Innovating environments of constructivist thinking

Abstract

"The task of education-- becomes a task of first informing models of the students ’ conceptual constructs and then generating hypotheses as to how the students could be given the opportunity to modify their structures so that they lead to mathematical actions that might be considered compatible with the teacher s expectations and goals. (Von Glazer-feld. 1990. P-34). The purpose of this article is twofold. 1 intend first to describe four beliefs about teaching, the classroom, and the children which provide a basis for innovating a constructionist environment in which to learn mathematics. ! will then draw illustrative examples from the classrooms on which I have extensive data to show some of the results of providing such environments