Chapter 3 - Constructivist Teaching: Interactive, Collaborative, Integrative, and Inquiry-Based

            Learners learns best when a teacher helps them connect lessons to their prior knowledge. A constructivist teacher believes that students learn by building upon their prior knowledge. I can say that in constructivist teaching, learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. In the constructivist classroom, the role of the teacher is to guide his or her students and facilitate discussion. In constructivist teaching method, the learners are actively involved, and the activities are interactive and students-centered.

Constructivist teaching includes interactive, collaborative, integrative, and inquiry-based approach. Interactive teaching is a two way process. The teacher interacts with the students as well as the students interacts to other students. By interacting with another, ideas and information’s are formed. When there is interaction, there is also collaboration. There interactive teaching because learning is an active process, a material process, and learners can serve as a resource person. In this approach, the teacher do less talk and the students talk more. Collaborative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves group of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. Sharing of ideas is present in this approach. Without collaboration, there is no learning. In order for the collaborative teaching to work, the teacher should begin with the conviction that every student can share something with the attainment of a goal. Every student has an idea to share and no one is exempted.

Integrative teaching and learning is putting together separate discipline to make whole. This means that connecting lifeless subject matter to life itself. The lesson will be more lively and interesting. Integrative teaching is also done when a teacher integrates knowledge, skills, and values in a lesson. Inquiry-based teaching focused on inquiry or question. It helps the students to create questions of their own. Creating and formulating questions on their own helps the students to generate more knowledge and ideas. Also, students know what are right from wrong. The teacher will make things clear. By doing this, students are able to participate actively in class discussions.

In teaching-learning process, constructivist teaching method lets the students learn by themselves. By learning the principles about constructivist teaching, it is easy for me to apply those in teaching. As a teacher, I will not spoon feed the lessons to my students instead I will give them the chance to discuss the lesson on their own. In order for the students to understand our lesson, I will integrate the lesson to the real world situations. I will give group activities that will help the students to develop their interpersonal intelligence. Through interacting and collaborating with others, I know that it will help them to participate and cooperate actively.