The questions caused me thinking about the reasons behind chose this unit. Is it because of the course requirement? Or is it because I necessitate it? Or is it because I really desire it? Since I read through the constructivism unit on the smec moodle website, I realize that the journey will be challenging, not only because this unit is designed for doctoral students, but also the content of the readings are very powerful. The challenges are started when I write down this journal. Even though it seems simple questions but it challenges me to think reflectively about my beginning journey in this unit. It is the first time throughout my life learning experiences at school which the teacher s asked about the reason to choose the subjects. Because it seems that there is no other answer except “it is the course requirement”. Moreover, I used to believe that it seems impossible to engage the students within the interactive and meaningful learning environment without interaction in the classroom. Therefore, the online constructivism unit will give me an interesting and challenging experience out of the border of “room”. I hope that at the end of this unit I could give powerful reflection about my learning experiences which could give me ideas on my perceptions on “the interactive classroom”.

I comprehend that as a teacher, I could shape my students as the young generation through education process which involves high responsibilities which not only constructing the knowledge to the students, but also supervising, caring, understanding, and emancipating. Throughout my education process, I can apprehend that how my teacher’s perceptions and attitudes influence my perceptions on the subject or the ways I view the “world”. For example, I realize that my physics teacher’s attitude is one factor which influences me to dislike physics subject. Therefore, as a teacher, I have to be careful within my role which could effect my students’ perceptions throughout their live. Related to this unit, I read through several resources on constructivism which explore the powerful of constructivism to create the meaningful learning experiences. Even though, I already applied the constructivism in my classroom throughout metacognitive skills, but I realize since Peter explained more within my curriculum class, my understanding on constructivism is too narrow. Therefore, I am really interested to join this unit. Even though, I become conscious with my limitation to understand the though reading list and writing the reflective and critical journals. Moreover since I came to SMEC, the learning experiences encourage me more to create the meaningful learning experiences for my students. Encouraging and emancipating my students in the classroom will be the next step which I concern on. Therefore, I believe that my depth understanding on the constructivist theory of learning after I finish this unit will be a powerful concept for me as a teacher which also can be more powerful to be applied in my classroom. Especially, I am really curious on the concepts on “Radical Constructivism” which I found that it is really difficult for me to understand and engage with this concept.

Furthermore, related my research context, since I reflect on my experience doing an autoethnography research last semester, I found that the constructivism theory of learning will help me much to understand myself and others. The theory recognizes my students’ prior knowledge which reminds me that my students’ perceptions are important. Moreover, since the personal constructivism become my starting point in my research, I am really questioning that how the radical constructivism can be applied in the classroom? This semester, I will explore the green chemistry approach which is supported by constructivism theory, especially on the developing students’ awareness on environment problems. Therefore, this unit will help me much on my research project. I also believe that this unit will be powerful understanding for me to doing other research within my professional context. Moreover, in my country, this theory is developed in the research, but only within the scope of “conceptual changing”. Throughout, my limitation on understanding the constructivism, I found that the research based on the constructivist theory is interesting. But, most teachers in Indonesia seem to believe that the constructivism is only a powerful theory, but difficult to be applied in the classroom, especially under the border of “overloaded curriculum”. It seems that research studies on constructivism are separated from the classroom practices. Therefore, it will be useful for me to join this unit which helps me to engage my students as pre-service teachers within this theory. In conclusion, I believe that this unit will give me powerful journey and learning experiences which help me to be reflective and critical thinkers and also helps me to develop my understanding for conducting my research within my personal and professional context.