Week 11: Social constructivism

Learning is gaining new knowledge bases on old knowledge. By learning we construct a system of knowledge and information, the system keep growing when we learn unceasingly.

Learning could be effectuated when teachers give students enough confidence and appropriate instructions. When I was in high school, I like watching my mother cooking because I thought it was fun. I wanted to learn cooking but the processes seemed too difficult for me. My mother gave me much confidence and told me that cooking is easy to learn as soon as you mater several principles. I tried to imitate my mother‘s way of cooking, the results were not too bad. My mother praised me and encouraged me to learn something more complex. It was a little bit hard for me as the procedures were so complicated. My mother asked me to help her when she cooked, and repeated tips while we were cooking. My cooking skill got better and better, all of my friends like eating what I cooked.

I should say that my mother plays an important role when I learned cooking, she was so patient that you were not afraid to make mistakes. And she would instruct me when I needed, she would praise me when I did good job, she would encourage me when I made mistakes. She was a good teacher, especial for me, because I’m always afraid of criticism.

In learning process, students make mistakes inevitably, it’s normal because they would reinforce what they learned through making and correcting mistakes. Making mistakes always brings frustrations, when our students make mistakes, we teachers should encourage them and instruct them appropriately, by which learning could be best effectuated.