How Constructivist am I?
As per my personality, I love learning about many things that I do not know. For example, even though I was trained as a critic of books in college, I still dabbled in multi-media arts—video making, photography, and production. Even though I did not have any Math in college except for freshman Algebra and Statistics, I explored Business Administration and learned Managerial Accounting. I was not trained as a Human Resource person, but I studied some Philippine laws on Labor and Employment, organized an Employment manual, and drafted organizational policies. Lastly, since I only had one teaching subject in college, I am currently taking more courses in professional teaching so I can create a better school curriculum and draft an efficient learning environment for ESL learners here in Cambodia. My point is learning is free for everyone who wants to learn. We must not box ourself in one specialization because learning is limitless; discovering is inexhaustible.
So, what do I do with all the things I learned? I get the best of each practice and apply such in my current season. To me, Constructivism is a great learning process for learners because this practice helps learners discover more perspectives about a certain topic. This way, learners can weigh the knowledge given and sift this knowledge thoroughly until learners get the valuable truth of the lesson. Constructivism is good if we want to engage students in our lesson by allowing them to see the relation of the topic with their personal experiences.
However, I also want to apply the best of the traditional way of teaching where the teacher directly gives the information to the learners. This applies to subjects such as Math, Science, and Grammar Rules. Since these subjects have principles and procedures that cannot be twisted or adjusted, the teacher can teach such subjects as is—without really needing the students to create more ways on how to add or subtract or how pollination happens or how the subject must agree to the verb. But at times, if the teacher can insert questions that will relate a Math problem or Scientific situations with real-life scenarios, this is way better. This is how Constructivist teaching happens in the class.
Now that I have learned about Constructivism Theories, I just feel content that all the while—with all of the questions I throw in to my students; all those moments we studied outside the classroom in our Science subject; and all those times I allowed them to draw their own version of Gender Nouns—all the while I have been a Constructivist teacher. But then again, like what I said, I like me better as someone who teaches with a well-balanced practice.
Better Teachers 