Activity 3: Bart the Genius: Constructivism applied?

What would authors Airasian and Walsh have to say about the learning environment in which Bart is placed?
Airasian & Walsh (1997) stated that constructivism plays off the metaphor of "lighting the flame" of student motivation against that of "fitting the bucket" of students' heads with facts. These authors would say that Bart was placed in an environment where students were able to construct their knowledge. They would also say that the teacher guides the learning/discussion while students are able to use their knowledge to construct their meaning of the concept that is being discussed. In Bart's classroom, students are able to use their creativity so that they can contribute their knowledge to the current discussion that is taking place in the class. I notice that the students are sitting at their own learning stations.

Yes, this is a form of constructivism because students are able to construct their own knowledge with a little guidance from the teacher. In the clip, I noticed that the teacher was not looking for a right/wrong answer. She was looking for students to construct their knowledge based on the question that was asked. And there were no rote forms of instruction in this clip. Students used their own constructions to answer the teacher's questions.

I think that constructivism is a good way to allow students to construct their own knowledge. As a teacher, I do not want to spoon feed my students on everything that they need to learn in my class. I want to begin my class with a discussion and then I can give students the time that they need so that they can construct a project that can show their understanding of the topic that is being discussed.