Chapter Three

Chapter Objective- I have chosen constructivism and how it affects teaching and learning today. This is because I agree with how the book states that the student is the most important factor in their learning. A good teacher can inspire the student to WANT to learn more but a student has to have their own drive to actually initiate the learning process. As a freshmen in high-school I did not care at all about academics and preferred to just hang out with friends and concentrate on athletics. It was not until I learned how important grades in high-school can be for the rest of my life and college career that I started to focus on academics.

Question-Is there anything we can do as teachers to get students who do not care about academics to care? Being one of those students, I had numerous teachers and counselors my freshmen year who told me how important my grades were but it was not until I learned for myself that I actually cared.

Connection to my teaching- As the book says, we must bring our personal experiences into the classroom in hope of inspiring students to attempt to do well in academics. I feel as a teacher who was a student that did not care for academics I can help communicate with students more than other teachers who excelled in academics. This is because I can help connect to students who are not interested and help them one on one and show them the importance of academics in a persons life. By doing this hopefully I can guide a student through my experiences but allow the student the freedom that (s)he needs to learn from their own personal experiences to truly understand the importance of the lesson.