Knowledge Construction

What?
Most people try to fill in the concepts of what they are trying to learn with ideas they have from prior knowledge. This knowledge comes from previous learning ideas, social settings, and things they observe around them. For example, a person may hold a belief that balls are round, inflatable and are made to bounce. However, this person may encounter a football (an ellipsoid) that is kicked or thrown, or ball bearings that are solid, or a bowling ball that is solid and has holes drilled into it for the purpose of rolling rather than bouncing. Because we tend to do this sometimes, what we fill in the blanks with is not always correct. This can cause us to have misunderstandings with others. Others can also make errors because of their prior understanding. By letting students work in groups sometimes they can work these errors out for themselves.
So What?
This week’s information can help teachers learn that all people come with their own conceptions or misconceptions. The teacher will need to observe and see where the students are in their thinking to be able to correct and change the ideas to correct ones and then re-teach those things. You will need to know what the students know right or wrong, what questions they have about the subject, what they need to learn and after learning what they might still need to know.
Now What?
All people construct knowledge from the stimuli available, filling in the blanks with assumption from their past knowledge. Teachers need to assess whether students have the appropriate schemas and scripts to understand new subject matter being taught. If they do not, teachers need to backtrack and help them develop that understanding. Some of the ways a teacher can do this is through group study. By using group study some of the ideas the students will come up with can change other student’s misconceptions. Teachers can have the students use Schemes or Scripts to help in this activity. After students have constructed, experimented, and discussed their ideas the teacher can now look and identify the new concepts that have been formed. Some of these theories will still have some misconceptions about how the world works. Not only must teachers help students continue to construct correct concepts, but must also help them discard incorrect beliefs.