Krajcik: A Social Constructivist Model of Teaching

I am already a fan of Social Constructivist Theory due to my dabbling in psychology. I feel that accessing prior knowledge (schema) and constructing new knowledge (assimilation) are the keys to learning. Even better, when a student experiences confusion or inconsistencies (disequilibrium), they must stretch or alter their prior knowledge to fit this new piece of information. To me this process is scientific fact, but I guess that's what makes me a Constructivist. Behaviorists and Existentialists probably think their theories of learning are fact also!

At first I thought the article was just re-teaching what I already knew about Constructivist theories, but as I read deeper Krajcik delved into specific examples (my favorite) for how to apply Vygotsky's strategies to science.
In my previous teacher preparation, we always hit the buzz words: scaffolding, more knowledgeable other, zone of proximal development, but we never really delve into the practical application of those theories. Other than scaffolding - which as Allie said, is basically just good teaching, right?

I am all about hierarchies of information (aka lists and trees) and examples, so it really helped me to have the sub-strategies of scaffolding listed out as follows.

Scaffolding Strategies

• Modeling
• Coaching
• Sequencing
• Reducing Complexity
• Marking Critical Features
• Using Visual Tools

I also whole-heartedly love social learning, but I do not believe that all children learn best this way. I feel that being a social learner is more of a learning style than a philosophy of all learning. I, for one, benefit greatly from study groups, verbalizing my thoughts, and interacting socially throughout the learning process. Relational interactions are my anchors to come back to when I am trying to remember something. In other words, I am much more likely to remember who I was with and who said what than I am to remember where a piece of information was on the page or wall. That being said, I know that other students would learn best working alone or with a partner. I plan to incorporate many different groupings and arrangements into my classroom, but sometimes students just need to be left alone to think and wrestle with a concept.