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Could you develop a constructivist learning environment on equivalent fractions for grade 3 students?

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Could you develop a constructivist learning environment on equivalent fractions for grade 3 students?

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Yes! A CLE could be developed for grade 3 students learning equivalent fractions.

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Jonassen discusses the following three learning supports in CLEs:

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Jonassen discusses the following three learning supports in CLEs:

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1. Modeling - "show me" (provide worked examples)

2. Coaching - "how am I doing?" (provide hints and help)

3. Scaffolding - "help me do this" (adjust the task difficulty)
a) starting with simpler fractions (1/2, 1/4, 1/3) and increasing difficulty (5/6, 3/5), or
b) start with pizza slices (easier) and progress to fraction bars (more difficult)... Perhaps play dough or fruit roll-ups could be used to represent bars.

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Can a constructivist environment include direct instruction?

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Can a constructivist environment include direct instruction?

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The "modeling" learning support would include some form of direct instruction.

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Jonassen (1999) recommends that a CLE should engage learners in solving authentic problems. Authentic can mean that “learners should engage in activities which present the same type of cognitive challenges as those in the real world... it can also mean that the activity is personally relevant and interesting to the learner” (p. 222). Using pizza slices to learn equivalent fractions would represent an authentic problem, both relevant and interesting for grade 3 students. Who doesn’t like pizza?

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The students should create puzzle pieces. They must write out fractions as numbers with numerators and denominators on half of the pieces and draw images of pie/pizza shapes that have been filled in to match the written fraction on the other half of the pieces.

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The activity would also meet some of the 7 goals by "encouraging the use of multiple modes of representation " by using both manipulatives (plastic pizza slices, paper strips) and paper and pencil for recording as well as embedding learning in a social context by having students collaborate with each other to create their pizzas and write their equivalent fractions.

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Piece 1 - half the pie shaded
Piece 2 - "1/2" written out
Piece 3 - two quarters shaded
Piece 4 -"2/4" written out

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The students will be encouraged to share and trade pieces to see if there are any matches. They would have fun mixing them up and putting them back together again.

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Example puzzle pieces

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MashUp Math. (2016, April 21). The coolest hands-on fraction activity ever!   Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmWnMtLBJZM

Fraction puzzles [Online image]. (2015). Retrieved from https://mathgeekmama.com/wp-

content/uploads/2015/04/Fraction-Puzzles3-242x300.png

Free fraction puzzles [Online image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.teachjunkie.com/wp-

content/uploads/Free-Fraction-Puzzles.jpg

Pierce, R. (2015a). Equivalent fraction puzzles. Retrieved from

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5f/d7/b8/5fd7b8082afc31e333d97dfa744343ec.jpg

Pierce, R. (2015b). Equivalent fraction puzzles. Retrieved from

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fc/c1/5c/fcc15c7e891344c07408fef70db63798.jpg

Honebein, Peter C. (1996). Seven goals for the design of constructivist learning environments. In Brent Wilson (Ed.),Constructivist learning environments: Case studies

in instruction (pp. 11-24). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Educational Technology Publications