A typical approach within the Gardner system might use an ice skating session to present lessons of Newtonian physics in a manner conducive to understanding by students with better kinesthetic awareness, for one example. Likewise, music might be used to present mathematical concepts such as ratio and scale, or scientific concepts such as the physics of mechanical waves. The Gardner method employs these materials in a manner designed to promote active learning by presenting the subject matter lesson directly through materials that lend themselves to absorption via all seven intelligences (Gardner, 1999).
Instructional Constructivist Technology in Active Learning Educational Methods:
One of the most comprehensive educational system emphasizing the constructivist method is the Full Option Science System (FOSS) program. The FOSS materials include lecture and text-based lesson components, but balanced with practical materials. However the crucial educational value of the FOSS materials is that they are not simply practical representations, or even applications of the subject matter lesson (Huber, 2001).
Whereas traditional use of practical science materials merely reinforces the learning module by demonstration, the FOSS lesson materials are specifically designed to teach a scientific principle instead of just scientific facts. A typical FOSS lesson might present geological concepts such as environmental erosion by materials that enable students to construct a working representational models that requires their use of sediments of different density, water, and variably sloped grades to implement the lecture materials and text. The FOSS program requires students to creatively apply lesson concepts to the materials, to deduce answers from observations, and to formulate their own explanations for unanticipated outcomes. It also provides the opportunity to apply those conceptual principles to unique experiments of their own design using independent configurations of the FOSS lesson materials (Huber, 2001).
Conclusion:
Education theorists are largely in agreement that active participation promotes better lesson retention at all levels of primary and secondary education. Variety in lesson materials is also widely acknowledged to improve student...
Modern academic programs feature integrated materials intended to complement each other, reinforce the lessons, and provide variety in presentation. Nevertheless, even these materials fail to change the one constant: they rarely manage to stimulate active learning in the manner achieved by constructive educational approaches and materials.
Active participation-based engaged learning lessons are by design, intended to present lessons that outline principles as the basis for independent inquiry that requires students to apply those principles to derive intellectual solutions to problems.
The FOSS materials in particular incorporates intricately organized multi-format science lessons that use lecture and text merely to provide the necessary terminology, background, and real world relevance to enable students to use the practical materials to learn the subject matter and to apply it in ways that reinforce the lesson. The Gardner method also maximize constructive learning by applying real world learning to academic lessons. Gardner also defines seven specific intellectual strengths and is sufficiently flexible to make different types of uses of a virtually limitless range of educational materials, limited only by the instructor's imagination and creativity. Ultimately, while different constructive learning materials may differ substantially, they all share the crucial focus on active learning as an alternative to antiquated educational programs that use instructional materials exclusively for variety and novelty, alone.
References
Adams, D. & Hamm, M. (1994). New designs for teaching and learning: Promoting active learning in tomorrow's schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books. Huber, R.A., & Moore, C.J. (2001). A model for extending hands-on science to be inquiry based. School Science and Mathematics, 101(1), 32. Schroeder, U. & Spannagel, C. (2006). Supporting the active learning process. International Journal on Elearning, 5(2), 245.
Shmaefsky, B. (2005). The critical elements of doing effective classroom demonstrations. Journal of College Science Teaching, 35(3), 44.
