A Constructivist Approach in the Classroom

I am a dreamer. I think outside the box. Creativity, warmth, and learning are values I hold dear. After examining the text, “Educational Psychology,” by Anita Woolfolk, Phillip Winne, and Nancy Perry, my beliefs and values hold most closely to the two central ideas of constructivism; the idea that the learner is active in constructing their knowledge, as well as the idea that social interactions are important to the learning process (2011). A philosophy is so much more than just ideas on paper. It affects the entirety of your interactions with students, as well as how your classroom is set up, two things that are very important to a high quality constructivist classroom.

Besides a dreamer, I am also a Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE), and for the past ten years I have worked at a daycare with an emergent curriculum, primarily in the kindergarten and school age programs. Like constructivism, the emergent curriculum is based on the theories of Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotsky. Teachers plan the programming around children’s interests, record the outcomes, analyze the results, and then plan more programming around these new interests. I may currently be an RECE, but teaching in an elementary school is always something I have wanted to do from a very young age. I was extremely lucky to have many teachers whose love of being an educator was so palpable that it inspired me to do the same for a future generation. It is why I am currently at the University of Windsor getting my degree in psychology. After receiving my degree, I plan on applying to teacher’s college.

Through working closely with teachers of both the public and Catholic school boards, I have observed that children are expected to learn mostly through dri...

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...nts engaged in the learning process, helping students, engaging in open dialogue, and utilizing the classroom in whatever way best suits their learning needs. I want to be a teacher who bases programming around the students’ interests, not around what would be the easiest to accomplish what is needed in the curriculum. I want to be a teacher who is open to change, is flexible enough to follow the students’ interests, and is welcoming enough that students’ feel they can come to me for whatever help they require. I want to exude the values of warmth, creativity, and learning. Does this sound idealistic? Yes, it does. But like I said, I am a dreamer, and I would not have it any other way.

Works Cited

Dewdney, A. (2009). Llama llama misses mama. New York: Viking.

Woolfolk, A. E., Winne, P. H., & Perry, N. E. (2011). Educational psychology (5th ed.) Toronto: Pearson.