Classrooms
must be a space in which all individual students have a fair opportunity to
succeed in learning about variety of formal or informal subjects. It has come
to my attention however that this statement is not true. Within the classroom
there are often times where some students are disadvantaged by traditional
teaching practices. The practice of teaching cannot be as simple as a educator
lecturing students with do’s and don’ts of the classroom while overflowing
their minds with subject information. This method of traditional-authoritarian
teaching style only benefits those who are able to keep up with the educator’s
standards while those struggling are left behind.
During my elementary and
secondary schooling years I have seen many students become fall behind in class
and as a result fall behind for the rest of the week when this teaching
practice is in use. Teachers need to seek out and address the different types
of curriculum as a means to discover the most effective ways of transferring
knowledge (Drake, Reid, Kolomon, 2014)
Project-based
learning seems to be the most effect way for a constructivist to draw the
content out of the students. By posing an open-ended question for an
assignment, students can generate potential topics of study in groups and
continually build on each other’s ideas. I have seen this method work in many
classes as a student. After a topic and group was chosen, my group’s task was to
hand in the same essay on three separate occasions. Each time the paper is
handed in it will be marked with feedback then will be handed back for
revision, editing and for the addition/deletion of new ideas. This was an
effective way to meet the curriculum objectives because as students it was
required we do most of the learning on our own while the teacher acted as a
guide/source of knowledge.
Holistic
education is a style the style that is the most unfamiliar to myself. This type
of education seems like it most concerned with developing ethical, confident
learners. The following link
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYRHAeECyA)
contains a video of a woman named Wu Jiahi who used holistic education to
develop her learning and life skills. After taking an over-seas musical
exchange program Jiahi has discovered a talent of playing music and performing
while also developing other skills such as public speaking. Holistic education
is also very evident in many Indigenous schooling curriculums where they must focus
on teaching the “mind, body and spirit” (Drake, Reid, Kolomon, 2014). More
information can be found on Manitoba’s government website regarding Indigenous
schooling in Manitoba at http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/abedu/perspectives/concepts.html.
It
would be interesting to see a potential hybrid of project-based learning,
holistic education and social reconstruction. There is no good reason that
modern education cannot combine all of these constructivist teaching practices
and curriculums into one classroom. Since Canada is such a multicultural
community all students should be offered an equal opportunity at succeeding in
school. In order to liberate students from authoritarian style classrooms,
teachers must consider project –based learning, holistic education and social
reconstructions. By incorporating all three constructivist models of curriculum
into one classroom students who are from foreign cultures, Indigenous families
and those from low, middle or high socio-economic statuses all have the
opportunity to grow as learners and collaborate together rather be taught in a
standardized monoculture.
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