Volume 3, Issue 1

November 2015

A Year in Review
First, we want to congratulate those who had their papers accepted for the 2016 AERA

For the fall edition of the Constructivist SIG Newsletter, we look back on the 2015 AERA
Annual Conference, which was in Chicago, IL. The Constructivist SIG hosted
engaging sessions and paper presentations related to constructivist teaching and learning
practices. Thank you to the Session Chairs and Discussants for your service in helping to
lead these sessions. Those serving as Session Chairs were Dr. Shelia Rae Goodwin and Dr.
Ashwini Tiwari. Those serving as Discussants were Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan and Dr. Tingting
Xu.
The 2015 AERA Annual Conference paper sessions were well-attended and engaging. The
discussants helped to facilitate thought-provoking discussions during each paper session.

Newsletter

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY,

RESEARCH & PRACTICE SIG

Annual Conference that will be held in Washington, DC. We will highlight the 2016 AERA
papers and the Constructivist SIG related sessions in our spring newsletter edition next
March.

The SIG business meeting at the 2015 AERA Annual Conference provided an excellent
opportunity to become familiar with the scholarship of our membership. Tawnya Lubbes,
our newsletter editor and professor at Eastern Oregon University, presented her recently
published book chapter called, From Do as We Say to Do as We [Digitally] Do: Modeling
the Implementation of the Common Core. Additionally, Dr. Jacqueline Grennon Brooks,
Professor at Hofstra University, shared an interactive presentation from her book, Big
Science for Growing Minds: Constructivist Classroom Thinkers.
During the SIG business meeting, we also honored the 2015 Outstanding Conference
Submission Award winning paper, which was submitted by Mikko Tiilikainen, Juuso
Karjalainen,and Jukka Husu from the University of Turku in Finland. Below, we highlight
part of Tiilikainen et al.s paper entitled, "Primary School Teachers' Instructional Practices
Related to Constructivist Approach to Teaching."
We encourage all our SIG members to attend the SIG business meeting in Washington, DC,
at the 2016 meeting. More details about that SIG meeting will be posted in the spring
newsletter.

2015 Outstanding Conference Submission Award Winning Paper

Primary School Teachers' Instructional Practices Related to
Constructivist Approach to Teaching.
By Mikko Tiilikainen, Juuso Karjalainen, & Jukka Husu
The full name of the nominee;

Abstract.The theor y-practice gap is a widely recognized challenge in teacher

education and is related also to constructivism-based instruction in the
classrooms. Also, constructivist approaches have been subjected to multifaceted
The institutional
affiliation
of the
the nominee;
scholarly
critiques,
revealing
problematic sides of the predominant stance.
This study presents in depth case analyses of five primary school teachers
instructional activities related to constructivism. Constructivist teaching is
understood
as an organization of core instructional practices where knowledge
A biographical statement for the nominee, which can be up to 250 words.
creation, student agency, situational learning tasks and problem-orientation are
emphasized. The results of deductive video-analysis of the teaching sequences
suggest that the accommodation of student agency differentiates the
constructivist practices between the teachers. Appearances of the constructivist
dimensions are described, helping teachers and researchers to further scrutinize
constructivist teaching.
Constructivist-associated teaching practices have become popular in current educational discussion and
recommendations (Savasci & Berlin, 2012; Uzuntiryaki, Kirbulut & Bektas, 2010; Feyzioglu, 2012). However,
constructivism has also been a target for criticisms, mainly from three viewpoints: 1) Philosophy of teaching (see e.g.
Fox, 2001; Nola, 2003; Phillips, 1995; Matthews, 2002; Carr, 2004; Puolimatka 1999), 2) theory of teaching (see e.g.
Terhart, 2003; Biesta, 2011, 2012; Kansanen 1999; Kivel & Siljander 2012), and 3) reviews concerning research on
effects of teaching (see e.g. Kirschner, Sweller & Clark 2006; Mayer 2004; Matthews 2003) have challenged the
prevailing constructivist stance. Richardson (2003) and Biesta (2011) agree that i) constructivism is a learningtheory,
ii) there's no clear picture of what constructivist teaching actually is, and iii) even if there were, we do not have a
clarified view of what effective constructivist teaching is like.
Also, teacher education and professional development programs have been criticized for leaving a gap between
theory (i.e. research-generated knowledge) and practice (see e.g. Korthagen, Loughran, & Russell, 2006). As a result,
teachers often experience difficulties in relating theories of teaching and learning to their practical work in classrooms
(Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009). Thus, with the aim of bridging this gap research needs to advance
teachers continuous deliberation on practice in order to extract also possible constructivist patterns from the
teaching activities and thus develop their personal theories of action. Against this background, this study seeks to
uncover the ways constructivism appears in primary school teachers' teaching practices. In specific, the research task
of this study can be addressed as follows:

1) What manners of constructivist-associated teaching can be recognized in participating teachers' classroom practice?
2) How do characteristics of constructivist-associated teaching appear in participating teachers' classroom practice?

Highlight Your Work

In each edition of this newsletter, we would like to highlight the work of our members. If you have recently had a
professional accomplishment that you would like to share with the membership, please e-mail Tawnya Lubbes
(tlubbes@eou.edu) with the details. Published books, book chapters, journal articles, and substantive works in
progress will be highlighted. We can also share short articles written expressly for this newsletter and not published
elsewhere.
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T H E C O N S T R U CT I V I S T T H E OR Y , R E S E A R C H & PR A CT I C E S I G
NEWSLETTER

Become an Officer
We are currently accepting nominations for SIG officers.

We have the following openings: Treasurer and Program

Chair (descriptions of these positions can be found below). Nominations should be sent via email to Erik Jon Byker,
SIG Chair, at ebyker@uncc.edu ,by November 13, 2015. Nominations must include the following:
1) The full name of the nominee

2) The institutional affiliation of the nominee

3) A biographical statement for the nominee, which can be up to 250 words.
The full name of the nominee;

Treasurer. The Treasurer shall be responsible for managing and reporting on the financial accounts of the SIG and the safe
keeping of all financial documents of the SIG.
The institutional affiliation of the nominee;

Program Chair. The Program Chair shall be responsible for determining sessions, reviewers, discussants and chairs for the annual meeting along with sending acceptance and rejection notices to authors of submitted proposals. In addition, the Program Chair
Aact
biographical
the absence
nominee,ofwhich
can be up to 250 words.
will
as Chair instatement
the event for
of the
the Chair.

Announcements
The Constructivist SIG seeks to build strong relationships with international scholars whose work and research aligns with
constructivist practices. Our Constructivist SIG website (link: http://constructsig.wikispaces.com/Home) continues to be visited
by scholars all around the world! We encourage all SIG members to invite your colleagues, especially your international
colleagues, to join our Constructivist SIG. Violeta Vainer, the Program Chair for our SIG, is helping to organize an international
collaboration of constructivist oriented scholars. We will share more details about this collaboration in the spring newsletter. In
the meantime, please keep visiting the Constructivist SIG website for SIG related announcements, job postings, and calls for
conference presentations and paper proposals.

Here are some announcements that are currently on the SIG Website:
UNC Charlotte Seeks an Assistant Professor of Elementary Science Education
The Department of Reading and Elementary Education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte invites applications for
a full-time, tenure-eligible Assistant Professor position in Elementary Science Education beginning August 15, 2016.

Jean Piaget Society Annual Conference 2016 - Call for Papers

The thematic focus of the 2016 meeting is on the connections between children and the physical environments in which they
develop. Please consider submitting a proposal by December 15, 2015.

SAVE THE DATE:

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