Tags: aptitude, cognitivist learning theory, memorization, memory,
After decades of educational research, we know that discussion offers unique benefits for certain types of learning. In effective constructivist discussion, the topic and the flow of the class emerge from teacher and student together; it is unpredictable where it will go. Social constructivists have found that the unpredictability of multiple competing voices is what makes discussion a uniquely effective teaching tool. But this is also what makes it so stressful for teachers, because the natural response to classroom anxiety is to impose even more structure on the class. Studies of everyday conversation have revealed that ambiguity is a source of anxiety, and participants act to reduce it as soon as possible. Speakers generally want to define an interaction as quickly as possible, narrowing the range of possible outcomes, and they often use ritual sequences to do so.
In classrooms that do not use much discussion and that are not based on constructivist principles, the teacher usually does most of the talking. As an example, in a staged improvisation, if one actor did most of the talking, that would defeat the purpose of the improvisation—a new scene is supposed to emerge unexpected from the collaborative dialog among the actors. Consequently, actors have several pejorative terms to refer to scenes when one actor talks too much. Teachers may also metacommunicate to summarize and make explicit key points that emerge from the discussion. Students do not yet have the expertise to recognize which emerging themes are critical and which are of only passing interest. Teachers must be highly attentive at every moment of the discussion, playing the essential role of noting each collective construction that emerges from the group discussion. Teachers have the difficult task of determining when an emergent insight should be explicitly noted: should the teacher call attention to it immediately, so as to provide material for the ongoing discussion? Or should the teacher make a note of it and then call attention to it at the end of the discussion period, so as to allow the discussion to continue on its natural path? The study of staged improvisations suggests that if the teacher metacommunicates too often, or uses strategies that are too powerful, the effectiveness of the discussion as a social constructivist learning environment is compromised.
Blog community team
Reaid
Davis
Carol Deuling-Ravell
http://decdr.blogspot.com
http://decdr.blogspot.com
Kerr, B. (2007, January 1). _isms as filter, not blinker [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html
Kapp, K. (2007, January 2). Out and about: Discussion on educational schools of thought [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/index.php/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational/
