This document discusses constructivist approaches to learning and integrated curriculum. It begins by defining key concepts like constructivism, active learning, and integrated curriculum. It explains that constructivists believe knowledge is socially constructed and people learn in multiple ways. Active learning involves hands-on strategies like projects, debates, field trips and technology. Integrated curriculum combines subjects around themes and connects to real-world topics. The document provides examples of integration models and discusses benefits and challenges of integration. It emphasizes teaching academic vocabulary and having students direct their own learning through strategies like problem-based learning and inquiry.

1. Digital and
Technological
Fluency
Communication
Social, Cultural,
Global and
Environmental
Responsibility
Creativity and
Innovation
Critical Thinking,
Problem Solving
and Decision
Making
Collaboration
and Leadership
Lifelong Learning,
Personal
Management and
Well-Being

2. Learning Outcomes:
•Students will determine the elements of
how a “constructivist classroom” can
engage today’s learners
•Students will decide on the big question
for their independent project and begin
“backwards by design” planning by
creating a project proposal
•Students will define the concept of service
learning and will compare/contrast the
essential ingredients of service learning
Topic #4: I Did it “My Way”: The Constructivist Approach to Learning

3. Why Constructivism? Why Change?
Key Concepts: Integrated Curriculum, Active & Interactive Curriculum, Constructivism,
Traditionalism, Progressivism, Service Learning, Academic Vocabulary
Key Academic Vocabulary/Instructional Strategies: Concept Formation, Concept Attainment

4. Concept Attainment &
Concept Formation
• Beyond Monet, Chapter 8 and 9

5. Concept Formation:
Similarities and Differences

6. Concept Attainment:
What is a Geodd?

7. KEY CONCEPT #1:
Academic Vocabulary

8. • Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
in schools.
• In identifying academic vocabulary for instruction
teachers must remember that not all terms are of
equal importance.
– Some terms are critically important.
– Some terms are useful but not critical.
– Some terms are interesting but not useful.
What is Academic
Vocabulary?

9. • One of the most critical services a teacher can
provide, particularly for students who do not
come from academically advantaged backgrounds,
is systematic instruction in important academic
terms (Marzano and Pickering, 2005).
• Remember, the same student placing at the 50th
percentile in reading comprehension, with no
direct vocabulary instruction, placed at the 83rd
percentile when provided specific instruction in
academic vocabulary (Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986).
Why Teach Academic
Vocabulary?

10. • Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary critical
to understanding the concepts of the content
taught in schools.
What is Academic Vocabulary?

11. KEY CONCEPT #2:
CONSTRUCTIVISM

12. Constructivists Believe…
• Knowledge is socially
constructed
• All knowledge has an
experiential base
• “New” knowledge
must be linked to “old”
knowledge
• People learn in
multiple ways
• People organize
knowledge hierarchically
• Meaningful learning has
felt significance
• Thinking, feeling and
acting are connected

13. Project-based Learning Inquiry Learning
Problem-based Learning Service Learning
Self-directed Learning Differentiated Learning
Passion-based Learning Personalized Learning

14. Constructivism in Instructional Strategies
Where do students “construct” their own meanings?
Where do students “direct” their own learning?
Cooperative Learning
Jigsaw/Community
Circle/Task Rotation
Advance Organizers
Graphic Organizers
Complex Organizers
Visual Organizers
Non-linguistic representations Drawing
and Artwork/Visuals
Visual Representations/Mind Maps
Mind’s Eye
Summarizing and Note-taking
Summarizing and Note-making
Place Matt, Fish Bone, etc.
Window Notes/New American Lecture/Direct Instruction
MARZANO
TATE
BENNETT
Academic Games
Movement/Games/
Role Play/Drama
Active Participation/
Role-playing
Teams/Games/Tournaments
Friendly Controversy
Debates/Problem Based
Learning
Academic Controversy
Mystery/Inductive
Learning/Decision Making
SILVER Similarities/Differences
Simile/Metaphors
EBS/PMI/Inductive Thinking/ de
Bono’s Thinking Hats
Compare and Contrast/ Concept
Attainment/Metaphor
Pattern Maker

15. Constructivism, Active Learning, and
Integration:
Is there a connection?

16. KEY CONCEPT #3:
Active/Interactive Curriculum

17. What does Active/Interactive
Curriculum Look Like?
• simulation games, debates and role playing
• field trips and guest speakers
• project-based learning
• research (internet, surveys, interviews, etc.)
• cooperative learning
• reflective journals, self-evaluations, etc.
• multi-media presentations, fairs, and
showcases
• Technology (blogs, social networking, web
2.0 tools, etc.)

18. KEY CONCEPT #4:
Integrated Curriculum

19. What does Integration Look Like?
• planning around 4-6 week themes in core
subjects (e.g. Mystery Unit)
• various levels and kinds of integration
• planning together across subjects
(interdisciplinary team planning), and
sometimes across grades
• combines textbook-based learning with
resource-based learning (e.g. guest speakers,
field trips, internet, etc.)
• centered on current topics of student interest
(e.g. Harry Potter, Mission to Mars, The Hobbit,
Climate Change, etc.)
• Connected to learning outcomes from various
subjects within chosen grade level
• Examples of Integration (e.g. Camp Skagway,
Titanic Tournament, Heroes & Villains of Russia)

20. Benefits of Curriculum Integration
Benefits to Kids
• increases relevance
• comprehensive & consistent
• holds the kids interest
• choices increase
motivation
• gets kids out into the
community
• relevant and meaningful
• concentrated time for in-depth
examinations
• supports how the brain learns
best with “novel” experiences
Benefits to Teachers:
• easier subject transitions
• teachers can share new ideas
• support is available from other
teachers, staff, adults
• teachers can learn new things
• positive experiences from
students is very rewarding
• more fun
• get to work with new people

21. Issues surrounding Integration
• time to co-plan
• team leadership for planning
• time to cover the curriculum
• timing for closure across subjects
• teacher effort and commitment to the
process
• making the connections between subjects
• integrating the complementary areas (e.g.
options)
• topics can be teacher driven
• new teachers preparation for integration
• integration across grades
• kids don’t always see the big picture
• finding the money for field trips, fairs, games,
and guest speakers

23. Integrated Unit Plan
The Entry Event:
How will you “hook & hold” the students?

24. Culminating Projects
21st Century
Competencies
How will you assess the curricular learning outcomes and the
cross-curricular competencies?

25. Culminating Activities
Titanic Tournament
Survival Kits
Brazilian Carnival

26. Examples of Integration*
• Parallel Disciplines Design
When the curriculum is designed in parallel fashion, teachers sequence their
lessons to correspond to lessons in the same area in other disciplines. For example,
if the social studies teacher teaches a World War II unit in the beginning of the
spring semester, then the English teacher will reschedule her autumn book,
Summer of My German Soldier, to coincide with the social studies unit. The
content itself does not change, only the order in which it appears. The goal is a
simultaneous effect as students relate the studies in one subject with the others.
Teachers working in a parallel fashion are not deliberately connecting curriculum
across fields of knowledge; they are simply re-sequencing their existing curriculum
in the hopes that students will find the implicit linkages.
*Source: Jacobs H. H., ed. (1989). Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation (pp. 14-18). Alexandria, VA:
ASCD

27. Examples of Integration
• Interdisciplinary Design
In this design, periodic units or courses of study deliberately bring together
the full range of disciplines in the school’s curriculum: language arts, math,
social studies, and science, and the arts, music, and physical education. The
main point is that designers attempt to use a full array of discipline-based
perspectives. The units are of specific duration: a few days, a few weeks, or a
semester. This option does not purport to replace the discipline-field
approach; rather, they are mutually supportive.

28. Examples of Integration
• Multidisciplinary Design
The multidisciplinary option suggests that certain related disciplines be brought
together in a formal unit or course to investigate a theme or issue. It is different
from parallel teaching, where the focus stays on the prescribed scope and
sequence of each discipline. A good analogy is a colour wheel and the notion of
complimentary colours. Just as groups of colours compliment one another,
certain disciplines are directly related to one another, such as the humanities. Of
course, it is possible to design a course that brings together two disciplines of
seemingly different characters – as long as the questions shed light on and
compliment one another (as in a course on “Ethics in Science”).

29. Examples of Integration
• Integrated-Day Design (Single Grade, Whole School)
This mode is based primarily on themes and problems emerging from the
child’s world. The emphasis is on an organic approach to classroom life that
focuses the curriculum on the child’s questions and interests rather that on
content determined by a school or state syllabus. The approach originated in
the British Infant School movement in the ‘60s and is most commonly seen in
the United States in preschools and kindergarten programs.

30. Examples of Integration
• Field-Based Program
This approach is the most extreme
form of interdisciplinary work.
Students live in the school
environment and create the
curriculum out of their day-to-day
lives. Perhaps A.S. Neil’s Summerhill is
the most widely know example of
such an approach. Students who are
interested in the buildings on campus
might study architecture. If there were
a conflict between students
concerning ways to behave in the
school, they could study rules of
government. This is a totally
integrated program because the
student’s life is synonymous with
school.

31. Planning to Integrate

32. Science 7: Interactions and Ecosytems
Social 7: Toward Confederation
Math 7: Statistics and Probability – Data Analysis
Language Arts 7: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view
and represent to manage ideas and information

33. Shifting “Curricular” Paradigms
Traditionalism Progressivism
1. Where do you put “constructivism” and “behaviorism”?
2. Where would you put “junior high philosophy” and “middle school
philosophy?
3. Where would you put “teacher directed curriculum” and “student
directed curriculum”?
4. What have been the patterns in Canada’s history?
5. Where are we in Alberta? The rest of the World? Where are “YOU”?
6. Thinking Differently for the Future: Sir Ken Robinson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U