Chapter 3 Reflection

If we were to look at the idea of school as a business, learning would be the business. In order to have the company (the school) do well, you'd have to figure out all the different ways to sell (teach) your product (the material) to your customers (the students). In addition, you'll want to make it very profitable (students gain understanding and knowledge) and meet all their needs. Nowadays, these "customers" know a little about what they need and they come in with prior knowledge to get in and out faster. And to get out faster means that they understand quicker. Constructivism is just that. It is new knowledge that is based on prior knowledge that learners bring to learning situations. And although there is a difference between knowledge and understanding, recalling the information is what is most important. I kept reading the following sentence out of the book over and over again because I kept thinking I was reading it wrong. "Students often have limited opportunity to develop understanding because the curriculum, textbooks, and tests emphasize memory and recall." I was shocked. Some remedies to this are practice, rehearsal, and transfer. The different support systems and tools that are mentioned were quite interesting to me because each one could be flip-flopped with both learning and teaching. I do think that the idea of conceptual change is one that I'm going to take away with me the most. It is, essentially and in my opinon, the foundation of what this "business" is built on. Others might be more apt to say that the development piece of this chapter is the groundwork for education. I wouldn't completely disagree with that. I would say that it is the nuts and bolts that keep the foundation together. And you definitely can't have one without the other.