44 | COSERE 1.6 Collaborative practices – collaborative lesson planning. • Constructivist Learning Theory: understanding how collaborative planning aligns with constructivist principles. ◊ “Piaget’s theory of constructivism argues that people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences. Piaget’s theory covered learning theories, teaching methods, and education reform. Two of the key components that create the construction of an individual’s new knowledge are accommodation and assimilation. Assimilating causes an individual to incorporate new experiences into old experiences. This causes the individual to develop new outlooks, rethink what was once misunderstandings, and evaluate what is important, ultimately altering their perceptions. Accommodation, on the other hand, is reframing the world and new experiences into the mental capacity already present. Individuals conceive a particular fashion in which the world operates. When things do not operate within that context, they must accommodate and [reframe] the expectations with the outcomes” (TeAchnology, 2024). So, in short, constructivism is predicated on the idea that meaning is distilled to us by a “conveyor belt” that involves first experiencing something, assimilating this new lesson in the context of our past experiences, and ultimately accommodating our expectations in line with the worldview that has been birthed by this process. Do you know about this pedagogical theory’s relationship with collaborative lesson planning, though? “A collaborative lesson plan is jointly developed by more than one person. This type of collaboration typically takes place among pairs or groups of teachers on a grade-level or content team. Instructional specialists, paraprofessionals, school administrators, and special educators may also be involved” (ACSD, 2016). The cooperation that collaborative lesson planning engenders is a proven methodology for empowering educators to engage meaningfully with their colleagues, leveraging their collective wisdom to improve educational outcomes for students. This practice is inherently aligned with constructive principles insofar as the educators engaged in it will typically use their experiences of teaching to date to inform their contributions to collaborative lesson planning. The process of assimilation will see all teachers present reflecting on this newfound information against their own past experiences of teaching and accommodating it in a way that is consistent with their worldview. Lesson planners are effectively constructing new knowledge throughout the collaborative experience.
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