STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING
TEACHING STYLES ACTIVITY
EXAMPLE ONE
The teacher was:
Presenting facts without a context
Doing the majority of the talking
Directing the students every move
Supplying most of the answers
Not discussing his/her thought processes out loud
The student felt:
Interrogated
Bored
Not challenged
Lost
TEACHING STYLES ACTIVITY
EXAMPLE TWO
IN EXAMPLE TWO
The teacher was:
Drawing on students’ experience
Coaching the students towards finding the answers
Modeling thought processes, rather than presenting facts
Validating all students suggestions
The student felt:
Involved
Curious
Amused
Capable of Participating
Engaged
How was the 2nd teaching example studentcentered?
Student-centered teaching is:
• based on students' experiences (both their past
experiences and the experiences you, as the
teacher, provide in class);
• designed so that teachers model for students
how to arrive at an answer rather than simply
giving answers to students;
• structured so that learning is a process of
discovery (the teacher develops activities
wherein the students themselves arrive at
answers, e.g. the comparison activity we just
completed).
It means that lesson planning must:
• call students' experience and prior knowledge
into play;
• involve teachers in modeling/discussing out
loud the thought processes they go through to
read, write, add, or subtract;
• encourage students to ask 'why' and to find
the answers themselves.
Sample Lesson Plan
1
Check out the following lesson retrieved
from the science book for Grade 6 (Unit
5, Chapter 1: Chemical Compounds).
A home Made Indicator: the Red
Cabbage
• Red cabbage juice is an indicator since it
contains a pigment or a coloring agent. This
pigment is found in many flowers, fruits and
fall leaves, and is responsible for many of the
reds, blues, and purples you see around you.
It makes cornflowers blue, pumpkins orange,
strawberries red, and cabbage purple.
A home Made Indicator: the Red
Cabbage
• Red cabbage juice becomes red with vinegar
• Red cabbage juice becomes red in lemon juice
• Red cabbage juice becomes green with
baking soda.
• Red cabbage juice becomes deep green with
sodium hydroxide solution.
• Suggest how the lesson plan could be made
more student-centered
Activity
Identify each teaching situation as 'teachercentered' or ‘student-centered'
A. A teacher instructing students about the solar
system names the planets in order and has the
class repeat the planet names.
(Teacher-centered: children not asked to explore and
relate their experiences)
B. A teacher teaching about density places
different substances (oil, food coloring,
copper coin) in water and has the class
predict and explain the behavior of these
substances in water.
(Student-centered because the students are
asked to predict and explain the
phenomenon on their own)
C. A teacher teaching about combination of
circuits draws a series and a parallel circuit
on the board points to each circuit and
writes “series” or “parallel” under it, and
tells the class to repeat the words.
(Teacher-centered; children mimic the teacher
ONLY)
D. A teacher conducting a lesson about gravity
drops a ball to the floor in the class and then
allows the class to guess why it falls to the
floor. The teacher writes each answer on the
board instead of correcting any of the
answers.
(Student-centered: students asked to guess why
it is happening)
E. A teacher teaching children about the body
control starts the lesson by asking “what are
the different body activities that the brain
controls?” (Students’ answers may include:
hearing, touching, thinking, breathing,
tasting, talking…)
(Student-centered because students are calling
on their own experiences)
Short Game; three teams
Answer the following ten questions
•
What is the difference between a child and a
student?
–
•
Does a student who is just starting his/her 1st
year of school know anything?
–
•
(No difference. Children should not have to stop being
children in order to become students).
(OF COURSE! A lot!—Discuss experiences provided by
participants)
What is the name of the teaching technique that
builds on learners' natural curiosity and abilities?
–
(student-centered teaching)
• What are the characteristics of student-centered
teaching?
– (Draws on what students know, teacher models thinking
processes instead of just providing the correct answers,
students are given the opportunity to compare/analyze
information to come to an understanding)
• How do students feel if the teacher is NOT using
student-centered instruction?
– (bored, confused)
• When students are bored or lost, how well will they
learn?
– (NOT WELL)
• What is an example of how a teacher can
draw on students' experiences?
– (start the lesson by asking introductory questions
that draw on what students know)
• What do we mean when we say the teacher
must demonstrate/model her thinking
processes?
– (teacher explains WHY she does what she is doing
so students understand the logic of what's being
done).
• Why does student-centered teaching have to
include activities where children can discover
answers for themselves? (Because children
will remember better if their natural curiosity
is utilized in school)
• In student-centered teaching, is the role of the
teacher closer to that of a lecturer or that of a
facilitator? (Closer to that of a facilitator)
STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING
SUMMARY:
MAIN POINTS
STUDENTS Vs. CHILDREN
• WHEN TEACHERS COMPARE STUDENTS and
CHILDREN, they OFTEN FEEL STUDENTS
SHOULD BE:
–
–
–
–
Better Behaved
Quieter
Calmer
Better Listeners
Traditional Teaching Strategies
• Teaching strategies and behaviors that require
young children to sit still and listen for hours at a
time do not capitalize on children’s native
curiosity and intelligence. These types of
strategies include:
– Teaching children by asking them to repeat or recite
– Teaching children by lecturing to them and asking
them to copy information
Consequences
• In general, these traditional strategies have at
least 2 consequences:
– Teaching by lecture, repeating and reciting, is
boring. Students are often distracted and irritable.
– Children fail to master concepts at hand. Rather
than an active understanding of the concept,
children memorize and repeat meaningless words.
Student Centered Teaching
• Teaching strategies that engage learners and
help them use their native curiosity and
energy are called student-centered teaching
strategies.
Student-centered teaching occurs when the
teacher:
• draws on students’ experiences in the outside world to
introduce lessons and clarify concepts;
• models for students each step in a thinking process, (e.g.
when teaching to read, the teacher speaks out loud to the
students about the reading process ‘I am looking at this
word and I am seeing the letters x, y, z, and I am
pronouncing them out loud from right to left so that I can
read the word….”)
• designs activities that allow children to make comparisons,
to categorize information, and to discover answers on their
own, rather than dictating correct answers to the students
and asking that they memorize them.
Requirements
• Student-centered teaching requires that the
teacher:
– Know about students’ culture, past experiences,
interests
– Create new experiences for children in the classroom
that are captivating for them
– Reflect on how to EXPLAIN thinking processes in
simple terms
– Allow children to present guesses and theories about
a topic that may not necessarily be correct, but are
interesting and worthy of discussion.
Student-Centered Activity in Science
• Title: Black boxes and student involvement in
science lessons
Goal
• By the end of this session, participants will
understand methods used to involve students
in the learning process.
Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be
able to:
– describe the elements of a student centered
lesson;
– describe the role of the students in a studentcentered lesson.
•
•
•
What do students learn from a black box
activity? (observation skills, questioning
skills, team work, etc.)
Why is this activity student-centered?
Find topics from the Lebanese science
curriculum where black box activities can be
used.