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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.

nordholm@bastantemilwaukee.com 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

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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

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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

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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.