Designing Constructivist WebQuests for the Language Classroom
George Mitrevskis foredrag så enormt spændende ud da jeg læste hans abstract, læs selv herunder. Han har med udgangspunkt i den fremherskende sprogpædagogik "konstruktivisme" udarbejdet en række "webquests" til undervisning i russisk.
Jeg er sikker på at George Mitrevski er en fremragende lærer for sine elever, dette bedømmer jeg efter hans websider og gennemførte pædagogiske ideer, men desværre er han enormt kedelig at høre på idet han oplæser hele sit indlæg. Der var under foredraget ingen interaktion mellem ham og salen, det var først under debatrunden at han viste sin glød.
Nu lyder det måske som om det var det rene spild at blive under hans foredrag, men dette er bestemt ikke tilfældet, der var nemlig intet i vejen med indholdet!
Jeg er sikker på at mindre WebQuest kan betyde god læring på EUD uddannelserne, men der er næppe tvivl om at de virkelig vil kunne komme til deres ret i længere forløb som på de gymnasiale uddannelser HTX og HHX
Auburn University, USA
Designing Constructivist WebQuests for the Language Classroom
The learning theory called constructivism has roots in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and education. Constructivism's central idea is that teachers create conditions that enable language learners to create their own knowledge. The idea behind constructivism is that human learning is constructed, that language learners construct new knowledge based upon what they already know.
Language learners become good speakers, writers and readers when they believe in their ability to "make meaning" out of new information. Language teachers can encourage students in language learning by bringing students' current understanding to the forefront. Teachers can ensure that learning experiences incorporate problems that are important to students. Teachers can also encourage group interaction, where the interplay among participants helps individual students to compare their own understanding with that of their peers. The focus of constructivist language learning, then, is the learner as a self-governed creator of knowledge.
The Web is a fountain of resources available to language teachers for constructing constructivist learning activities. A WebQuest is an inquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by language learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are appropriate activities for the constructivist learning model because they are designed to focus on using information, rather than looking for it. They support learner's thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
This paper will discuss the taxonomy of the well-formed language learning WebQuest with examples from Russian.