Hawar Khalandi
Article Topic: LC3
Submitted: 10/17/2006 12:11:10 PM
Bevevino, M. M., Dengel, J., Adams, K.1999. Constructivist Theory in the Classroom, The Clearing House, 72, 275-278.
Summary: Learning can be made meaningful when teachers employ activities that forces students to use their prior knowledge and experiences to create their own frames of thought. Learning cycle activities give students the opportunity to express, confront, and analyze preconceptions and misconceptions in an active, nonthreatening way. Students "learn through their own involvement and action.... The goal is to allow students to apply previous knowledge, develop interests, and initiate and maintain a curiosity toward the materials at hand" (Trowbridge and Bybee 1990, 306). By using the learning cycle format, the teacher will create activities that are personally meaningful for students and give students the chance to practice critical thinking skills. In this article the learning cycle is divided into three components: Phase 1: Exploration: Students address a problem, make hypotheses, and predict solutions. Phase 2: Discussion and Presentation of New Content: Students and the teacher discuss the result of Phase 1; the teacher introduces new concepts through a mini lecture. Phase 3: Application and Expansion: Students use knowledge gained from Phases 1 and 2 to address a new problem. During the exploration stage, the teacher will set the stage and selects the student groups. The teacher picks the topic being studied, selects the activities, and gives the directions and sets up problematic situations. The teacher will have to act as catalyst, encouraging students to propose hypotheses. During the discussion and presentation phase, the students will share their answers and how they have come up with their answers. Then the teacher introduces new information and concepts related to the discussion. During the last phase, application and expansion, the students will apply the knowledge, and skills gained in phase 1 and 2 to a new situation. This phase also challenges misconceptions and helps students expand their preconceptual understanding of selected concepts.
Reaction: I really liked this article. Even though the article discussed an outlined plan for a social studies class, it had the same information any learning cycle plan would have. This proves that learning cycle activities can be used in any class over any topic; it’s not about the topic of your lecture, but about implementing the right processes of the learning cycle in your classroom. Learning cycle lessons encourage students to develop their own frames of thought and ideas and that can be complicated and time consuming to plan but at the same time, it is extremely effective in the classroom. I will try my best to use the learning cycle method often in my classroom.