more information on social constructivism

ch2.tex

@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 
 This work is a phenomenographic study, adopting the epistemological framework of social constructivism.
 
+A qualitative study ought, for transparency, to contain a description of the author's viewpoint, or at least, the viewpoint that was exercised in the study. Ernest\cite[p. x]{ernest1994constructing}, crediting von Glasersfeld\cite[p. 41]{von1987learning}, notes:
+\begin{quote}
+To introduce epistemological considerations into a discussion of education has always been dynamite. Socrates did it, and he was promptly given hemlock. Giambattista Vico did it in the 18th century, and the philosophical establishment could not bury him fast enough.
+\end{quote}
+
 The work of others has contributed to both the research perspective and the epistemological framework\footnote{In the psychological sense, rather than that of Brouwer}.
 
 Marton developed the phenomenographic research perspective, which is broadly applicable to education.
@@ -145,6 +150,8 @@ aggregating new information onto their present conceptions.
 Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our own head\\--William James
 \end{quote}\cite{van2011slow}
 
+Brooks and Brooks\cite[p. 4]{brooks1999search} observe: "Each of us makes sense of our world by synthesizing new experiences into what we have previously come to understand."
+
 There are many specializations of constructivism.\cite{ernest1994constructivism}
 These range over the radical constructivism of von Glasersfeld\cite{von2013radical} and social constructivism.\cite{vygotsky1978mind}
 Some debate has gone on, in the mathematics education literature as to which type of constructivism is most suitable for mathematics education.\cite{lerman2012articulating,ben1998constructivism}
@@ -160,12 +167,20 @@ McGowen and Tall\cite{mcgowen2010metaphor} suggest that "it is even more importa
 Thompson \cite{thompson1994students} states ``\ldots an instructor who fails to understand how his/her students are thinking about a situation will probably speak past their difficulties. Any symbolic talk that assumes students have an image like that of the instructor will not communicate. Students need a different kind of remediation, a remediation that orients them to construct the situation in a mathematically more appropriate way" % Thompson 1994 p. 32.
 %Thompson P N 1994 Students, functions and the undergraduate curricular in Dubinsky, Schoenfeld and Kaput Research in collegiate mathematics education I, CBMS issue in math education vol 4 pp 21-44.
 
-Marton contrasts what he calls individual constructivism with his idea of social constructivism.~\cite{marton1997learning}
+It appears that within constructivism there are degrees to which the teachers regard their role as facilitative.
 
-\subsection{Social Constructivism}
-%Need to define social constructivism
+Wegner\cite[p. 279--280]{wenger1999communities} notes "Constructivist theories focus on the processes by which learners build their own mental structures when interacting with an environment. Their pedagogical focus is task-oriented. They favor hands-on, self-directed activities oriented toward design and discovery. They are useful for structuring learning environments, such as simulated worlds, so as to afford the construction of certain conceptual structures through engagement in self-directed tasks."
 
-BenAri\cite{ben1998constructivism} articulated the version of social constructivism we adopt for this study, in his description of constructivism:
+Brooks and Brooks\cite{brooks1999search} enumerate, in their description of constructivism applied in the classroom, five overarching principles:
+Teachers seek and value their students' points of view.\\
+Classroom activities challenge students' suppositions.\\
+Teachers pose problems of emerging relevance.\\
+Teachers build lessons around primary concepts and "big" ideas.\\
+Teachers assess student learning in the context of daily teaching.\\
+
+They\cite[p. x]{brooks1999search} go on to say "Engagement in meaningful work, initiated and mediated by skillful teachers, is the only high road to real thinking and learning." They illustrate the student's viewpoint of such interactions: "teachers \ldots made difficult concepts accessible by seeking to understand what [the student] knew at the time \ldots these remarkable teachers mattered so much because they were less concerned about covering material than they were about helping students connect their current ideas with new ones."
+
+Ben-Ari\cite{ben1998constructivism} articulated a slightly different version of constructivism:
 
 "Passive learning will likely fail, because each student
 brings a different knowledge framework to the
@@ -174,6 +189,30 @@ different manner. Learning must be active: the student
 ‘must construct knowledge assisted by guidance
 from’ the teacher and feedback from other students."
 
+The value of social interaction is shown clearly by an experiment by Bausell et al.\cite{bausell1972factorial}, carefully comparing tutoring with classroom instruction, in which tutoring produced significantly greater achievement.
+
+Marton contrasts what he calls individual constructivism with his idea of social constructivism.~\cite{marton1997learning}
+
+\subsection{Social Constructivism}
+%Need to define social constructivism
+There are multiple perspectives on social constructivism.
+
+
+Wenger\cite[p. 4]{wenger1999communities} states: "My assumptions as to what matters about learning ans as to the nature of knowledge, knowing, and knowers can be succinctly summarized as \ldots
+\begin{enumerate}
+\item We are social beings. Far from being trivially true, this fact is a central aspect of learning.
+\item Knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises -- such as singing in tune, discovering scientific facts, fixing machines, writing poetry, being convivial, growing up as a boy or a girl, and so forth
+\item Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement in the world.
+\item Meaning -- our ability to experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful -- is ultimately what learning is to produce.
+\end{enumerate}
+
+As a reflection of these assumptions, the primary focus of this theory is on learning as social participation. \ldots being active participants in the \textit{practices} of social communities and constructing \textit{identities} in relation to these communities."
+
+
+Ernest\cite[p. 65]{ernest1994constructing} reports "social constructivism is used to refer to widely divergent positions. What they share is the notion that the social domain impacts on the developing individual in some formative way, and that the individual constructs (or appropriates) his or her meanings in response to his or her experiences in social contexts."  
+He\cite[p. 66]{ernest1994constructing} says, "In simplified terms, the key distinction among social constructivist theories of learning mathematics is that between individualistic and cognitively based theories (e.g., Piagetian or radical constructivist theories), on the one hand, and socially based theories (e.g., Vygotskian theories of learning mathematics), on the other."
+
+
 
 Lev Vygotsky founded the idea of social constructivism, which can be summarized as learning is facilitated by interactions in a group.
 
@@ -194,6 +233,11 @@ The zone of proximal development characterizes mental development prospectively.
 % % %From somewhere get support for people have to talk to each other.
 % % %Because it is the adopted theoretical perspective/epistemological framework
 
+From this range of inquiry about and understanding of social constructivism, we extract a domain over which we can imagine the style of thinking our students are using. 
+Some students may wish to think individually, developing an opinion in their own way, exploring relevant materials and activities on their own, before engaging socially in discussion on a topic.
+Other students might find exploration of possibilities in a social context helpful, as they are in the process of deciding how they are experiencing and integrating new concepts with what they already know.
+
+In this study we employ a social constructivism into our theoretical and epistemological framework: We are aware the students can vary as to their ways of acquiring, consolidating, relabilizing and reconsolidating meaning.
 
 
 \section{Mathematics Education}

literature.bib

@@ -835,6 +835,12 @@ publisher={Elsevier}
 % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
 % 1999
 % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
+@book{brooks1999search,
+  title={In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms},
+  author={Brooks, Jacqueline Grennon and Brooks, Martin G},
+  year={1999},
+  publisher={ASCD}
+}
 @article{dreyfus1999johnny,
   title={Why Johnny can't prove},
   author={Dreyfus, Tommy},
@@ -864,6 +870,12 @@ publisher={Elsevier}
   year={1999},
   organization={ERIC}
 }
+@book{wenger1999communities,
+  title={Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity},
+  author={Wenger, Etienne},
+  year={1999},
+  publisher={Cambridge university press}
+}
 % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
 % 1998
 % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
@@ -960,6 +972,13 @@ publisher={Elsevier}
   publisher={Springer},
   annote={looks really good, is not free}
 }
+@book{ernest1994constructing,
+  title={Constructing mathematical knowledge: Epistemology and mathematics education},
+  author={Ernest, Paul},
+  volume={4},
+  year={1994},
+  publisher={Taylor \& Francis}
+}
 @article{selden1995unpacking,
   title={Unpacking the logic of mathematical statements},
   author={Selden, John and Selden, Annie},
@@ -1156,6 +1175,13 @@ publisher={Elsevier}
   year={1987},
   publisher={Springer}
 }
+@inproceedings{von1987learning,
+  title={Learning as a constructive activity},
+  author={Von Glasersfeld, Ernst},
+  booktitle={In C. Janvier (Ed.), Problems of representation in the},
+  year={1987},
+  organization={Citeseer}
+}
 @article{vygotsky1987zone,
 title={Zone of Proximal Development},
 author={Vygotsky, L.},
@@ -1334,9 +1360,18 @@ year={1987}
   author={Svensson, Lennart},
   year={1976}
 }
-% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
-% 1972
-% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
+ % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
+ % 1972
+ % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %
+@article{bausell1972factorial,
+  title={A factorial study of tutoring versus classroom instruction},
+  author={Bausell, R Barker and Moody, William B and Walzl, F Neil},
+  journal={American Educational Research Journal},
+  pages={591--597},
+  year={1972},
+  publisher={JSTOR}
+}
+
 @book{newell1972human,
   title={Human problem solving},
   author={Newell, Allen and Simon, Herbert Alexander and others},