Student Centered Vs. Teacher Centered Classrooms
What's the difference between a teacher centered classroom and a student centered classroom? Is one approach more effective than the other? What does the continuous improvement classroom look like?
Student centered classrooms focus on the needs and abilities of students (rather than the adults) and on topics that are relevant to the students’ lives, needs, and interests. Students are perceived as customers and stakeholders. In this type of classroom, students themselves are actively engaged in creating, understanding, and connecting to knowledge and learning.
In student-centered environments, there is a higher motivation to learn as students feel they have a real stake in their own learning. Instead of the teacher being the sole, infallible source of information (the sage on the stage…), the teacher shares control of the classroom and students are allowed to explore, experiment, and discover on their own. Their diverse thoughts and perspectives are a necessary input to every class.
In a student centered environment, students are given choices and are included in the decision-making processes of the classroom. The focus in these classrooms is on options, rather than uniformity. Essentially, "learners are treated as co-creators in the learning process, as individuals with ideas and issues that deserve attention and consideration.”
Student centered classrooms are focused on quality and continuous improvement. Students participate in creating ground rules, mission statements, SMART goals, student data folders and student-led conferences.
Student centered classrooms focus on the needs and abilities of students (rather than the adults) and on topics that are relevant to the students’ lives, needs, and interests. Students are perceived as customers and stakeholders. In this type of classroom, students themselves are actively engaged in creating, understanding, and connecting to knowledge and learning.
In student-centered environments, there is a higher motivation to learn as students feel they have a real stake in their own learning. Instead of the teacher being the sole, infallible source of information (the sage on the stage…), the teacher shares control of the classroom and students are allowed to explore, experiment, and discover on their own. Their diverse thoughts and perspectives are a necessary input to every class.
In a student centered environment, students are given choices and are included in the decision-making processes of the classroom. The focus in these classrooms is on options, rather than uniformity. Essentially, "learners are treated as co-creators in the learning process, as individuals with ideas and issues that deserve attention and consideration.”
Student centered classrooms are focused on quality and continuous improvement. Students participate in creating ground rules, mission statements, SMART goals, student data folders and student-led conferences.
The assignment is posting a comment on one of these issues: Which of the two approaches seems more interesting? more effective? which groups of students could benefit from one or the other approach? What age groups could benefit from one or the other approach? Find out and send your posts. This methodological discussion can help you improve your practice if you're already teaching. Waiting for your posts. Best regards from your teacher, Marcela.
Hello everybody!!!!
ReplyDeleteI found out that student centred learning and teacher centred learning both have their advantages and disadvantages, there have been numerous facts, beliefs and ideas proposed to say which learning style is the most effective, but there is no distinct answer to which is the best method. The main advantages of student centred learning is that the pupil has more of an active role to play in their learning.Students can adapt the way they learn, to make their studies more effective.
Student-centred helping students to discover their own learning styles, to understand their motivation and to acquire effective study skills that will be valuable throughout their lives. To put this approach into practice, teachers need to help students set achievable goals; encourage students to assess themselves and their peers; help them to work co-operatively in groups and ensure that they know how to exploit all the available resources for learning.
The main principles of student-centred learning are:
- The learner has full responsibility for her/his learning
- Involvement and participation are necessary for learning
- The relationship between learners is more equal, promoting growth, development
- The teacher becomes a facilitator and resource person
- The learner experiences confluence in his education
- The learner sees himself/herself differently as a result of the learning experience.
Student-centered courses focus on the learner rather than the teacher. Student-centered teaching is based on the constructivist model in which students construct rather than receive or assimilate knowledge.
Unfortunately, the reality is different, however, we have the chance to change it and we have the tools to encourage our students and motivate them.
Evening Everyone and everything (hi)
ReplyDeleteEvidently you, the person who wrote this assignment, think that it should be a better idea to use Student centered learning more than teacher centered learning, for the dynamic way of make a class. However, I think it would be a cumbersome task to do this in high schools (specially with freshmen and sophomores, due to the fact they are always getting bored).
As my classmate Mrs. Sanhueza mentioned "Reality is different". Regardless it sounds nice that you can throw responsability in your student to do something; most of times you cannot do, because they are not prepared, they don't want to be prepared, and most of them don't like English. I'm sure a teacher in university or a professor can apply that methodology in their students, but what about us?, what is the work we have to do if they don't read and don't talk in English because they think it is silly? I think it shall be a process to change their minds and adapt them slowly in pace (with rhythm).
I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I'm trying to be as objective as I could.
I don't think the other method will be a good idea, whereas there are not too many options to choose.
Hello everybody!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think students must be the main actors in the classroom. They have to be active rather than passive in the learning process. It is important that students become capable of learning and creating new things by their own; however, there must always be a teacher guiding and prompting them.I want to highlight the previous point because there are many teachers who don't understand the approach of students-centered classroom. Many of them think that they don't have to do anything now because students have to work alone, without any help or guidance.
Another important point on this issue is that we are still living a transition period between the classic teacher centered class to the method were the students are the centres. It is easy to say that we have to change the way of teaching but, of course, it is very difficult to put it in practice. Even now,as university students, there are some of us that still feel uncomfortable with the classes in which have to carry out everything by ourselves.This has to do with they way in we were taught at school, in which the teacher was the centre and we as students only recieved the contents.
As a sum up, I think that we as future teachers have the duty to prompt and to motivate our students in order to make them comfortable with the idea of being the protagonists of their learning. Will we achieve this difficult goal?
Regards...
Fernanda Donaire
whoaaah!
ReplyDeleteI guess that everyone has their own oppinion about this and it is difficult to say that one its better than the other.
for me it depends in the contents or objetives that the teacher wants to cover, there are some classes that HAVE to be taught as "teacher centered classroom" to give the right knowledge and rules for some contents and others could be "student centered classroom" to develop their own knowledge and ideas about anything.
For me there must be a kind of mixture between them, it is necesary to explain somethings and the students to listen quiet, and there are others that can be developed by the students on their own.
Patricio Castro
Hi everybody!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the same and perennial method of teachers must teach. But I'm not saying this to be controversial or something like that. I know the constructivism is the future, but with two conditions: First of all it is necessary students want to learn, and in second place it must have a minimum minimorum of knowledge. Our students at schools doesn't fulfill the conditions.
I think the best method is to make the student to participate in the class, for example: yuo are the teacher in the first grade of the media, you make groups in the class, 3 to 5 persons per group not more, then you give them a tema to desarrollate in class and before that they have to ilustrate that to the class.
ReplyDeleteNicole Lange.
Hello Everyone!!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Methodologist, Jeremy Harmer, purpose over four different ways to organise the classroom accoriding to the purpose of your class. In deed, teachers-centered classrooms are often "frontal" (this is, where teachers are in front of students just talking as the main actors in the process); however, when teachers want a learners-centered class, the idea is that students become the main factor, so their participation is compulsory.
Harmer suggests to organise students in small groups when monitoring "production" tasks, circles as a whole group with the teacher out of it and a whole-class-cicle including teachers in which these ones interact openly in the tasks they give.
If you ask me what I think, I guess, as Patricio said, that all depends on the objectives the teacher want to achieve. In fact, I don't see any big difference in "grouping" because all depends on the focus that teachers give to their classes. A group of learners placed in a circle doesn't make difference if the teacher is the ONLY SINGLE PERSON speaking. On the other hand,as teachers, we need to keep in our minds that learners need our guidance (not our total intervention) in every step they give. Considering their opinion is important, but we also need to decide which is the best way to teach them and the problem is that Students opinions may be the opposite of ours.
I agree with Fernanda's beliefs; however, Age is another issue, because we cannot give all freedom to our students if they cannot deal with contents, so obviously they are going to be more passive. We have to be very careful with those details!
Overall, I strongly believe that in one class there are going to be moments to be the protagonist and moments in which students will have to be the main actors.
Regards,
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell I think that all your opinions have been very interesting and well developmented.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I strongly believe that teacher centered classroom is going to pass away and student center classroom are the classes that we are going to face in a near future.
We must be concious that throw the pass of the years, conductist classroom have been replaced by constructive ones and I am quite sure that like it or not, this is going to be the future way of teaching, because as everything, education also changes.
nowadays, it´s not posibble to have 45 students being the center of the classroom, of course that could be a really mess.
As a classmate wrote before, sometimes learners feel ashamed and silly speaking in english. All this situations are going to change once our constitution change and education ministery put some boundaries about how many students a teacher can have in a classroom.
I am sure we have to wait for all these changes, because I know they are comming.
Paula Z.
Hello Everybody:
ReplyDeleteWell, on my opinion I could not agree more with Patricio Castro, because during your profesional life you will have to put in practice both approaches. In some cases you as teacher, will need to put yourself in front of your students, perhaps to present a new content or to introduce the students to knowledge and obviously in other occasions you should put in practice the students centred class, which is much more like I preffer, even when I know that we will have to use both, I feel that centering the classes on the students is a good way to improve their confidence, their interest on studying, and create their own knowledge. But we must do it in a responsable way, because as Fernanda wrote, there are many teachers that take benefit from constructivism and do not do anything to help and guide their students because they do not care about that. That is what we have and need to change, as future teachers, we have to begin with the change our country needs in matter of Education.
Katherine Morales
thank you katherine n_n
ReplyDeleteI think that there isn´t any type of approach, which can be better than other. In a classroom, we have different students, with different skills, needs and knowledges. And not all methodologies function with every student. We have to modify them according our students and their english level. I think if we combine both approaches, we will obtain excellent results in the learning process.
ReplyDeleteJIMENA SAA
Well said Jimenita... I totally agree.
ReplyDeletethe student centered approach works better, because he knowledge is focus on the students and their needs. If the want to create a construtive curriculum we must begin doing our classes to our students and not to ourselves.I´m not saying the second one do not work,however I believe the student centered works better for me
ReplyDeleteWe have two different methods which one is better? it’s depends like we learned in methodology, we always had the same question which is better and we always got the same answer “it’s depends” on the context, the age of your students, the goals, objectives of the teacher , how many people you have in class, but I prefer students center classroom I would like to be just a guide for my students not give them the whole information or speak the whole class and they just have to answer my questions, because is like an old fashion way to teach like that one we had in our school at list in my case it was a very boring way to learn.
ReplyDeleteStudents must comprehend what are the doing, cooperate in the class, create thing not just answer and look at the teacher like she or he was a dictionary or a source of information students must be the center of the class we should see the teacher as the person who can help you to understand better the contents not like the person who is going to give you all answers, or the person that always has to be in charge of the class we have opinions and almost time interesting ideas to propose but if you don’t have the instance to say it, it would be difficult to use it …
I think that it depends on the moment, I mean time and place, we have to use a little bit of both depending on the context, content and time... we cannot be so square and use always the same "technique" ...
ReplyDeleteBye
Maca O.
Hi !!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis question sounds like "to be or not to be" jajaja.... I think there isn't a method for everybody, every technique depends on the person who is learning(how s/he learns). Obviously nowdays are the students the most important people in the classroom but also we have to understand that they are different and because of this we will have to use both methods. As teachers, we need to have an open mind not just focus on one method and say: "This is the best method to teach and there isn't another one."
The students centered in my opinion want more from us, so it's difficult because we need to be prepared to give them our best I think they aren't comformist so we will always need to improve our knowledge.Because if we don't do this, we can't help them, and we will be putting a limit to their knowlegde.
Bye
Hi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting topic, but at the same time, it is quite difficult to give an opinion, who fits perfectly with another viewpoints, as I could see above. Anyway, in my case I could not tend for just one of those methods, because I totally agree with some classmates, who said before that both methods are important, according to the classroom objects or some special situation, for example. Sometimes, students need this learning, in which their teacher gives the whole tools to get the right knowledge, for example, when the students are learning grammar rules for first time. On the other hand, there are instances, in which students should be the main actors, when they have to demonstrate their knowledge, for example.
So, as I said before, to me is complex to take one final decision, besides we can see how everyday the way of teaching is changing, so we should be flexible with those situations, or simply, we are going to be out the current requirements.
Best wishes...
J.R.
I also agree with jime, because we have to know that all the shools have different realities, so different students, and we, as a teachers need to found the best methodology according to the skills that the students have.
ReplyDeletei think that , first of all we have to see the reality of the school ,as a matter of fact in chile is very difficult that the students be the center of the class due to legacy of conductism that we got , but as time goes by we have to change that and let that students carry out their own language and we have to be a facilitator of the teaching language .
ReplyDelete