Getting the Discussion Started

The notion of a constructivist classroom derives from the strongest instructional implication of what has been called the cognitive revolution (Gardner, 1985). That is, for effective learning to occur, students must construct their own knowledge and teachers must orient their instructional practices toward teaching for understanding. Instead of transmitting knowledge to students, the teacher becomes their guide and helper, assisting students to make their own connections. But as Courtney Cazden (1988) says about such visions, "It is easy to imagine [classrooms] in which ideas are explored rather than answers to teachers' test questions provided and evaluated. . . . Easy to imagine, but not easy to do" (p. 54).

Even teachers who examine their practice and shift toward a constructivist orientation encounter many obstacles along the way. Creating an environment in which students build their own knowledge is a much harder task than just asking questions and fielding answers. In fact, after hearing the variety and unpredictability of students' responses and needs in the classroom, we amended our notion of teachers as symphony conductors (Shulman, 1987) to one of teachers as air traffic controllers.

An Instructional Approach for Constructivist Classrooms