My Personal Teaching Philosophy
My personal teaching philosophy aligns with the constructivist paradigm, where the learner constructs his or her own knowledge by linking new ideas with existing ones. As Nickerson put it, understanding “requires the connecting of facts, the relating of newly acquired information to what is already known, the weaving of bits of knowledge into an integrated and cohesive whole.” This contrasts with the behaviourist paradigm, where the teacher is seen as the transmitter of knowledge and the student ‘absorbs’ the information.
Thus under constructivist paradigm, the teacher is a facilitator who can promote learning by providing engaging activities for the learner to build their knowledge. Technology can be utilised in this context in a number of ways from providing instruction as needed, to assisting visualisation to enhance conceptualisation. |
There has been continued discussion in the mathematics education literature about balancing procedural knowledge with conceptual understanding. There has been a strong emphasis on procedural knowledge by institutions by their pedagogical and assessment methods, and this has rubbed off on student attitudes. Mathematics is commonly viewed as learning a series of procedures to be used in a given situation. A greater focus of conceptual understanding is needed to that mathematical knowledge can be applied in appropriate situations. Technology that focuses on conceptual understanding, problem solving and real-life applications, as discussed on previous pages on this site, is a tool to be encouraged in teaching. Hopefully, some of the resources identified on this site go some way to supporting a constructivist approach to teaching.
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