Constructivist Lesson Plan: Learning About the Brain

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Introduction

Firstly, the Constructivism method of learning is very democratic in the sense that it allows learners to construct their own learning experiences. This approach of teaching is about producing good learners as opposed to simply delivering information, some of which are abstract or hypothetical, which some students may fail to synchronize in their minds. In a constructivist classroom, students become explores and adventurous of ideas, knowledge, and concepts in an organic way (Dover, 2018). In a classroom setup and a lesson in which constructivist is applied, students are encouraged to give detailed accounts of their ideas and use evidence to boost their viewpoints. In the constructivist approach, the assessment is about having more time with the learners every day, focusing must still happen for the students to succeed.

Challenges of Implementing Constructivist teaching method

Scholars argue that the aspect of collaborative learning in the classroom is seen as tending to produce tyranny of the majority on the minority. In such circumstances a few students’ authority of interpretations of concepts dominate the group’s conclusions, and the ones with contrary views are forced to conform to the group consensus. In addition, this approach mostly promotes group thinking and ignores the individuality of every student, whereas learning is supposed to promote the individual rights of each learner. Some teachers are also reluctant to change from their normal belief in the conventional teaching method to this approach which reduces their authority in class as drivers of knowledge (Butler, 2019). Likewise, this method is likely very ineffective at promoting academic achievement, which is normally measured through examinations after some time of subject coverage.

Lesson Plan Activities

Grade Level: Fifth
Subject: Science/Life Science
Time Required: 90 minutes
Materials Required: This lesson incorporates the use of a Poster-sized picture of the brain, a Brainiac worksheet, your body-The Brain worksheet, The Incredible Human Brain worksheet, why do Zombies Love Brains worksheet, and a Brain Diagram worksheet. Laptop computer and LCD projector will also be used during this lesson to play and project a video clip of an instructor demonstrating and explaining the brain hemisphere, different parts of the human brain, and their assignments.
Key Terms: Cerebellum, Spinal cord, Brain stem, Temporal lobe, Occipital lobe, Frontal lobe, and Parietal lobe

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, the learners will be able to recognize, describe, discuss, demonstrate and explain the roles of the four parts of the brain.

Introduction (5 minutes)

The teacher starts by greeting the students, he then proceeds to display a poster with a human brain on the board and invite the learners to observe it keenly as they brainstorm silently. This generates curiosity, interest and elicits responses from the students on what they know or think they know about the brain. Through observation of the diagram, the learners analyze internally and construct individual knowledge about the brain. In the process, the educator asks them to be in pairs and describe to each other what they have observed from the picture. While in pairs, the students give very many varied and diverse answers about what they know or understand about the human brain. In the meantime, the teacher walks around to different answers the learners give to their partners.

Lesson Development – Exploration of the Topic (20 minutes)

In this next episode of the lesson, the teacher divides the class into small groups of five students each. He then asks them to watch a 10 minutes video while sitting together in their groups. In the clip, the expert is demonstrating that the brain is split into the left and right hemispheres. The instructor explains and elaborates that the right hemisphere controls the left parts of the body, while the left also directs the right sections of the body. The tutorial video goes further as the instructor also explains the four different portions of the brain, their tasks, and how the spinal cord connects sections of the body to the brain. Additionally, in the video clip, the aspects of body actions are highlighted. Clarity is given on how the cerebellum of the brain controls movements, coordination, and body balance.

During this activity, the teacher moves around the classroom from one group to another, watches and observes how different groups pay attention to the video clip. While doing that, the educator props up short questions to reinforce the learners’ focus and attention to key points being explained. This activity is meant to enable the learners to collect new information about the brain and construct a model of how the brain works. The students do so by thinking internally, reflecting, and visualizing what they watch in light of what they already know or what they assume to know.

Once the video clip is over, the educator instructs the learners to discuss in their groups what they observed, learned, and understood from the played clip. The group work allows them to think freely, within the limits of information they gathered from the video session. Group discussions allow them to exchange dears, hypotheses and try to make individual interpretations of what each one of them learned independently. The discussions also allow the learners to question explanations, observations, and suggestions their colleagues might make about the topic, which may not agree with what they think they know or understand about the topic. Meanwhile, the teacher encourages the learners that each one of them should feel free to say what they extracted from the clip without fear because no particular correct answer is required.

Interactive session (15 minutes)

This session is a continuation of the group activity, where the teacher asks members of groups to explain to the rest of the class what they recorded concerning the video during their group discussions. Members of each group select one of them as their representative to present their points to the rest. It is essential when each and every time one group is taking their turn to highlight their observations as a group, the teacher keeps on probing the group and asking them questions to justify their answers. The group taking the floor must provide justifications for their answers and observations.

The members from other groups carefully listen, as one group is explaining their observation about the content of the video which was played in class and make attempts to redefine their understanding of the topic. In between, they ask for clarifications, probe the ideas presented, contradict, and even disagree with some points put forward by a particular group in their presentations. During this activity, the teacher chips in as the groups present their thoughts on the topic by making clarifications on aspects of the topic which seem not clear to the class. Further, the groups are asked by the teacher to give everyday activities they do which relate to the topic.

Collaborative Session (20 minutes)

In this activity, the students are asked by the teacher to work in their groups and complete the brain worksheet based on what they have learned in class through the video clip which was played. They are instructed to do this by incorporating the observations they made in their discussions and clarifications, which the teacher did during groups’ presentations. (Moehriwi, 2018). The learners are required to agree on the answers before they feed them into the worksheets. The teacher stresses further that the answers for each group do not need to match the textbook definition or explanations of terms, provided each group brings out the concept well. Learners in their groups take their time and collectively feel the worksheet such that, the final answers they display for the rest of the class as a group are through consensus.

Assessment (10 minutes)

Using the oral discussion technique of evaluation, the teacher writes a focus question on the board, which is open for discussion to the whole class concerning one of the sub-topics learned about the brain. He thereafter instructs the learners to brainstorm, freely discuss and give their individual answers (Brau, 2020). The learners are advised that there are no right or wrong answers, and so none of them should fear saying what they think. As the students take part in the discussion through their responses, the educator takes note of the performance of each student individually through their responses. Through this technique, the educator is able to gauge the level of knowledge every student acquired during the lesson.

Lastly, the instructor uses the mind mapping method of assessment by directing the learners to list out and classify the views and ideas relating to what they understood and do remember about the topic. It is supposed to help the learners make connections between facts and ideas visually by keeping all their thought about the lesson together in a sheet (McLeod, 2019). In addition, the students are able to explore the topic further individually, memorize information, and write essays about the topic. The educator again moves around the classroom and checks what each student has written down individually and forms an opinion about what each student is capable of recalling after the lesson.

Review and Closing (20 minutes)

The teacher uses the same groups and gives each of the groups “why do Zombies Love Brains worksheet”. He instructs them, students, to go through it and extract interesting facts about the human brain and reflect on the areas responsible for different things by looking at the pictures in their groups. Each group of five thereafter will present its multimedia presentation to the whole class one group at a time. As the learners go through the worksheets, they are instructed to write ideas that they found captivating about the brain from the worksheet. At the same time the teacher moves around the class and asks group leaders to share what their group wrote. This is meant for the learners to connect each task according to their group’s knowledge and interpretation of the topic so as to help them construct and offer their own inferences of the topic.

References

Brau, B. (2020). Constructivism: The students’ guide to learning design and research. EdTech Books.

Butler, K. (2019). The problem with constructivism teaching methods.Areo.

Dover, G. (2018). The benefits of constructivist learning design. Smart Sparrow.

McLeod, S. A. (2019).Constructivism as a theory for teaching and learning. Simply Psychology.

Moehriwi, (2018). Allowing constructivism into the classroom.

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