Taking a Constructivist Tack on Building a Heirarchy

 

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Constructivism

For my activity on evaluating authority, taking a constructivist approach is the most viable. Students will be starting with a question, “which source is the most credible for a college-level paper,” and debate the merits of each of their example sources. The sources will not be identified as website, magazine article, or journal article. Instead, students will need to “discover their own truths” through using the evaluation worksheet. Although this activity is not as open-ended as one described in Cooperstein and Kocebar-Weideinger (2004), using a blind approach can allow students the same opportunity as ask increasingly complex questions about authority. After students have arranged their sources in a credibility hierarchy, the entire class can have an open discussion about the order and the underlying reasons why sources were ranked ion that order.

This activity would meet the aspects of constructivist lessons explained in Good and Brophy (as cited in Cooperstein & Kocebar-Weidinger, 2004, p. 142). Allowing students to create their own hierarchy allows them to construct meaning. In addition, the hierarchy will build upon what they already know about source evaluation. Since this is a group activity, social interaction will enhance the experience. Finally, defining the hierarchy as the order that students would place their sources according to credibility mimics the real-world experience that they have whenever they are tasked with writing a paper.

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Motivation

For the authority assignment, the ARCS model would be the most effective. By placing the mysterious sources on the table, students' curiosity will be aroused. Next, discussing how knowing the authority of an article can make a difference in the quality of resources and indirectly raise grades, students will be able to tie this exercise into an important need: maintaining a high GPA. Immediate and supportive feedback will help students feel confident about about their ability to evaluate information. Finally, students will feel a sense of satisfaction.