Beyond the
polarisation of
learner-centred
and teachercentred
pedagogy
 Ian Clifford – British Council Burma
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Outline
 Child-centred and teachercentred approaches – history and
definitions
 Evidence on CCA and ‘direct
instruction’ in Western contexts
 The challenge of implementing
CCA in southern contexts
 Failure of CCA in Myanmar
 The English for Education College
Trainers (EfECT) project
 Towards a more balanced
approach
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“Learner-centred approaches” - 1
 Learner-centred education (LCE) /
Student-centred approach /
Child-centred approach (CCA)
 History of CCA
o Locke (1632-1704) – liberal
education
o Rousseau (1712-1778) centrality
of learner, teachers intervene
minimally in “natural
development of children”
o Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
o Froebel (1782-1852)
kindergarten
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“Learner-centred approaches” - 2
 Competency (Bernstein)
 “Terms such as ‘constructivism’
or ‘student-centred’ … obscure
rather than clarify … details of
practices … not given …
assumptions already known.”
Westbrook et al, 2013
 Approaches associated with
minimal instruction (discovery /
problem-based / inquiry /
experiential learning)
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
LCE, CCA = Constructivism? - 1
What is learning?
?
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
LCE, CCA = Constructivism? - 2
 Piaget (1896-1980) –
Cognitive constructivism
 Vygotsky (1896-1934) –
social constructivism
 Learners construct knowledge – linking new
knowledge to existing knowledge
 But constructivism is a theory of learning and
knowledge acquisition, not a theory of teaching
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“Teacher-centred” approaches
Negative connotations:
 Hierarchical,
 authoritarian,
 transmission,
 memorisation
 rote learning
 Performance (Bernstein)
 Banking education (Freire)
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Direct Instruction 1
interactive whole
class teaching
Teacher being actively
engaged in bringing
the content of the
lesson to the whole
class (Muijs and
Reynolds, 2011)
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Direct instruction - 2
 7 steps - Adams and Engelmann
(1996)
o Focus activity (‘the hook’)
o Stating the objective and
providing the rationale
o Presenting content and modelling
o Checking for understanding;
o Guided practice
o Independent practice
o Closure
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
A word on EFL
teaching
• The British Council often
styles its best practice EFL
teaching as “learner-centred”
• … and it’s difficult to teach a
language without peer-topeer communicative practice
• However, EFL teaching is
often very teacher-directed
and quite closely follows the
stages of “direct instruction”
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Some evidence - 1
• Rosenshine (1979) – stronger pupil gains when teachers
spend more time actively teaching the whole class
• Missouri Mathematics Effectiveness Study teachers given
training around in direct instruction – more pupil gains in
standardised tests (Good and Grouws, 1979)
• ORACLE project - teachers labelled ‘class enquirers’ spent four
times longer using whole-class interactive teaching than
‘individual monitors’ and generated the greatest gains in
maths and language (Croll, 1996; Galton and Croll, 1980)
• Junior School Project – 50 primary schools – significant
positive relationship time spent communicating with the
whole class and achievement (Mortimore et al, 1988)
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Evidence - 2
 John Hattie (2009)
 500 meta-analyses of
300,000 studies direct
instruction effect size of
0.59
 ‘teacher as activator’
approaches significantly
more effective than
‘teacher as facilitator’
approaches
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“There is no large-scale empirical research
which shows that child-centered, activity-based
learning is superior to direct instruction in the
teaching of basic skills… all the large-scale
studies show direct instruction is superior”
(Freedman, Society for Advancing Educational
Research, SAER, 1993, p. 22).
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
… and not just tests of basic skills
 Follow-through project
 70,000 pupils from 180
schools – largest
education study in the
West ever
 Direct instruction
approaches showed
better performance
better in basic skills but
also cognitive and
affective skills
Gautier, Dembele 2004
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“Why discovery learning does not work”
- Kirschner et al, 2006
 Two assumptions
 Because disciplines are based
on discovery students should
learn through discovery
 Because students actively
construct knowledge
teachers should give minimal
instruction
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
“Why
discovery
learning does
not work”
- Kirschner et al, 2006
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Long-term memory
“Why
discovery
learning does
not work”
- Kirschner et al, 2006
Working memory
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Long-term memory
“Why
discovery
learning does
not work”
- Kirschner et al, 2006
Working memory
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
 Problem-serving
approaches – can lead
to working memory
overload – this
inhibits storage into
long-term memory
- Kirschner et al
 “research evidence
broadly favours direct
instruction rather than
discovery learning”
- Coe et al, 2014,
Sutton Trust, “What
makes great teaching”
Long-term memory
Working memory
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Failure to implement LCE in south - 1
Schweisfurth, 2011:
 “Review of 72 studies exploring the issues and problems
of implementing LCE programmes in particular settings”
 “the history of the implementation of LCE in different
contexts is riddled with stories of failures grand and
small.”
 Four broad explanations:
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Failure to implement LCE in south - 2
1. Problems with the nature of reform and its
implementation: Expectations of education reform are too
high and the speed of expected change too rapid. Often
education reform is expected to address a wide range of
other issues from democratisation to elitism
- Schweisfurth, 2011
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Failure to implement LCE in south - 3
2. Barriers of material and human resources: Practical,
material and resource constraints - infrastructure, class size,
teaching materials and teacher capacity.
- Schweisfurth, 2011
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Failure to implement LCE in south - 4
3. Interactions of divergent cultures – “high power distance”,
“collectivist” cultures (Hofstede). Roles of teachers and
students – teachers expected to be in control – students
expected to be obedient.
- Schweisfurth, 2011
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Failure to implement LCE in south - 5
4. Questions of power and agency – lack joined up reform of
curriculum, infrastructure, teacher education and
particularly, examination and assessment systems
- Schweisfurth, 2011
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
The failure of CCA in Myanmar
 2007-2014 - JICA –
Strengthening CCA (SCCA)
project – “little positive
change”
 2006-2014 UNICEF – Childfriendly schools / Quality Basic
Education – “limited impact”
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Learner-centred vs. teacher-centred?
 Need to reject polarisation: learnercentred vs. teacher-centred (Barrett,
2007),
 Need to build on and broaden
repertoire of traditional whole class
teaching (Hardman et al, 2012)
 The best Southern teachers use
“both student- and teacher-centred
practices … integrating newer
pedagogies with more traditional
ones … performance model …
informed by a competence model”.
(Westbrook et al, 2013)
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
English for Education College Trainers (EfECT)






Signing of MoU between British Council and Myanmar MoE
Followed state visit by president Thein Sein to UK
£4.5 million project – DFID and British Council
46 expatriate trainers in 24 Myanmar training institutions
1,500 – 2,000 teacher educator beneficiaries
1 year improving English, 1 year improving teaching methodology
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Myanmar Pedagogy
 Transmission model
 Recipe knowledge for recall
 Closed questioning
 Teacher feedback rare
 Pupils have limited opportunity to
ask questions or offer opinions
 Limited development of critical
thinking
 School buildings lack investment
 Classrooms hot, crowded and noisy
- Hardman et al, UNICEF, 2010
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
EfECT Needs
Analysis
Structured observations of
teacher educators
 rote learning, drilling,
chanting, reading aloud,
memorisation
 choral response to questions
 lack of confidence in using a
range of methodologies
 Little evidence of staging, or
checking understanding
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Reasons for not using child-centred
approaches





Time
The exam system
Class sizes
Classroom layout
Student attitude and
motivation
 Lack of training
 Perception of other
teachers
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
EfECT approach to methodology
 6 months – interactive wholeclass teaching
 6 months - peer-to-peer
learning, creativity, critical
thinking
 Course aimed at A2 CEF level
 Structured lesson
observations at year start,
mid-point and end
 Using observation instrument
focussed on small
incremental changes
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Approach to methodology year
First 6 months
Second 6 months
Direct instruction focus
‘Learner centred’ focus
1. Introductory module
2. Effective direct
instruction / whole
class teaching
3. Questioning skills
4. Classroom
management
1. Effective interactive
teaching
2. Planning and
preparation
3. Assessment
4. Critical thinking
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Changes …
 Planning – clear learning
outcomes and logical, coherent
staging.
 Assessment – learning outcomes
assessed throughout the lesson
 Questioning – engaging,
checking, responding, wait time.
 Interactive classroom
management and feedback
 Resources – effective, motivating
adaptation
 Reflective practice – strengths
and areas for improvement
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda
Minimum Standards for LCE
(Schweisfurth, 2013)
Criteria
Can be met through Direct
Instruction?
Lessons are engaging, students motivated

Atmosphere of mutual respect

Learning builds on existing knowledge

Dialogue in teaching and learning

Relevant curriculum

Skills and attitude outcomes as well as content
– skills include critical and creative thinking

Assessment tests skills, allows for individual
differences, not purely content-driven or based
on rote learning

34
www.britishcouncil.org/englishagenda