
Read more about:
The constructivist account of learning
Constructivist teaching approaches
