“It would be particularly oxymoronic to convey the idea of constructionism through a definition, since, after all, constructionism boils down to demanding that everything be understood by being constructed.”

~Seymour Papert

Hmmmm….

How well do we learn new concepts by simply defining them using a dictionary… a staple of educational practice in classrooms? There are certainly differing levels of knowing, and choosing a correct definition from incorrect distractors has value at some level. However, when real understanding is the goal, something else must be valued and sought after in the classroom. If we want our students to USE knowledge or information in meaningful ways, the definitions themselves hold very little value.

What are you doing to get your students to move beyond knowledge as definitions?