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Summation -- Mrs. Menocal was quite pleased with the interview and depth of questions. She was particularly excited about sharing her views on the environmentally rich classroom, which tends to incorporate the constructivist approach to learning within her day-to-day planning (see below).
Development Theory in the Classroom- Much of the professional world has a theoretical basis. This is not to rigidly ensure that each person act/react in a similar manner, especially in the classroom, but to establish a basis for commonality within a particular career orientation. One of the most enduring theoretical basis for contemporary classroom education is, ironically, one that finds it roots in Piaget, Dewey, and most recently Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner. In different ways, all of these educators used a constructivist learning theory, and Mrs. Menocal is a firm believer in its viability for all ages of learner.. Constructivism, of course, is a theory of knowledge arguing that humans generate knowledge and meaning by way of experience. In science, for instance, this implies epistemology and experimentation, not simply lecture and instructor-generated knowledge (Kim, 2005). In general, social constructivism views each student as having unique needs and backgrounds -- and is quite complex and multidimensional. Social constructivism not only allows for this uniqueness, but actual encourages, utilizes, and even wards it as part of the learning process (Dougiamas, 1998). It encourages the student to arrive at their own version of the truth, of course influenced by their own worldview as well as the nature of instruction. The responsibility of the actual learning, then, resides with the student, and emphasizes the importance of the student remaining actively involved in the process. The motivation for learning is based, in many ways, on Vygotsky's "Zone of proximal development" -- a theory that posits that learners are challenged in proximity to their current level of development, yet slightly above.
Constructivism was abundant within Mrs. Menocal's classroom; from the use of exploratory questions and allowing students to "discover" answers on their own, to the pushing of the envelope several times when moving children out of their comfort zone and into a new zone of learning. I believe that, in the modern classroom, it is necessary to combine constructivism with a more realistic ecology for the learner. This is a synthesis of models, beginning with existing framework and gradually evolving forward. This is known as a conceptual change model which is a way to aggressively move forward with a concept that is plausible and reaches a learning conclusion that is satisfying and robust. One might literally
