Re: Introduction(Jeff)

["Jeff Knope" <jknope@xxxxxxxx>]

I am so far out of my element here that I don't even get the connection 
between what I wrote and Dale's reference.

What I meant is that being self-taught, all of my learning sprang from my 
own desire to know; and each advance in my knowledge was motivated by a 
desire to solve some self-assigned problem.  My experience was that these 
aspects of my learning imparted a vitality to the adventure, and anchored 
what I learned, in a way I don't find when learning by following predefined 
curricula.  Isn't this the central notion of Constructivism?

"The basic premise is that an individual learner must actively "build" 
knowledge and skills ... and that information exists within these built 
constructs rather than in the external environment. ... all advocates of 
constructivism agree that it is the individual's processing of stimuli from 
the environment and the resulting cognitive structures, that produce 
adaptive behavior, rather than the stimuli themselves." --from 
"Constructivism" by W. Huitt (2003).

Jeff

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dale Reed" <dale-reed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mwforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 6:57 AM
Subject: Re: Introduction


> < I am entirely self-taught, by an odyssey of discovery I suspect is a 
> model
> of Constructivist learning (as I understand the concept).
>
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002684254_nikihayes15.html
> <snip>
> Supported philosophically by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
> council based its approach on the progressivism of John Dewey, the
> constructivism of Lev Vygotsky, and on modern cognitive-developmental
> research.
>
> But, having studied in Israel with Prof. Reuven Feuerstein, a cognitive
> psychologist who worked with Jean Piaget and is an internationally
> recognized expert on Vygotsky, I saw, in reading some 30 articles this
> summer, little semblance between my understanding of Feuerstein's 
> teachings
> and the NCTM program:
> <snip>