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Different Ways of Teaching Learning is as natural to humans as

Learning is as natural to humans as breathing air. We canÆt help doing it, especially when we are children. Our desire to find out how the world works is deeply programmed into our brains, encouraged over the generations by evolutionary selection. But while learning is natural, teaching is not. The teacher and the school administrator must make conscious û and of course conscientious û choices amongst different ways of educating children so that they will learn in the ways that are most suited to their current and future needs. This paper examines two very different ways of teaching (which set the stage for very different ways of learning in the classroom) û the constructivist and the traditional.

While there are certainly dozens of slightly different definitions of both of these terms, a common ground may be found among them. Brief definitions of each of these terms will be given before the two approaches are examined in greater depth to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of each one of them.

A traditional approach to teaching may be summarized in the following way:

Traditional education sees intelligence as inherent in the human mind and therefore in no need of being learned. This would mean that it is proper for school to teach facts, ideas, and values on the assumption that human beings (of any age) are endowed by nature with the ability to use them (Kafai & Resnick, 1996, p. 11).

Constructivist teaching makes the practice of both teaching and learning more opaque and more subject to scrutiny. Constructivist teaching is the ôart of setting up situations in which the learner will 'construct knowledgeÆö (Kafai & Resnick, 1996, p. 10). What exactly is meant by that will be developed below, but it is important to note that this concept of actively constructing knowledge is based on the theories of psychologist Jean Piaget. The centrality of PiagetÆs work to the constructivist model of education merits a somewh...

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Different Ways of Teaching Learning is as natural to humans as. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:40, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700820.html