Blog 5

In this article, Warrington used a teaching method where she had the students rely on their previous knowledge to understand more concepts. Warrington acted simply as the question producer. She would write a question on the board for the students to try to figure out. Then she would allow for discussion and listen to the students converse, asking questions occasionally, but never giving answers. This teaching styles has many advantages, it forces students to think harder about a subject. In order to figure these problems out the students had to have a basic understanding of fractions. I could tell from many of the students' answers that they really did have a good understanding of fractions and I think this learning style helped them think creatively and better understand concepts.
There were some disadvantages too. This learning style was great for students who could figure problems out on their own or who had a solid understanding of the material, but what about those students who were struggling? This approach to learning would not have been beneficial to them. They probably found it difficult to follow what their classmates were discussing and needed extra help from the teacher. Another element of this learning style that I don't understand is, what if the students can't figure the problem out, or what if they figure out the wrong answer and convince the rest of the students to do the same? Will the teacher ever answer questions? I think this method of teaching still has some flaws.

Blog 4

Glasersfeld chose to use the word constructive to describe the learning process because understanding is done through the association of experiences and relating previous knowledge to new knowledge. In this way our learning is constructive because it builds on itself and is different for each person depending on their experiences in life. Under this theory, there is no true knowledge or understanding because there is no way to match what we know with what reality is, everything we learn is filtered through our brain by previous experiences.
Because of these differences in learning, every student has a different understanding of a concept. This could make it difficult to teach students and also to make sure the student understands the concept as intended by the teacher. To make sure a student understands a concept, I think the best way would be to assign a variety of homework problems and ask the student to explain what they think the concept means back to you.