Daniel Matthews EDTECH 504-4172 Dr.

Dazhi Yang June 25, 2013 Social Activism Overview: Social activism is a theory that learning happens when students get their hands on materials and make meaningful interpretations of their experiences. (Cobern, 1993). It is a theory within the branch of constructivism. Contributors: John Dewey is considered the philosophical founder of constructivism. Ausubel, Bruner, and Piaget are major contributors. The social activity theory is credited predominantly to Vygotsky (Huitt, 2009). Each of the people listed above had followers who contributed pieces to the overall theory. Major Principles: Social activists categorize instruction into five components: investigation, invention, implementation, evaluation, and celebration (Huitt, 2009). The key component to social activism is the students are working together in a social setting. They will not only conduct investigations in the classroom, but they will take the knowledge and create their own models based on what they learned, and then they will evaluate their model. According to Land, Hannafin, and Oliver, there are several core values for learning to be meaningful and effective. The learner must be central, the tasks need to be scaffolded, prior experience is very important, and they need to have access to different perspectives and resources (2012). A teacher can have a great lesson but without students being allowed to engage in negotiation and interpretation of ideas, the lesson can ultimately fail (Cobern, 1993). Students are much more likely to retain and own information they have worked to learn. Social activists also subscribe to the theory that language is a communicative tool for sharing and developing knowledge, organizing thoughts, reasoning, planning, and reviewing our actions. Learning is to produce our ability to experience and interpret the world (Conole, Dyle, Oliver, & Seale 2004). Application: In the classroom this appears where students would work in cooperative groups to share information between other members of the group. They would conduct investigations and utilize the groups variety of life experiences. The group could then take their assignment to another group for a peer evaluation as the students learn from each other. It will be the role of the teacher to scaffold instruction and help move groups along as they come across challenges. The instructor may also point the groups toward additional resources or other groups who have overcome similar challenges. Finally, the groups, at the end of the project, could be allowed to interact with a professional in their field to form a type of professionalapprenticeship relationship.

References: Cobern, W. W. (1993). Constructivism. Journal of Educational & Psychological Consultation, 4(1), 105. Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., & Seale, J. (2004). Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design. Computers & Education 43 (2004) 1733. Retrieved June 25, 2013, from http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.boisestate.edu/10.1016/j.compedu.2003.12.018. Huitt, W. (2009). Constructivism. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved June 25, 2013, from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/construct.html Land, S., Hannafin, M. J., & Oliver, K. (2012). Student-centered learning environments. Jonassen, D., & Land, S. (Eds.). Theoretical foundations of learning environments (2nd ed.) (pp. 3-24). New York, NY: Routledge