John Thompson: Neither Teacher-Less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction
Guest post by John Thompson.
The cover story in the American Educator "Putting Students on the Path to Learning," by Richard Clark, Paul Kirschner, and John Swelter should prompt a dialogue between teachers as well as with school "reformers." So, I want to preface my opinions with a request for the professional judgments of fellow teachers.
Twenty years ago, I was a true believer in progressive, experiential, "student-centric" instruction when it was done well enough to bring focus to the learning objective. I embraced the conventional wisdom that a teacher should be "a guide on the side, but not a sage on the stage." I later learned that the cooperative, hands-on learning that I aspired to was known as "partial or minimal instructional guidance."
The realities of the inner city convinced me, however, that teachers must take control of the classroom. I developed a hybrid pedagogy incorporating many constructivist methods, while insisting on "Old School" standards of behavior and "breaking it down" for high school students with elementary skills. In classes of thirty
The cover story in the American Educator "Putting Students on the Path to Learning," by Richard Clark, Paul Kirschner, and John Swelter should prompt a dialogue between teachers as well as with school "reformers." So, I want to preface my opinions with a request for the professional judgments of fellow teachers.
Twenty years ago, I was a true believer in progressive, experiential, "student-centric" instruction when it was done well enough to bring focus to the learning objective. I embraced the conventional wisdom that a teacher should be "a guide on the side, but not a sage on the stage." I later learned that the cooperative, hands-on learning that I aspired to was known as "partial or minimal instructional guidance."
The realities of the inner city convinced me, however, that teachers must take control of the classroom. I developed a hybrid pedagogy incorporating many constructivist methods, while insisting on "Old School" standards of behavior and "breaking it down" for high school students with elementary skills. In classes of thirty
