Re: Constructivism and learning culture

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Ania Lian (ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 09:14:11 +1000 (EST) 

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 09:14:11 +1000 (EST)
From: Ania Lian <ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Constructivism and learning culture

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On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Martin Owen wrote:
> Constructivism, and its lemmas : social constructivism and situated
> cognition, are not theories of teaching. They are models of learning.
> There are certain evolving views on the model:
> that human learning is culturally situated and interaction with the
> "environment" is mediated by culture (particulalry language).
> That perception itself is governed by both the culture and pre-history of
> the learnier.
> That cognition is not uniquely in the head bu t also distributed through
> relationships with other humans, the culture, its artefacts
> that the learner actively constructs their perceptions based ion their
> previous learning and cultural mediation
> How should this change my teaching? If I believe any of the above it
> matters little if I am a "traditonal" or a "constructivist" teacher, as my
> students can only be "constructivist" learners. Can I /Should I do anything
> about this?

You affect their past and hence their future, according to the principles
you have outlined. This seems like a pretty heavy load to carry.

> We should not consider the existing culture/practice
> unproblematic, and we should work to models which offer problem or crticism
> construction as part of the process.

this also goes for critical approach to one's own actions, say as a
teacher. The real question is, what does it mean and involve? The answer
may be simple but it does not follow that it was a product of a
lighthearted approach to the question.

best,
Ania Lian

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