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Switching Roles: a critique of the constructivist perspective on teachers and students – the case of online role-play simulation games

, Fablusi P/L, Australia

Global Learn, in Melbourne, Australia ISBN 978-1-880094-85-3 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Record type: PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The paper examines the way constructivists present the roles of teacher and students and argues that it idealizes both their roles and the nature of their relationship. It takes role-play simulation games, one of constructivists' favorite methodological bastions as a background to show that what actually occurs, in other words, what teachers are actually expected to do and what students are expected to do, as well as the relationship between these expectations, falls short of the constructivist image of the process. The argument is that there is a need to re-conceptualize the role of teacher and student within the constructivist paradigm in order to provide a better understanding of the process of present online education generally and experiential learning in particular and to provide teachers a way to better understand the implications of using experiential learning in general and role-play simulation games in particular.

Citation

Linser, R. (2011). Switching Roles: a critique of the constructivist perspective on teachers and students – the case of online role-play simulation games. In S. Barton, J. Hedberg & K. Suzuki (Eds.), Proceedings of Global Learn Asia Pacific 2011--Global Conference on Learning and Technology (pp. 1515-1518). Melbourne, Australia: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .