Discovery Leaning and Constructivism, Article Critique Example

Purpose

The purpose of the article is to discuss discovery leaning and constructivism in order to better facilitate students as well as instructors on how to learning works.

Why was it written?

The article was written to try to understand curricular goals and methods of school mathematics. This is done by analyzing students’ experiences on good analytical thinking as well as on creativity. This was written to contradict the “failures” of previous studies on the same subject matter. The author hopes that this study will well understand why things went wrong the first time, and to identify what needs to be changed in order for learning mathematics to be a success for both the student and the teacher. The author believes that there is a need for reforming of school mathematics.

Argument Support

Past curriculum projects were proven to be failures and teachers/instructors were well aware of this. This was due to the poorly implemented and incorrectly analyzed way of going about constructivism. The author argues that the dominant teaching strategy failed in creating the learning experience to be like this: showing students or telling students what to do, after which the instructor shall supervise their practice attempts in repeating what has been shown to them. The author states that while the origins of constructivism may be unsure, the reason for this comes very clear. Constructivism is needed for the clarity on how to go about learning how students deal with the subject of mathematics.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Advantages

• Data and Statistics were provided and analyzed
• Figures and tables were shown to support text
• Numerous studies were used to back his claims
• The article was well organized
• First-hand accounts were used

Disadvantages

• Because of the depth of the topic, some terms were difficult to understand
• The pace of the entire article was a bit fast
• There were no clear recommendations in the article