Teachers as Learners

“For designers of professional development opportunities, teachers must be respected as learners. Teachers need to be treated as designers of learning environments, not merely agents enacting a vision, following a prescription for pedagogy. Teachers need to be treated as co-designers of their learning experiences in professional development. The ScratchEd approach is to create opportunities for teachers to engage in the same designing, personalizing, sharing, and reflecting activities that are essential for young people as designers of interactive media.” – Karen Brennan

The Constructivist’s Assumption

“Learning does not happen through a process of transfer or acquisition, but rather it’s a process of a learner constructing new models and understandings that are connected to the learner’s existing structures and models (Duffy&Cunningham, 1996; Scardamalia&Bereiter, 1991).

Constructionism is grounded in the belief that the most effective learning experiences grow out of the active construction of all types of things, particularly things that are personally or socially meaningful (Bruckman, 2006; Papert, 1980), that are developed through interactions with others (Papert, 1980; Rofoff, 1994), and that support thinking about one’s won thinking (Kolodner, 2003; Papert, 1980). These four aspects of constructionism – learning through the activities of designing, personalizing, sharing, and reflecting- are key activities of young people participating as designers of interactive media with Scratch.”

– Karen Brennan on constructionism as a guiding principle for Scratch and ScratchEd.