48 • Constructivist Learning Design

REFLECTION SECTION: PRECEDENTS

FOR A SITUATION ELEMENT

In most texts, “theory” is presented first, sending the message that, “Here
is the theory, now go and apply it.” Classroom teachers often start their
planning with thinking about an activity for students, so the CLD frame­
work was crafted in response to that practice. Although deep knowledge
about the practice of teaching is often tacit, it is not “atheoretical.” You
have constructed a Situation that is based on prior knowledge of the topic
and how students learn. As you sit with your version of the Situation,
revisit some of the work that influenced this work.
Dedication to structuring an effective learning Situation has a rich
history. Looking only at the last 100 years, John Dewey used the term
“Situation” in his essay “My Pedagogic Creed.” He focused on situating
new learning in the natural world of the child. He described building on
children’s experiences in the home by continuing to re-create similar activ­
ities at school and never portrayed education as acquiring a set of skills.
In 1897, Dewey wrote,

I believe that education must be conceived as a continuing recon­

struction of experience; [and] that the process and the goal of
education are one and the same thing. (p. 434)

Donald Schön (1983) is best known for his theories about reflection-
in-action by professionals. He also conceptualized the Situation in a very
constructivist way. He studied professionals, such as architects, who are
challenged to solve problems in real-world Situations rather than merely
apply theoretical rules to abstract problems. Experienced practitioners
face a variety of learning events in their work and bring a repertoire of
problem-solving strategies and ways of thinking to each new Situation.
Eleanor Duckworth (1987) used situations to engage learners in “the
having of wonderful ideas” about science. She observed that, when children
were left to their own imaginations, they would construct and reconstruct
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their own meaning of the world around them. Children’s efforts to explain
situations resulted in creative, innovative, and theoretically sound under­
standings of the natural world. Steffe and D’Ambrosio (1995), researchers of
constructivist learning, built Situations for learners to explain new under­
standings of math concepts.
Catherine Fosnot (1996) invited several contemporary philosophers to
write about their understanding of constructivism. In addition to chapters
on the disciplines of science, mathematics, and language, she broadened
the conversation to include the fine arts. Maxine Greene (1995) provided

Gagnon, George W., Jr., and Michelle Collay. Constructivist Learning Design : Key Questions for Teaching to Standards, Corwin Press, 2005. ProQuest
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 Designing Situations • 49

examples of real-world learning from the fine arts. She thought deeply
about how children create, interact, and learn to make meaning within
the fine arts, reminding readers that children learn from experience, and
experience should include interactions with the aesthetic side of life:
“Where education is concerned, large-scale solutions hold little relevance
for situation-specific undertakings. Local knowledge and local coming
together ought to counter the tendency toward abstraction, as should a
conscious concern for the particular, the everyday, the concrete” (pp. 68–69).
As we described at the beginning of this chapter, the tradition of creating
or recognizing a Situation to engage students in learning can be seen in all
fields of study. Professionals in all fields use case studies to guide class
learning.
Constructivist Learning Design entails teaching for purpose rather
than teaching to objectives. Constructivist teachers engage students in a
Situation and understand what students will do with their new learn­
ing. Such a teaching strategy involves more than stating an objective to be
learned or an outcome to be demonstrated. The Situation embodies your
purpose in creating a learning event for students. Most CLDs are built
around a big idea and often have multiple purposes. Teachers can’t predict
or limit what students will learn while they are engaged in open-ended
activities, so it can be difficult to specify measurable outcomes. For that
reason, CLD purposes are broader than objectives and involve introduc­
ing, exploring, or understanding concepts or ideas rather than demon­
strating one particular behavior.
Creating Constructivist Learning Designs may not be supported in
some schools. Behaviorist beliefs and high-stakes standardized testing have
limited what might be learned by mandating strict use of instructional
minutes. Experienced teachers realize that what students are expected to
learn is not necessarily what they will learn, especially with more than
30 students in a classroom. However, the likelihood that students will learn
increases if they are engaged and interested in a Situation they have co­
constructed. The pursuit of broad purposes such as defining, experiencing,
and investigating creates more authentic and transferable learning than
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does the pursuit of specific objectives that have been predetermined by a

district curriculum or a mandated textbook series.
Some vestiges of behaviorist thinking include notions that concepts are
static, that they can be described objectively, and that they can be learned
in the same manner by all students. For example, if the fourth-grade
curriculum introduces fractions in mathematics, textbook authors assume
that all fourth graders will meet the objective of adding and subtracting
fractions. They also assume that, by following the textbook instructions,
most teachers will find success at teaching students to add and subtract

Gagnon, George W., Jr., and Michelle Collay. Constructivist Learning Design : Key Questions for Teaching to Standards, Corwin Press, 2005. ProQuest
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 50 • Constructivist Learning Design

fractions. The objective is for students to demonstrate through a test that

they can manipulate the algorithms and obtain a correct answer. Such a
measurable objective can be reached by some students. What isn’t known
from such behaviorist practice is whether students have a conceptual
understanding of how fractions work, even when they obtain a correct
answer. Nor do you know what the students with the incorrect answers
understand and can do with the concept. Unfortunately, teaching to an
easily measured objective perpetuates the myth that clear objectives reflect
good teaching practice. The large number of high school students who still
cannot add and subtract fractions makes clear that there are flaws in this
thinking.
In practice, teachers know that all children learn differently, make
meaning of concepts in different ways, and learn at different rates. Yet the
same teacher who knows this truth about learning will find solace in the
idea that an objective defined is an objective that can be reached. Working
with comprehensive standards is more challenging and it makes it more
likely that students will reach benchmarks and widely held standards of
achievement.
What kinds of thinking will provide teachers with the courage to move
toward CLD? The first step is putting aside the notion that concepts are
tangible objects that can be transferred from one person to another with
mere explanation. Paulo Freire (1970) called this the “banking” model of
education: Teachers make a deposit into students and expect them to
give back the funds on demand. Personal knowledge is the patterns of
action constructed individually by students who make their own meaning.
Knowledge is not a set of objects that can be transmitted in a neat little
package from teachers to students. The role of the teacher is to light a can­
dle rather than to fill a piggy bank. Teachers who embrace the construc­
tivist philosophy have moved beyond dispensing information and have
entered a partnership for learning with each student. Recognize your own
relationship with learning and make sense out of your own journey to
understanding. Creating a Situation is much more than setting up an
opportunity to experiment with ideas—the learning episode you design
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represents your values, beliefs, and dreams about our place in the world.
Education is a complex social process of human interactions about mean­
ingful ideas.
Most teachers consider three main areas when they plan a lesson as
depicted in Figure 1.2, Teaching Plan Triangle, on the next page.
The sides of the triangle represent the components of a static lesson
before it is taught: expectations, materials, and evaluations. Expectations are
the base of the triangle and encompass the continuum of national standards,
state requirements, district outcomes, and teacher objectives for the lesson.

Gagnon, George W., Jr., and Michelle Collay. Constructivist Learning Design : Key Questions for Teaching to Standards, Corwin Press, 2005. ProQuest
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 Designing Situations • 51

Figure 1.2 Teaching Plan Triangle

ials Eval
er u

at
Ma

ions
?
ctatio
pe

Ex

ns
?

Materials include the resources available for teachers to use with that les­
son, such as textbooks, teacher manuals, anthologies, articles, or curriculum
guides. Evaluations include the typical tools for determining student learn­
ing from the lesson, such as homework, quizzes, exams, and regional, state,
or national standardized tests. The visual metaphor often used to describe
these components is a three-legged stool. This is an apt representation
because many lessons are conducted as the teacher sits on a stool, has students
read the material, explains the material to the students, and then evaluates
students’ understanding of the materials. Modify this representation in your
mind as you look at Figure 1.3, Learning Design Pyramid on the next page.
This depiction adds a fourth side representing students and asks you
to imagine not just looking at a flat figure on a page, but rather a three-
dimensional Learning Design Pyramid. Not only have students been
added to the influences on the design, but also the previous terms have
evolved to resources, purpose, and assessments. You develop your own
purpose for each learning episode as you derive meaning from all of the
expectations bearing on your teaching. Resources for the learning episode
Copyright © 2005. Corwin Press. All rights reserved.

depend on the topic you determine and may include original source writ­
ings, physical models, graphic materials, community members, and tech­
nology, among others. You decide which assessments to use throughout
the learning episode, such as profiles, portfolios, presentations, proposals,
paragraphs, or performances. Students become the fourth side of the base
of the pyramid. Their diversity as individuals reflects cultural and ethnic
backgrounds, personality types, thinking styles, and developmental levels
or maturity. Individual learners have emotional, social, and disciplinary
needs that also become factors in the learning design.

Gagnon, George W., Jr., and Michelle Collay. Constructivist Learning Design : Key Questions for Teaching to Standards, Corwin Press, 2005. ProQuest
Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/univ-people-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1994302.
Created from univ-people-ebooks on 2022-11-10 08:07:28.