Mark Windschitl's article "The Challenges of Sustaining a Constructivist Classroom Culture", taken from the journal Phi Delta Kappan dated June 1999, will be summarized and implications of this article will be addressed to a real world classroom.
             Mark Windschitl, an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and instruction at the University of Washington, argues in favor of constructivism over a fact based, teacher-centered approach to education. Constructivism, which is a child-centered educational theory, contends that to learn anything, each learner must construct his/her own understanding by relating new information to current knowledge, prior experiences, and social environments. Mark (1999) believes that student participation in hands-on activities and extended projects that are allowed to evolve in accordance to the students interests and beliefs allow for a more highly engaged student. Mark (1999) also believes that the students' background knowledge profoundly affects how they interpret subject matter and that students learn best when they apply their knowledge to solve authentic problems, engage in sense-making dialogue with their peers, and strive for deep understanding of core ideas rather than recall of a laundry list of facts.
             In the article Mark also reasons that successfully implementing constructivism requires a fundamental change in the culture of the school, a change that affects not only how children are taught but how they are assessed, how classroom are organized, how activities are scheduled, and how teaching is evaluated.
             Mark states that effective forms of constructivist instruction calls for major changes in curriculum. He believes integrating curricula with other educators in a team-taught classroom allows students to engage in learning activities that will help them develop deep and elaborate understandings of the subject matter and will bridge the worlds of science, ...