Group Reflection Constructivism Presentation: ETEC 512 Section 64D

November 7, 2011
Sheila Cavanagh, Bill Colorado, Trish Mabe, Steve MacKenzie, Stephanie Myers, and Len Pelletier

1

This project was initiated when a couple of members from the group took on a leadership role
and got the group focused on deadlines and organized meetings through Web CT Vista. Once
all members were contacted the meetings that followed were facilitated via Google Docs. This
tool was used for brainstorming ideas, recording group minutes, making collaborative decisions
and splitting up tasks, which was done on a volunteer basis. When members were unable to
attend a meeting they were able to utilize the asynchronous collaborative feature of Google
Docs. Absent members were able to address the issues of the impending meeting and raise
new concerns through this process.
The size of the group (six people) posed problems at times and scheduling meetings to
accommodate all members was difficult. The opinion of an individual who missed a meeting
may not have been considered in making a group decision which made for a less collaborative
effort. Individual efforts were also at times edited from the final product which caused
perturbation but led to meaningful negotiation. Even though a six member group caused a lack
of cohesiveness at times it was also a great source that contributed to the final product.
Our group dynamic consisted of teachers in wide range of content areas which brought different
perspectives from their experiences and disciplines. Individuals brought a varied set of
perspectives, ideas, and content to the collective, which provided us the opportunity to reflect on
past practices; successful and unsuccessful. Individual opinions were also of the utmost
importance when making decisions about the groups vision.
All decisions were carried out in a democratic fashion but before a vote was finalized, the group
thoroughly discussed all issues. Decisions that were initially unanimous were still scrutinized
and counter arguments were presented. An example of this was the decision to use a wiki as
Group Reflection Constructivism Presentation: ETEC 512 Section 64D
November 7, 2011
Sheila Cavanagh, Bill Colorado, Trish Mabe, Steve MacKenzie, Stephanie Myers, and Len Pelletier

2

the medium for our presentation. The two main principles that validated this decision were that
the wiki is easy to use and it afforded constructivist learning. Considering multiple perspectives
and everyones input ensured that we made the right decision which also served to unify the
group.
Prior to launching our presentation we agreed to monitor the discussion forum collectively with
the purpose to encourage further dialogue. Overall we felt that this was accomplished but we
had a very small group of outsiders contributing to the discussion due to the fact that
participation in our discussion forum was not mandatory, but recommended, for class members
outside of our group. Interestingly, this minimal outside contribution resulted in our group
controlling, more than facilitating, the discussion which goes against the constructivist mentality.
Perhaps our own eagerness was a result of trying to impress members within our group as well
as our instructor. If this course could be redesigned to make the presentation discussions
mandatory and reduce the discussion activities within the learning modules then we could have
assumed our true role as facilitators and our entire class would have been actively engaged in
our discussion forum. During our presentation we were required to participate in the
presentation of the constructivist group from Section C which we found enjoyable and beneficial
to our understanding of constructivism.
We found that this presentation was aesthetically pleasing, well organized and it contained a
good balance of text, video and other resources and we believe this presentation connected
well with our presentation.
Overall this project was valuable in that it brought together a variety of differing individual
perspectives on constructivism. Also, it helped to strengthen the understanding of the
Group Reflection Constructivism Presentation: ETEC 512 Section 64D
November 7, 2011
Sheila Cavanagh, Bill Colorado, Trish Mabe, Steve MacKenzie, Stephanie Myers, and Len Pelletier

3

constructivist philosophy and it allowed individuals to gain insight from others on constructivist
classroom strategies. Members also became more aware of the problems that can exist in a
classroom that is completely immersed in a constructivist viewpoint. Although the main critique
of our project was that it did not guide all individuals towards the construction of new knowledge.
Perhaps the overall experience could have been improved if the group were to have anticipated
this small setback. In hindsight we could have expanded our presentation to include the idea of
coming to a common conclusion regarding the application of constructivism or negotiating and
restructuring the meaning of a constructivist classroom.