On constructivism, the human brain and multiplication tables

By: AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer
Ronald Reagan Elementary school the epicenter of education debate | Saturday, February 16, 2008 10:28 PM PST ∞

WILDOMAR ---- You might see children huddled together in groups working to find an answer to an open-ended question.

For kindergarteners, the question could be, "What does cooperation look like/sound like?"

For elementary school students, it might be, "How and why do animals use disguises and surprises for survival?"

The children might talk among themselves while creating drawings or posters to answer the question. A teacher would stand to the side monitoring their progress, helping the students find accurate information when they have questions.

That sort of relationship between students and teacher is an example of the constructivist teaching method, said Bruce Bonney, president of Leading Edge, a upstate-New York company, founded by educators, which trains teachers to use the method in their classrooms.

While constructivism is a broad term that also can refer to a philosophical theory, in education it generally refers to teachers encouraging interaction between students and putting children in situations where they can make their own discoveries.

In a more traditional classroom, an observer is more likely to see students, lined up in neat rows of desks, given a photo-copied worksheet to work on quietly. If they have questions, they raise their hands and the teacher replies. Teachers in a nonconstructivist classroom also frequently use lectures to share information with students, Bonney said.

Education debate epicenter
In Wildomar, some parents, teachers and school administrators have been debating how best to use constructivist teaching methods and prepare students for mandated pencil-and-paper tests, which are used by the state and the federal government to measure a school's academic progress.

The epicenter of the debate is at Ronald Reagan Elementary School, which was founded in 2005 as a magnet school for constructivist teaching methods and multiage classrooms.

The debate has intensified since last summer into a push to convert Ronald Reagan Elementary School, a K-5 school of 560 students on Porras Road, into a charter school.

Charter school supporters say the school, if it is going to fulfill the promise on which it was founded, needs to have "buy in" from all of the teachers on staff. When all the teachers are working together, they are collaborating and sharing ideas that help boost the overall quality of instruction.

Constructivist critics, including some parents who have pulled their children from Ronald Reagan, contend the methods, in some instances, have caused their children to academically regress, particularly in math.

In January, the Lake Elsinore Unified School District rejected the latest petition filed by the charter school supporters. The board of trustees and district administrators picked apart the proposed budget submitted by the petitioners, noting that the school was projected to run a deficit in the first year of operation. The administration, in its report to the board, also said it was unnecessary to convert the school since the district had not abandoned the use of constructivist methods.

As way of proof, the district pointed to a constructivist training session held at the school from Jan. 21-24.

Charter school supporters had said they were prepared to appeal the board's recent denial of its latest petition to the county board of education but, citing the state's education budget crunch, they have recently decided to regroup and give the state's budget a chance to rebound.

Thenell Hanggi, a former Ronald Reagan teacher and one of the petitioners, said there is still a desire to form a charter school, but the petitioners plan to take a different tack when they present a new plan to the district in the future.

Lagging scores spur change
The administrator at the center of the constructivist controversy is Gail Forseth, who was brought in as principal last year, in part, to raise test scores, which lagged behind other comparable schools in the school district, particularly its math scores.

Forseth's arrival coincided with the retirement of some teachers who had been strong believers in the constructivist model.

Among the changes she instituted, Forseth eliminated the school's "clubs," groups of students who would meet on Fridays to work on projects and/or explore interests such as chess or bird watching.

She turned those Fridays into normal instruction days. She also gave her teachers, which included some new teachers unfamiliar with the language of constructivism, the freedom to use other teaching methods with which they were more comfortable.

These changes and the district's removal of Principal Craig Richter, who was transferred to Railroad Canyon Elementary, helped spark the charter school movement.

While some of the techniques Forseth's teachers were and are using could be considered "constructivist," Forseth said the teachers were unfamiliar with the jargon used by the teachers who had been trained in early 2006 by Leading Edge.

This situation led to a rift in her teachers' ranks, with some teachers telling other teachers that they didn't "understand" constructivism because they were unfamiliar with a particular word or term.

Forseth said she hopes the recent training will help mend that rift.

To help the school's students achieve higher scores, Forseth said she focused instruction on state-adopted textbooks and state-standard curriculum and structured the school day based on a standard allotment of state-recommended instructional minutes. She also introduced some test preparation.

Forseth, an administrator with 24 years of classroom experience, said the changes were not intended to undercut constructivism.

During a recent interview in her office, she stressed that constructivism, which she called a different name for time-tested ways of presenting material to students, is one of many tools that a good teacher should have in his or her toolbox.

When children are engaged with a teacher and the lesson, it's good teaching.

"And constructivism is good teaching," she said.

Based on recent benchmark tests given to her students, Forseth said the new approach is working.

Scores are rising closer to parity with comparable schools and some parents, while they might not speak out publically for fear of upsetting some of the teachers who supported the charter school proposal, are cheering, she said.

"We are moving forward," she said.

A major shift
After Leading Edge finished a training session at Ronald Reagan in March 2006, the school's students were tested in May that same year. The scores on those tests were not good and, Bonney said, that single test caused some district administrators to start moving away from constructivism to focus on test scores.

"There has been a major shift in philosophy," he said.

It's a shame, he added, because he believes if the teachers had more time they would have brought up the scores.

Gary Hanggi, a former Ronald Reagan teacher and charter school petitioner, said the district was throwing constructivist supporters a bone by bringing back Leading Edge.

"But it's better than no bone at all," he said.

Talking about the shift in philosophy noted by Bonney, Hanggi contends some of the new administration and teachers who arrived in the 2007 school year looked down their nose at the constructivist teachers.

"They didn't embrace what we were doing or understand what we were trying to do," he said.

In some academic critiques of constructivism, the teaching theory is criticized for its focus on putting children in charge of their own educations.

"When students have too much freedom, they fail to come into contact with the to-be learned material," wrote University of Santa Barbara psychologist Richard Meyer in a 2004 article published in American Psychologist.

In some instances, such as learning multiplication tables, there is no constructivist substitute for rote memorization and constructivist advocates admit as much. They say the constructivist method lessons should enhance, not entirely replace, traditional teaching methods.

Regarding the group learning aspect of constructivism, critics say stronger or older students can have a disproportionate influence on the group's work, lessening the educational impact for the other students.

Critics, including some parents of former Ronald Reagan students and district administrators, assert that the challenges that form a key part of constructivism amount to busy work that can sometimes hinder a child's ability to adapt to the more structured world of high school and college, which feature lectures, rigid essays and quarterly pencil-and-paper exams that measure a student's progress.

Advocates, including Bonney and Hanggi, counter that argument by saying standard pencil-and-paper tests shouldn't be the final arbiter of a child's educational maturation. Bonney said students can be judged as employees in a company are judged: by their ability to work together harmoniously, by their production and by their ability to lead and teach others.

Google's tests and Da Vinci
Different strategies of teaching are going to produce different outcomes, said Pamela Clute, executive director of the UC Riverside's Academy of Learning Through Partnerships for Higher Education.

"There is not just 'one' best strategy for improving student achievement.  It is a combination of many strategies that adjust to the diversity of the classroom combined with the right curriculum.  Good teachers are masters at using a variety of strategies to improve achievement," Clute said.

While she declined to comment directly on the situation at Ronald Reagan, she did provide an academic perspective on constructivism and testing, particularly as it relates to mathematics.

She said constructivist teaching, in general, helps students develop the mental skills and thinking to construct, create and develop their own knowledge. It helps train a student's brain to grasp large concepts such as spatial recognition, being able to envision or build a three dimensional shape by looking at a two dimensional drawing.

Look at Leonardo da Vinci or three-dimensional models created on a computer, she offered.

"That's all geometry," she said.

There is space for repetition and memorization but it's all about balance, she added.

"If we compare it to the way we were taught you can see the difference. It's hard to articulate, but we don't need children being a little parrot, we don't need that. That was the way we were taught 2,500 years ago," she said.

Measuring the knowledge gained in a constructivist classroom requires tests that are up to the job and Clute said various organizations are making strides in that direction.

Clute mentioned the diagnostic tests that are given to prospective UCR students, the test given to candidates applying for a job at search engine leader Google and tests used to determine high IQs.

Those sort of tests require someone to use creative thinking to solve math problems. In comparison, a test such as the California Exit Exam, which seniors are required to pass to graduate, is a simple multiple choice test that doesn't measure a student's critical thinking skills, Clute said.

Contact Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or e-mail aclaverie@californian.com.

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