Constructivism Case Study Analysis

Questions:
1. Describe two similarities between the traditional lesson and the constructivist one as described above. What are two differences?
Both of the lessons provided the students a chance to get out of their seats and learn kinesthetically. They also got to participate in their learning by physically seeing how large something was that they needed to measure. They were both active and engaged in each lesson.

2. What are two benefits and two drawbacks of the constructivist approach as described above? Why? In your opinion, are the benefits worth the costs? Explain your response.
Benefits - The students were actively participating in constructing new knowledge. It was not only teaching them about this specific topic, but it gave them the tools they needed to problem solve for themselves in other topics or life situations.
Drawback - The constructivist approach in very time consuming. As it was mentioned, it took the class 3 days to come up with a conclusion. From a teachers perspective 3 days is a really long time to cover one concept when you have a whole list of objectives we need to cover every semester/year. Occasionally I think some teachers have good intentions when using this model. However sometimes the material or inforamtion that is provided may still be too difficult for students to work through. They then could be come very frustrated and cut themselves off from wanting to participate and learn.

3. How does the constructivist lesson described above promote critical thinking? Give specific examples of critical thinking from the case study and include a definition of critical thinking to support your response.
Critical Thinking - (book definition)the process of systematically examining available information and coming up with conclusions that are based on evidence. But to me it just means knowing how to think through difficult situations and being able to problem solve.
The teacher in the second example required the students to apply past knowledge to their current situation to figure it out on their own. He never flat out gave the students the answers they were looking for, but he made sure he guided them to the correct conclusion.

4. Would the constructivist activity be considered an authentic activity? Why or why not? I would absolutely consider the activity authentic. It measured the students performance on the ability to complete something that would apply to a really life situation.