BEING A CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHER

That week we focused on roles of constructivist teacher at science teaching. In my opinion This lesson is very important for us. because as a future constructive teacher candidates we should know roles and responsibilities in detail, so we can provide efficient science education for our young children. Now, I want to tell about these principles which require a constructivist teacher must have.

First of all I want to mention that we separate traditional science teaching from constructivist perspective. Actually, both traditional and constructivist perspective have different aspects in terms of education; however I absolutely prefer constructivist perspective for science teaching as I stated before. For this reason; I give importance characteristic of constructive teacher which are indicated below;

• Teacher as presenter: It means a constructivist teacher presents to children options, activities and ideas in order to provide to construct their own knowledge and actions. That is why, I think a constructivist teacher should know the way of presenting ideas carefully and effectively.
• Teacher as observer: Constructivist teacher observes children not only with one way but also he/she integrate several ways such as anecdotal records, target child observations, checklists and video recording in order to assess students development efficiently, to develop an appropriate curriculum for children. Also, observing and making assessment help us to enhance family involvement for curriculum. I think this is important. By that way we get more effective education for young children.
• Teacher as question asker and problem poser: A constructivist teacher asks good questions that help children make their own theories. Moreover, teacher emphasize more open ended questions than convergent questions, but I think convergent questions are also necessary for children to reach solutions, answers and build theories.
• Teacher as environment organizer: That is, constructivist environment is arranged by constructivist teacher in order to get effective science teaching. Easy traffic flow, flexibility, accessibility, reciprocity, self direction and social interaction are the proportions of the constructivist environment.
• Teacher as public relations manager: Constructivist teachers have frequently communication with parents, administrations and colleagues. Teachers use video recording, photos or slides to share with children's parents
• Teacher as documenter of children's learning: It means that constructivist teacher observes children carefully and as a result he/she prepare work samples and portfolios. I think these samples are too valued for watching child developmental level. Also, teachers organize, compile and share information about child's doing and learning.
• Teacher as contributor to classroom culture: Naturally, teacher is the person who puts the rules, organizes the classroom environment and makes choices about the activities. Those actions create the classroom culture. I claim that at that point a constructivist teacher should behavior carefully and create morally healthy environment.

All of these roles indicate how a constructivist teacher should be. Actually, I see that for a constructivist teacher, the important is children. That is, most of the thing are arranged according to children's demand and support child's development efficiently.

In our lab session, we made our extra activities which were "deprem deneyi", "maya ile şişen balon", "mum deneyi", "yüzen tekne". Actually, all of these experiments give children information about different subjects but unfortunately we could not actualize them influentially. However, we get efficient feedback from our instructor and try to correct our insufficiency.