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Start with what students know and help them build increasingly sophisticated understandings by making the material and subject matter relevant to them; this is a cornerstone of constructivist education.

Constructivist teachers see the viewpoints of their students as "windows into their reasoning." But to see through those windows, teachers must talk with and listen to their students - and allow students to come up with their own answers. Erroneous answers can reveal student viewpoints; in fact, they can give constructivist teachers a way to reach students and encourage the growth of new skills and more accurate understandings.

To better engage their students, constructivist teachers often present curriculum holistically, organizing materials in conceptual clusters or, as some constructivists put it, "big ideas." According to Brooks and Brooks, this instructional approach entices students to build meaningful knowledge "by breaking up the wholes into parts that they can understand" and work with. The emphasis on primary ideas instead of sets of discrete facts also naturally leads to cross-curricular teaching and learning.

Andrew