Constructivism and DDD-E

   Hello everyone, 

   It is a pleasure to be in touch with you again!

  Today's topic is "Constructivism and DDD-E". I had read about constructivism in other subjects, but DDD-E was a new term to me and I needed to make some "researches" about it in order to understand its value in teaching. 
  
  We were given some materials to read about Contructivism, so I assume everyone knows what it is and what stands in its core. However, I am making a brief summary. Constructivism in itelf is an approach and its central idea is that knowledge is constructed. I am sure we all remember how we listened to our teachers for hours back in school, sometimes even being afraid to make questions, because the teacher was always right. If we'd make questions, it would mean we weren't paying enough attention and we'd be punished. Well, the contrary happens inside a classroom where Constructivism is implemented.

  The students are considered as beings with previous experiences and knowledge, able to identify, analyse and solve different problems. That's why they are called active learners. They are given different tasks to solve and later they will bring out the rule or theory. But this is not the only difference between a traditional classroom and a constructivist one. They also consist on materials (where in the traditional classroom the most important material is the book, while in the constructivist one there are different sources of materials that can be involved in the learning process); teacher's role (authoritarian in the traditional classroom and a negotiator or facilitator in the constructivist one).

We read in the material given that three most important figures of Constructivism were Piaget, Dewey and Vygotsky. Piaget believed that humans learn through the construction of one logical structure after another. Dewey related education with real experience.

As you can see from the above image, the students are learning interactively, in groups. According to Vygotsky (1978), community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." As we've also learned in psychology, he also stated cognitive development derives from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partner's co-construct knowledge. The zone of proximal development itself is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. Sharing knowledge and experiences with each-other while performing a certain task, young learners (and not only) help each-other understand and acquire information. 

Even though a social grouping is needed to construct knowledge, each learner's mind is different. This may also be related to the existence of multiple intelligences, mentioned in the previous blog and also to the different perceptions people have towards the reality. 

Which are some other benefits of the Constructivist approach? 

Except of the fact that by this approach students construct their own knowledge, there are some other benefits I would like to mention, which are useful for teachers. 

• Students learn in a stress-free environment, making them more confident and motivated. 
• By making use of their past experiences and knowledge to solve a task, their critical thinking develops even more.
• Students build social relationship and therefore become more empathic.
• By being given the opportunity to use multimedia, they can reveal their creativity.
• Students become more reflective on their progress, becoming aware of their skills, weaknesses and strengths.

                                    Constructivism in an English language classroom teaching

  What is also worth mentioning as interwined with the Constructivism, is Cooperative Learning. It is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Part of Cooperative Learning are the Kagan Structures, which are strategies promoting the participation of every student in the classroom. Using these structures, students, regarding to researches made in US' schools, become more patient and caring and the discipline problems were dissapeared. (A teacher's dream come true!). These structures are multifunctional and can be implemented in each class. 

   But what activities to use to an English language class? As you can see in the image, we can use designing and pursuing reseach and projects; role playing; multiple learning environments; situational and contextual activities; theme and content based ones; oral presentations and critical thinking. One way by applying Contructivism, is by giving students a role-play task in a particular context. For example, role-playing between an interviewer and the interviewee in a well-known company. 

                                      The role of Multimedia in the Constructivist approach

 As long as the students are independent while teachers use the Constructivist approach, the use of Multimedia would make them more motivated and curious. By using internet in order to construct their own knowledge, they will become more selective while reseaching for materials. Using Multimedia creates a context for students, making it easier for them to comphrenend new knowledge and adapt it to the previous one. On the other hand, using any form of Multimedia to present projects or different tasks, they will be more creative, "playing" with colours, images, audio and so on. 

The DDD-E 

    The DDD-E is a planning technique, consisting of four elements:

1. Decide. In this step, you think about the activity's goals and brainstorm your content and make a plan on what main points to research. In other words, you begin to collect information that you consider appropriate for your activity or project.

2. Design. Now you have a general idea what the activity will be and it is time to work with the organization. Maybe you'll make a Powerpoint presentation, but you can also use hyperlinks that allow you to move to any page within the web-page. 

3. Development. In this step, you make use of the informations, materials collected previously and build the project or the knowledge. 

4. Evaluate. Evaluation in this planning technique is seen as inseparable part of self reflection. What should be kept in mind is that in order to see how successful the activity will be, we should test in on other persons to see their reactions. 

  The importance of this planning technique, in my own opinion is to construct knowledge or a productive activity from the easiest procedure to the most complicated one. In this way, the final product will be clearer to the person who built it, but also to the others. Also, we can identify the use of Multimedia, as a crucial element of our life, which has the power to empower us! 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I appreciate it! 

Please feel free to share your opinion! 

P.s. Don't forget to stay safe :)