Preferred Teaching Strategies

Obtaining a quality education is essential in our society. Someone without an education can survive in the world, but they may struggle when it comes to competing with someone who has an education. Education is good for society as a whole as it can promote friendship, understanding, and tolerance of different views, ideas, and cultures. Indeed education affects every part of our lives. With education being such a necessity, it seems all students regardless of diversities would be receiving the best education possible. Unfortunately, students with diverse learning styles may not grasp what their teachers are teaching. Some children suffer from reaching their full potential because they may not understand the teacher’s instructional strategies. These students should not be chastised if they do not learn as quickly as others. Instead, teachers should attempt every avenue until they find what works for that student. With constructivist learning strategies and an integrated curriculum as my preferred instructional strategies for diverse learners, I will make sure my students succeed. The constructivist theory has many definitions and characteristics in educational literature, but at the heart of the constructivist approach to education is the understanding that students are in control of their own learning (Milbrandt, Felts, Richards & Abghari, 2004). The constructivist learning theory is the work of Dewey, Montessori, Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky and other researchers and theorist. Through constructivism students must shape their own perception of the world. Hence, learning is the process of changing minds to accommodate new experiences. In Piaget’s view, we engage in assimilation when we employ previously used actions to explore new information, whereas accommodation is used when we adjust to the new information. (Atherton, 2011) In a traditional classroom where direct instruction is used as the teaching strategy, teachers distribute knowledge to the students and the

References: • Milbrandt, M. K., Felts, J., Richards, B., & Abghari, N. (2004). Teaching-to-learn: A constructivist approach to shared responsibility. Art Education, 57(5), 19-19-24, 33. • Atherton, J. S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning [On-line: UK] retrieved 27 August 2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm • Beane, J. A. (1997). Curriculum integration: Designing the core of democratic education. New York: Teachers College Press. • Krogh, S. (1990). The Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum. New York: McGraw-Hill.