A Leaf in the Hot Tub

A Reflection on Constructivist Theory

Definitions

Constructivist Theory:   A theory which states that children construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.

Physical knowledge: Physical knowledge is discovered using one’s senses to explore objects and notice their qualities. It forms the basis of logical-mathematical knowledge.

Logical-Mathematical Knowledge:  Logical-Mathematical Knowledge is constructed by each individual, inside his or her own head. It cannot be taught.  It cannot be seen, heard, felt or told.

Social Knowledge:  Social Knowledge must be told or taught by others.

This weekend, I was watching two 3.5 year old children, one male and one female. They were swimming in the hot tub when the boy grabbed a leaf off of a nearby plant. My first thought was I hope he does not put that in the hot tub, I’ll have to clean it up.

Fortunately, I stopped that thought from coming out of my mouth. For goodness sake it was a small leaf! The leaf was brown and dry. He floated it on the water and watched it for a few minutes (physical knowledge, intrinsically motivated).

He then tried to pick it up at which point it disintegrated in his hand, he looked at it, turned his hand over and tried to shake it off. He finally asked me to help him get it off his hand. At this point I wiped away what was the leaf and put it on the edge of the tub. He briefly looked at it and turned away. I explained that he leaf had disintegrated (social knowledge). I said this at a time where there was no inquiry or curiosity. He was not interested.

He picked another leaf of the bush.  He repeated the same process with the same results, until he exclaimed that the leaf had fallen apart when put in the water (logical-mathematical knowledge).  I again used the term disintegrated. I mimicked as before that the whole leaf was now in pieces, it fell apart. He said, “disintegrated” and put a few more leaves in the water.

He continued this process of watching the leaves fall apart. He constructed a knowledge about the relationship between the water and the dry leaves (logical-mathematical).  He repeated his process exclaiming the same results.

Later I had to take the filter cover off to check it for cleaning. We discovered the leaf debris and started a whole new inquiry about filtering the pool water and keeping debris out (social knowledge).  He inquired whether these were the same leaves. It appeared perhaps he assimilated this information. We placed the pile of debris on the table and he briefly poked it and then tossed it. The inquiry ended there for the time. The other child did not have any involvement in this exploration. She was engaged in her own underwater pursuits.

Upon reflection I thought about how many times I stopped learning from happening. My past cultural expectation that we keep the hot tub water free of avoidable debris. I further expose that my former community culture was to quickly clean up “messes” was a constraint of my mind only.

The worry about an accident, injury or extra work did not allow for authentic interactions and learning. The constraint of listening did not allow for the child’s meaningful, purposeful task.

The idea of not interrupting children’s learning is coming into the forefront of my observations of myself and other educator’s. I am constructing new knowledge scaffolding on the old and accommodating a new idea into my practice.

I accept the challenge of figuring out when to add social knowledge and when it is not necessary to interrupt what he child is constructing. I recognize that this is an ongoing quandary since we are always imposing our own timeframe, observation, prejudice and bias to create our community culture. How do we know that the moment that we chose to speak or move is the precise moment that the child is on the edge of his/her own assimilation of knowledge. Are we scaffolding or interrupting? This is my current inquiry.