Social Constructivism & Direct Instruction

PMI employs social constructivism. Working in a heterogeneous setting, students sit at round tables and engage in group problem solving. The teacher is part of this social group and acts as a facilitator.

PMI however, is not pure constructivism; PMI also employs short intervals of direction instruction. PMI teachers do this by using SMART Notebooks and SMART Boards to present new information to students. Topics in these SMART Notebooks are scaffolded to keep students in their Zone of Proximal Development. Typically this direct instruction lasts between 5-10 minutes and is followed by embedded formative assessment which enables the social constructivism by prompting students to test their understanding.

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