Mark Nichols (M.Nichols@ucol.ac.nz)
Wed, 2 Jun 1999 09:04:42 +1200
From: Mark Nichols <M.Nichols@ucol.ac.nz> Subject: Constructivism Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 09:04:42 +1200
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In reply to William Klemm:
I think one of the faults of academic discourse is that we often tend to
polarise our viewpoints, arguing what appears to be an "all or nothing"
approach.
Like yourself, I believe that constructivism (facilitating students as they
discover for themselves) has many advantages over behaviouralism ("telling"
students what to know) as a pedagogical (i.e. teaching) approach (sorry to
throw in all of that jargon - and yes, I know that my definitions are
simplistic - no flaming please!!)
I don't view them as mutually exclusive, however! As I remarked in a
previous IFETS message, there is plenty of interesting geography between the
two poles (or something like that). Perhaps we could shift our discussion to
consider ways in which the two could be realistically used in conjunction
with one another? Perhaps someone knows of a paper written on this
particular theme? I for one would be extremely interested to read a paper
clearly outlining how the two could be used in a complementary way.
We're all aware that constructivism and behaviouralism have their own
advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps some sort of synergy could be achieved
that would maximise the effectiveness of both.
Yours,
Mark Nichols
Marketing and Communications Lecturer
Senior Lecturer, Business Studies
UCOL (Universal College of Learning)
Phone: 06 - 952 7001 ext.7311
http://www.ucol.ac.nz
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