Dissertation writing help - Exploring high school teachers' decision to use contextual instruction

Custom Dissertation Writing Service - Emerging research suggests constructivist pedagogy

Emerging research suggests constructivist pedagogy holds promise for enhancing student learning. Constructivism views learning as aggravated by student interest, grounded in adolescent cognition, shaped by last experience and knowledge, and nonlinear. Constructivist pedagogy employs instructional methods that engage students in significant social interactions over prolonged periods of time to elaborate and/or generalize last knowledge. Previous research has described school conditions required for use of constructivist pedagogy, but widespread use of constructivist pedagogy remains elusive, despite restructuring efforts to enhance school conditions for constructivist pedagogy. Seeking to promote the use of constructivist pedagogy, researchers are turning toward the teacher as the unit of study this curriculum reform.

This study evaluates four high school teachers' decisions to use contextual teaching, a form of constructivist pedagogy. The study adds to others' work on teacher learning and school change by addressing how and why teachers decide to use certain instructional methods. The following research questions guide this study:

• What influences high school teachers' decision to use contextual teaching?
• How do high school teachers recognize these influences in terms of their instructional planning?
• How do these meanings influence high school teachers' instructional planning decisions?

The study uses analytic induction to test a conceptual framework that explains socio-cognitive influences on teacher practice.