8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
1/8
Issue #5 Fall 2009
CONSTRUCTIVIST CONSORTIUMNEWS
In this issueThe Great Lakes Constructivist Consor-
tium is in its second year as a not-for
profit entity. Last year was filled with
lots of learning and growing; connecting
and disconnecting. GLCC still believes
that humane schools are defined by
1) democratic learning environments;
2) constructivist assessment practices;
3) ongoing orientation procedures; and
4) extensive community partnerships.
In the fall issue the focus is on demo -
cratic learning environments, because,
while most people would agree with
democracy as an idea, there seems
to be very little agreement as to what
that actually looks, sounds, and feels
like. Even more challenging is how to
get an entire educational community to
embrace those principles consistently
and flexibly.
Susan Ballje begins the issue with a
reminder about Community Building as
central to our work as educators. GLCC
is renewing its commitment to clarity,
and so the GLCC mission description is
included.
Following the manifesto, there is a more
practical piece for those allergic to
abstractions. It is text from an interview
with Tanya Arentsen, who participated
in the summer graduate course, The
Essentials of Project Based Learning.
The course was one of the most exciting
and challenging accomplishments of
GLCCs short organizational life. It pro-
vided much guidance, and informed the
strategic vision crafted for the current
year and included in this issue for your
review.
The last essay, by Anne Nordholm, is a
continuing effort to help explain why con-
structivism is an important framework
for learning environments. Paulo Freire
is one of the philosophical contributors
to the GLCC work. Future newsletters
will provide a glimpse at other thinkers/
educators who have helped to shape
this work.
You will also find in this issue the usual
requests for support and the list of pro-
gram opportunities in the ongoing quest
for experiential, equitable, and ecologi-
cal learning.
As can be expected GLCC is always
working with change. The website is
undergoing some major adjustments,
and soon this newsletter and zillions of
other resources will be made available
to you digitally.
W H O W E A R E
The mission of The Great Lakes
Constructivist Consortium is to advocate
for learner-centered environments that are
experiential, equitable, and ecological.
E d i t o r s
Susan Ballje Anne Nordholm
2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s
Kathleen End, Milwaukee Learning
Laboratory and InstituteTheresa Erbe, Professional Learning Institute
Shane Krukowski, Project Based
Learning Systems, LLC
Corey Thompson, Cardinal Stritch University
Susan Ballje, GLCC
Anne Nordholm, GLCC
A d v i s o r y B o a r d
Mary Hicks, Boundless Readers, Chicago, IL
Madeleine Lubar, Milwaukee, WI
M A N U S C R I P T S U B M I S S I O N S
All GLCC members are invited to submit articles to be
included in upcoming GLCC Newsletter issues. Students
are especially encouraged to submit articles, essays,
poetry, etc. Fully edited submissions (of no more than
500 words) must be electronically submitted to anne.
[email protected] by the dates indi-
cated below. Depending on the number of submissions,
we reserve the right to select only those submissions
that best serve the newsletters theme. Themes:
Fall Issue: Democratic Learning Environments (Submis-
sion Date = 9/15) Winter Issue: Constructivis t
Assessment (12/15) Spring Issue: Constructivis t
School Orientation Practices (3/15) Summer Issue:
School/Community Partnerships (5/30)
C O N T A C T G L C C
2217 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53207
414.294-3939http://www.greatlakescc.org
DEMOCRACY BECOMES A HABIT
AS WE GO BACK AND FORTH
BETWEEN LIVING IT AND
STUDYING IT, OVER AND OVER.
DEBORAH MEIER
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
2/8
2
Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium News
Much has been written andmore is being spoken aboutthe importance of positive school
climates, but what is known about
the kind of environment that is
particularly helpful to youth and
contributes to their learning? Within
the first month of life, it is apparentthat humans attempt to master their
environments. Arms reach, fingers
grasp, legs kick in search of mean-
ing and connection. Later, before
stepping into a classroom, most
children continue the innate search
of whats in his/her world by acquir-
ing language, playing with objects,
and relating to others. But something
tragic often happens to the minds
of many children who are eager toachieve. Oftentimes in schools, where
the quest is supposed to be nourished
and expanded, learning is confined
and controlled. Schools can be poor
facilitators when the environment
interrupts the natural flow of learn-
ing, fragments into subject areas, and
substitutes punitive consequences for
self-responsibility and active curiosity.
Learning in a democratic environmentallows its citizens the opportunity to
become competent, to be engaged,
and to be interested in achieving
more. Citizens who experience being
a part of community want to master
challenges and become involved in
making contributions to improve their
world. With a supportive environ-
ment, youth increases mental cogni-
tion, develops more skil ls and feels
pleasure, which fuels motivation.
Children as well as adults build on
successes and develop relationships
that contribute to furthering an
intergenerational democracy. However
within a dominating environment,
youth is kept dependent by beingtold what to do, how it is to be done
and are rewarded for obedience and
conformity. Youth who have learned
to expect isolation and failure seek
to escape embarrassment by working
hard at avoiding work.
If children do not experience democ-
racy in their youth, how prepared will
they be as adults to contribute talent,
engage in community change, involve
the underrepresented, and take
responsibility for their own actions?
Within our schools we need to address
the us and them syndrome and learn
how to be together in community.
Traditional schooling presumes that
learning requires carefully planned,
logical step-by-step lessons delivered
by adults to obedient orderly stu-
dents in classrooms. When youth feel
marginalized they cannot contribute.
It may not matter if the contribution
is toward their own achievement or
working together for accomplishing acommon goal. So its critical to have
adults who will be modeling how
democracy works and actively engage
youth in experiencing we. GLCC
believes in creating democratic envi-
ronments by:
. Participating in structures that
encourage the inclusion of all voices
and provide opportunities for shared
leadership and collaborative inquiry.
. Building communities grounded
in trust and equity since constructiv-
ist learning encourages learners (staff
and students) to take risks and tolerate
ambiguity.
. Advocating community members
be proficient with socio-cultural
influences that have an impact on
educationally relevant variables, such
as motivation, orientation towardslearning, and ways of think ing.
GLCC will engage in a commu-
nity conversation about Democratic
Learning Environments on Oct. st
from : pm at First ursday.
Please RSVP!
Why Ensure Democratic LearningCommunities in Education?BY SUSAN BALLJE
In America they have begun to talk of troubled children as THROW-AWAY CHILDREN.
Who can be less fortunate than those who are thrown away?
om Garfat of Quebec, Canada, Building Bridges in Youth and Child Care Conference
e desire to master learning
is seen in all cultures fromCHILDHOOD THROUGH ADULTHOOD.
People explore, acquire, construct,
and attempt to make sense of the
world based on the environment
they have experienced.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
3/8
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
4/8
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
5/8
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
6/8
6
Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium News
hats onstructivism?BY ANNE NORDHOLM
The use of constructivism mayseem like part of a conspiracyto confuse, but the choice to use that
term is a deliberate attempt to inter-
rupt the status quo of the bankingconcept in education. e banking
concept is attributed to Paulo Freire,
a Brazilian educator, philosopher, and
activist whose work contributes to the
GLCC understanding and practice of
constructivism.
Freire was born in in Brazil. His
experiences with poverty during the
Great Depression shaped his con-
cerns for the poor and contributed to
his particular educational viewpoint.
In , he was appointed director of
the Department of Cultural Exten-
sion of Recife University, and in
he had the first opportunity for
significant application of his theo-
ries, when sugarcane workers
were taught to read and write in just
days. In response to this experi-
ment, the Brazilian government
approved the creation of thousands
of cultural circles across the country.
In , a military coup put an end
to that effort. Freire was imprisoned
as a traitor for days. After a brief
exile in Bolivia, Freire worked in
Chile, Harvard University in Mas-
sachusetts, Geneva, Switzerland
and in former Portuguese colonies
in Africa. In , he was able to
return to Brazil, and moved back in
. Freire died May, . http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire
e following abbreviated excerpts are
from Freires book,e Pedagogy
of the Oppressed, in which he discusses
his famous notion of the banking
concept of education.
[T]he teacher issues communiqus
and makes deposits, which the
students patiently receive, memorize,
and repeat. is is the banking
concept of education, in which the
scope of action allowed to the stu-
dents extends only as far as receiving,filing, and storing deposits. ey do,
it is true, have the opportunity to
become collectors or cataloguers of
the things they store. But in the last
analysis, it is [learners] themselves
who are filed away through the lack
of creativity, transformation, and
knowledge in this (at best) misguided
system. Apart from inquiry, apart
from praxis, [learners] cannot be
truly human. Knowledge emerges
only through invention and re-inven-
tion, through the restless, impatient
continuing, hopeful inquiry [leaners]
pursue in the world, with the world,
and with each other. p.
ose who use the banking approach,
knowingly or unknowinglyfail to
perceive that the deposits themselves
contain contradictions about reality.
But, sooner or later, these contra-dictions may lead formerly passive
students to turn against their domes-
tication and the attempt to domes-
ticate reality. ey may discover
through existential experience that
their present way of life is irreconcil-
able with the vocation to become fully
human. ey may perceive through
their relations with reality that real-
ity is really a process, undergoing
constant transformation. p.
Implicit in the banking concept
is the assumption of a dichotomy
between [humans] and the world:
[a human] is merely in the world,
not with the world or with others; [a
human] is spectator, not re-creator.
In this view, [a human] is not a
conscious being; [s/he] is rather the
possessor of a consciousness; an
empty mind passively open to the
reception of deposits of reality from
the world outside. p.
Verbalistic lessons, reading
assignments, the methods for
evaluating knowledge, the distance
between the teacher and the taught,
the criteria for promotion: every-
thing in the ready-to-wear approach
serves to obviate thinking. p.
e GLCC is an organization, butmore than that, it is a movement
intending to generate civil discourse
about educational possibilities; to help
reconcile the current contradictions
between being human and being a
learner, and to disrupt the banking
concept of education.
Please join us.
Education
either functions as an instrument
which is used to facilitate integra-
tion of the younger generation into
the logic of the present system andBRING ABOUT CONFORMITY
or
it becomes thePRACTICE OF
FREEDOM, the means by which
men and women deal critically
and creatively with reality and
discover how to participate in the
transformation of their world.
Paulo Freire,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
7/8
8/14/2019 GLCC Newsletter - Fall 2009
8/8
8
Issue #5 Fall 2009
GREATLAKESCONSTRUCTIVISTCONSORTIUM
2217S.KinnickinnicAve.
Milwaukee,WI53207
B E N E FITS OF ME MB E RSHIP
GLCC Newsletter
First Thursdays: A forum provided by
the Great Lakes Constructivist Con-
sortium where colleagues and allies
talk and strategize about issues thatcharter schools are confronting. (See
Calendar of Events.) First Thursday
events are reserved for GLCC mem-
bers. Guests of members are limited
to one event annually. After one free
event, membership fees will apply.
Networking/partnerships with like-
minded educators across the Great
Lakes region.
SPONSORS
Sponsors will be noted in future newslet-
ters and in the program for the May 2010
Many Faces of Constructivism Showcase.
NAME (PLEASE PRINT)
ADDRESS
CITY STATE ZIP
PHONE EMAIL
SCHOOL
Individual Annual Membership $25
GLCC Sponsor $
Mail this form, along with your check to:
Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium
2217 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53207
Checks are made payable to the Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium, a not-for profit organization.
ember/ponsor FormYES!
Id like to join the Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium.
Top Related