Constructivist Learning Theory 2

Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps
photo credit: Scutter via photopin cc

Just What Show Were You

Watching Anyway?

@joe_edtech

Today’s entry is going to sound very different than most of my posts. Though, I actually think it is very similar in message to my recent posts about students and learning. This is really still about constructivism, but today I want to write about how our prior experiences, how our previous theoretical constructions, dramatically affect our perceptions of what we see in the present.

When I was a kid, I very proudly marched with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps. Nope, they aren’t a high school or a college band. Drum & Bugle Corps are independent musical organizations, some sponsored by communities or the BSA, but most are independent organizations that live to compete with other Drum & Bugle Corps (for more information on that, you can check out the Drum Corps International or PhantomRegiment web pages).

I played the trumpet (at the time, I played the soprano bugle – ah, the good old days), and when I dream about the drum corps (yes, I do that a lot) I dream about the hornline. When I visualize drum corps, I think about what the hornline looks like marching together on the football field. And, after a decade of not attending a show, when I took my daughter to Rockford a couple of summers ago to see my beloved Phantom Regiment perform in their home show, I imagined that she would also fall in love with the hornline and dream of playing her trumpet in the organization some day.

My daughter Katherine (center - front) in the show
"Beautifully Imperfect" by Allegiance Cadets

It didn’t happen that way. My daughter’s best friend is two grades in front of her in school and has been performing in a winter color guard group for a couple of years. Katherine has watched her friend’s performances both in person and on YouTube, to the point of having them memorized. Though we sat hand in hand watching the Phantom Regiment perform their show Turandot that night, we saw two very different things.

I saw and heard a hornline playing and marching with power and precision. She saw a beautiful group of young women in the Regiment Color Guard majestically telling the story of Turandot through dance and an athleticism I never fully appreciated when I was a kid. We both heard the Nessun Dorma finale, and we both stood cheering the performance at the end, but our experiences were very different.

At the end of the night I looked at my little girl and I asked, “Do you want to play your trumpet with Phantom Regiment some day?” She said, “No Dad, I want to twirl a flag with Phantom’s color guard.” It was an outcome I hadn’t even considered.

When it comes to political philosophy, I am still a disciple of John Locke; however, I no longer believe that our students come to us tabula rasa.

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How much do their previous experiences affect what our students learn in our classrooms? What does this say about integrating technology into the classroom?