Description
The focus of the readings and discussions for EDAT 6115 this week were on the concept of student-centered instruction and the discussion question of the challenges or obstacles teachers or students could face when implementing this teaching method into their classroom. Teachers have many methods up their sleeves to get students to be interesting in learning. However, when a teacher is willing to step back from the front of the room and allow the students to take control of their education, can get very tricky. There are ups and downs of doing this, but if done right and managed correctly it can have a great impact on a child’s learning.
Analysis
Chapter 8
Slavin focuses this chapter on student-led instruction or a constructive approach to education. There is an implementation of Vygotsky’s methods within this teaching arrangement. There is also a lot of preparation that goes into making this work for both the teacher and student. Slavin argues that student-centered learning promotes students being able to think aloud, teamwork, social skills and critical thinking skills (Slavin, 2012).
Teachers keep a variety of instruction methods within their classroom to make sure that all of their students are able to gain knowledge and skills through the lesson. Many subjects though can get bogged down in the simplistic teacher lead instruction. This type of teaching can lead to students not developing proper critical thinking or analyzing skills needed to perform at higher level education. Slavin notes that a student-centered instruction classroom is one where the teacher becomes more of a guide rather than the main focus of a lesson. Students discover their own interpretations and meanings instead of being prompted and focused in on the teacher (Slavin, 2012). Within this type of social learning children develop different social, critical, analytical and problem-solving skills that can better them for further educational aspects. Furthermore , allowing students to think for themselves and being more of a guide than an informant a teacher can concentrate on other aspects of a child’s education such as differentiation, reteaching and modeling.
However, there are drawbacks to a student-centered classroom. According to Aslan and Reigeluth who have done research about Student-Centered classrooms have concluded that there are some major issues when teachers switch to this instructions style. Time management is very difficult to do with the because teachers are forced to not manage a class, but instead, they are managing different students or different learning groups. Furthermore, the overall issue of consistency. Teachers must have a continual routine and regulations if they are going to make this a classroom staple (Aslan and Reigeluth, 2015). Teachers have a lot on their plates regardless. Adding this type of learning can make a classroom environment very stressful which is the opposite of the intentions of this method. These challenges can be overcome by the teacher from day one making sure that the rules, routines and procedures are explained, modeled and practiced continually. The teacher has to make sure that all students understand what they are doing and why they are doing and the benefits that come from it in order for this to be a successful and impactful teaching method.
Reflection
These concepts were definitely new to me. I never knew that this teaching method had a name and that there were such benefits to it. I mostly use direct instruction because I am a history teacher. It is hard to let students guide themselves when they do not have the proper background knowledge to move forward. Through this teaching method, there are so many attributes that students need and I did not realize the deeper effect that these skills could provide for students. I feel that these concepts can be used a great deal within a classroom to showcase to students why it is important to learn the material and skills being taught, but also to make other aspects of preparation, classroom participation, and classroom management easier for me. Within the context of my classroom, I can use these concepts to make the biggest impact on my development of my lessons so that the content information and concepts are better organized. By using students centered teaching methods within my lessons I can make sure that my students gain responsibility, critical thinking, and social skills all the while learning the material. There are some positives and negatives to the concepts. Positives are the beyond education skills that students obtain as well as learning the content in a fun way. Negatives are that some students will not have the social skills to adapt to student-centered learning while others could take over the conversation and dictate others in the wrong way.
Reference
Slavin, R. E. (2012). Chapter 8: Student-Centered and Constructivist approaches to Instruction Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Aslan, S., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2015). Examining the challenges of learner-centered education. Phi Delta Kappan, 97(4), 63-68.
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