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Constructivist Learning Design

Key Questions for Teaching to Standards

By: George W. Gagnon, Michelle Collay

Foreword by Richard A. Schmuck

Build student-centered learning into your standards-based lesson plans!

With clear classroom applications and ready-to-use planning templates, this research-based resource guides teachers through the complex process of aligning constructivist learning events with standards-based curriculum. Constructivist Learning Design provides a six-step framework for lesson planning and assessment:

Situation: develop goals, tasks, and curriculum standards
Grouping: group students and materials, and use cooperative learning
Bridge: recall prior knowledge using students' cognitive maps, skills, values, motivation, and expectations
Task: use higher-level thinking skills and problem-based learning
Exhibit: arrange student portfolios and work samples
Reflection: synthesize critical thinking and knowledge

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412909563
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2005
Page Count: 256
Publication date: January 06, 2006

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Description

"Very practical and user-friendly . . ."
--Linda R. Kroll, Professor
Department of Education, Mills College

Build student-centered learning into your standards-based curriculum and lesson plans!

Educators expect learners to solve problems, think critically, communicate effectively, and collaborate well. These complex processes require young learners to engage in active learning and to understand that their own experience is the foundation for new learning. They also require teachers to move from the traditional role of "sage on the stage" to the new role of "guide on the side."

Constructivist Learning Design offers teachers a six-step framework for lesson planning and assessment:

Situation: develop goals, tasks, and curriculum standards
Grouping: group students and materials, and use cooperative learning
Bridge: recall prior knowledge using students' cognitive maps, skills, values, motivation, and expectations
Task: use higher-level thinking skills and problem-based learning
Exhibit: arrange student portfolios and work samples
Reflection: synthesize critical thinking and knowledge

With clear classroom applications and ready-to-use planning templates, this research-based resource guides teachers through the complex process of aligning constructivist learning events with standards-based curriculum. Engage students in tasks, help them think for themselves, and support them in making meaning of their learning!

Key features

Constructivist lesson planning and teaching using Gagnon & Collay's well-respected six-element Constructivist Learning Design (CLD)
Research based, student centered, and developmentally appropriate for K-12 learners
Promotes critical thinking, higher-level thinking, and reflective thinking
Offers clear classroom applications, ready-to-use planning templates, and a comprehensive list of resources
Compatible with differentiated instruction, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and other student-centered pedagogies
Aligns with standards-based curricular goals and standardized tests

Author(s)

George W. Gagnon

George W. Gagnon, Jr. is the Director of K-12 Partnerships in the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He works with teacher and parent partners to support students who would be the first generation in their family to be engineers or scientists. George uses Math Models he has designed to support students in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics. George has studied learning for thirty years as a teacher, principal, and teacher educator. Now he applies his research on constructivist learning design, appropriate assessment, and learning communities to encourage educational equity in urban public schools. George and Michelle live in Oakland, California, and are actively involved with the neighborhood public schools their children attend.

Michelle Collay

Michelle Collay is a School Coach for the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) in Oakland, California, a private non-profit organization supporting urban small school initiatives. She supports school leader development and coordinates classroom-based teacher inquiry for the purposes of improving student achievement. Previously, she worked as a faculty member and administrator in teacher preparation and graduate teacher education in public and private universities. Collay conducts seminars and workshops about professional learning communities, constructivist learning design, and portfolio development. Before completing doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Oregon, she taught music and mathematics in elementary and junior high school and continues to play the bassoon in local ensembles. She and her husband, George Gagnon, write, teach, and parent together and are parent leaders in their children’s neighborhood school in Oakland.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction: Learning Design

Situation Section: Constructivist Learning Design

Groups Section: Learning Considerations

Bridge Section: What Is Learning?

Task Section: Learning Characteristics

Exhibit: Fairy Tales Learning Episodes

Reflection Section: Precedents for Constructivist Learning Design

Concluding Remarks: Where Do We Stand?

Chapter 1: Designing Situations

Situation Section: Defining Guiding Questions

Groups Section: Co-constructing the CLD

Bridge Section: Questions for Analyzing Situations

Task Section: Revising a Situation Element

Exhibit Section: Example Situation Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for a Situation Element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Designing Situations

Chapter 2: Organizing Groups

Situation Section: Deciding on Groups

Groups Section: The Power of Collaborative Thinking

Bridge Section: Questions for Forming Groups

Task Section: Revising a Groups Element

Exhibit Section: Example Groups Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for a Groups Element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Arranging Groups

Chapter 3: Building Bridges

Situation Section: Surfacing Prior Knowledge

Groups Section: Connecting With Students’ Thinking

Bridge Section: Questions for Structuring Bridges

Task Section: Revising a Bridge Element

Exhibit Section: Example Bridge Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for a Bridge Element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Building Bridges

Chapter 4: Crafting Tasks

Situation Section: Crafting a Task

Groups Section: Thinking Together to Make Meaning

Bridge Section: Questions for Framing Tasks

Task Section: Revising a Task Element

Exhibit Section: Example Task Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for a Task element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Crafting Tasks

Chapter 5: Arranging Exhibits

Situation Section: Defining the Nature of an Exhibit

Groups Section: The Power of Students Presenting their Thinking

Bridge Section: Questions for Encouraging Exhibits

Task Section: Revising an Exhibit Element

Exhibit Section: Example Exhibit Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for an Exhibit Element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Arranging Exhibits

Chapter 6: Leading Reflections

Situation Section: Leading Reflection on Thinking

Groups Section: Reflecting on Making Meaning

Bridge Section: Questions for Inviting Reflections

Task Section: Revising a Reflection Element

Exhibit Section: Example Reflection Elements

Reflection Section: Precedents for a Reflection Element

Concluding Remarks: Thoughts on Leading Reflections

Chapter 7: Teaching Designs

Dancing a Design

Pacing, Rhythm, and Footwork

Choosing Music for the Dance

Rehearsing the Dance

A Tale of Three Dancers

Dancing Together

Inviting Administrators to the Dance

Inviting Others to the Dance

Resources

References

Index

Reviews

"A very useful contribution to the field. . . . Provides a model that even the newest of teachers can use."

Geraldine Lefoe
Senior Lecturer, Centre for Educational Development and Interactive Resources, University of Wollongong, NSW Australia

"Provides a structured format for helping teachers design constructivist learning opportunities. . . There are a lot of useful strategies here for teachers and good examples throughout."

Bruce Marlowe, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Special Education
Roger Williams University

"Provides sound advice on many matters, including how to establish a teaching "situation," how and why to group students, how to "hook" students and draw on their interests and past experiences, and how to promote authentic exhibits of their learning."

Clive Beck
Professor, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, OISE/University of Toronto, Canada

"Very practical and user-friendly. ..This book presents a very clear set of directions and plans for instituting a new way to think about teaching and learning on a very detailed and moment-to-moment basis. The ideas are also grounded in theory and the connections between theory and practice are made explicit."

Linda R. Kroll, Professor
Department of Education, Mills College

"This book should be read by neophyte and seasoned teachers, by teacher educators in colleges of education, and by trainees in preservice programs. It should also be read by school administrators for insights into how to improve teacher supervision and staff development, by open-minded behaviorists looking for alternatives to direct instruction, by liberal arts professors who want to learn how to teach so that their students want to keep on learning, and by parents with children in school or with children they are schooling at home. For that matter, everyone concerned with formal education should read this book unless, of course, they already have signed the Faustian pact to search only after the qualities and techniques of authoritarian, direct instruction.

I invite you now to do as I have done. Read this fine book three times. Read it first for a general understanding of its concepts. Read it again and reflect on your own practice. Read it a third time to engage its ideas as you would engage dance partners. Then keep the book at your side for reference to its many action ideas."

Richard A. Schmuck
Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon

"The authors make it clear that this is not your ordinary lesson planning book. This is an interactive workbook in which Gagnon and Collay encourage us as readers to work through the design process by applying the model to our own subject matter, preferrably with a partner or as part of a group so ideas can be shared and collectively reflected upon."

Teaching Theology and Religion, July 2008, Vol. 11(3)

Other Titles in: Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

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