Constructivism

A Learning Experience

In college, I pursued a Spanish minor, and one of my classes involved reading and discussing several books by Spanish-speaking authors. We learned about the culture and history of Spanish-speaking countries through the eyes of novelists who lived through, or felt a strong connection to, certain places and periods. Since the class was discussion-based, it is a good example of the constructivist approach in teaching, since we were able to synthesize the observations of others with our own, to connect concepts within each book, across the books, and to our own knowledge of United States culture and history, with our professor as our moderator and guide.

This richness did not stop at the content of the books we read - I was also reminded to exercise caution when making assumptions about race/origin based on physical appearance, when I assumed a blonde character was from the United States during a discussion we were having about what we could glean about the characters from their backgrounds. My professor reminded me that Mexicans (and other Hispanic groups) can also have blonde hair - a small but powerful check on my bias. I doubt the experience would have been as poignant if I had been taking a multiple-choice test and missed the points for that question by getting the character's origin wrong!