In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms

This text builds a case for the development of classrooms where students construct deep understandings of important concepts. The book presents new images for educational settings: student engagement, interaction, reflection, and construction.

This book is great introduction to Constructivist teaching. It is written to introduce theories that have been around for since Dewey and some could argue all the way back to Socrates. I strongly believe any teacher or educator can benefit from the ideas and thoughts in this small book. If you want more in-depth class examples look to Ron Berger's An Ethic of Excellence or Jill Ostrow's A room with a Different View. To claim these are just liberal ideas is to miss the point of this book. The basis that understanding will always be more important than rote learning, that student construct their own understanding of knowledge and teacher are better served helping them, than seeking "Rightness and Wrongness". I am been a student of both Constructivist and traditional methods and I remember and use the skills and knowledge I learned in the constructivist classroom and will continue to try and unlearn all the mislearning i learned in the traditional classroom.A Room With a Different View: First Through Third Graders Build Community and Create CurriculumAn Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students

In Search of Understanding is the most logical, and effective paradigm in education. It helped me clarify and understand my own thinking and also changed how I see the education process for my students. If you need iron-grip control of your classroom at all times, this book is not for you. If you are ready open your mind, your classroom, and your students to new possibilities, this is a step in the right direction.

The authors in this text present a clear and organized overview of constructivist learning that is accessible to the beginner interested in the topic. The text is geared toward primary education, but I have been able to implement modified constructivist techniques presented in the text in my college courses. Constructivism is valuable for any learner.

I am disturbed at the negative comments regarding this book. I would not suggest that the book is above critisim, but the current retoric outlined in other reviews is without intellectual substance and is demeaning to many learners. As a student in primary and secondary education I struggled in with traditional educational methods. (I also see the same traditional methods being inflicted on my children.... education is slow if not impossible to change!) Not until I reached college and entered design and architectural education did I realize that different methods of instruction could be used effectively. For those who look down on constructivist methodology they are also disregarding the excellent educational practices in disciplines such as architecture, music, theater, design, art, and other forms of learning that require students to make judgments and create tangible proposals that impact the quality of society. Many would like you to think that constructivism is a radical and "new" educational method. But actually it has been part of our learning process in many disciplines long before the educational community formally recognized the theory.

Without dedicated professors that mostly unknowingly implemented constructivist methods in undergraduate and graduate education I would have never made my way though architectural school and become a design professor. I use this book in my design studio when I have my students create architectural proposals for schools of the future. It is interesting to hear the rhetoric of protecting traditional educational methods that I have had to un-teach on the college level. The most common comment I receive from my college students when they read this book is "Why did I not get learn this way?"

The authors are to be commended on creating a text that is accessible and usable to diverse disciplines.

The author's case for constructivism is predicated on unrealistic notions not only concerning the realities of education, but also the fundamentals of social diversity. The book seems to take the view that the more radical a notion is the more bookworthy it becomes. This concept is promoted by outlandish recommendations that clearly could not be practically implemented ... or even reasonable to consider. The author does not provide empirical evidence to support his opinion. The author seems to rely on a self-aggrandizing style to entrap other educators who may embrace his liberal ideas more as a defense against being labeled the traditionalist villian in this fictional work. Any educator who embraces this book has a parallax view of the classroom ... one that is upside down and inside out. In that case, the problem is not the classroom, but the teacher.

Do you teach in a classroom in which there are no behavior problems. Where students sit at there desks with arms folded and smiles on their faces, eager to jump at the challenge you are about to put before them? No? This book assumes you do. Not only is this book an excersize in Utopia, it is very liberal by design. Several times, known communists are quoted and their ideas taken as gospel. Do you want our children being taught by a teacher following a socialist agenda? Do you want to teach your classroom in this manner? Then do not follow this book. The book is peppered with a few good ideas, but I have a problem with the message delivered. Comments such as "truth is often a matter of interpetation", and "grades are used to communicate that some students are smarter than others" are liberal ideas communicated throughout this book. If you want to improve your teaching by using research based instructional strategies, there are many pieces available that address this without being so radical.