This week, my team will be presenting and facilitating the class on Constructivism. I'll refer back to one of my posts during Spring Break, where I was reading all the initial material and finally starting to see practical applications of the theory.
Since then, our team has done a lot (A LOT) more reading and discovery about the theory, and I have a better grasp of what Constructivism looks like in practice. Though, I do still see a lot of overlap in the theories. When the Cognitivism group presented last week on Social Cognitivism, I looked at my teammate, Andy, and asked - what's the difference between this and Social Constructivism? He quickly pulled up a comparison on his phone, and he'll actually speak about that a little bit tomorrow in our presentation, but the lines can definitely get blurred. In Constructivism, the learner "makes their own meaning" out of what they see and experience and do. In Cognitivism, our brain works to make meaning and connect to past experiences as well. Sounds pretty similar to me. I think there are definitely elements of Cognitivism in Constructivism, which is why Piaget and Dewey (Cognitivists) are considered to be some of the founding thinkers of Constructivist theory. It just builds a little more on it.
I'm excited and nervous to present tomorrow. I don't consider myself a teacher or facilitator and am not in my comfort zone when speaking in front of groups. But I think we are prepared and ready, so away we go!
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