Creating a Student-Centered Classroom
Creating a Student-Centered Classroom.
There has been a big push in higher education, particularly at the community college level, to creat clases that are more centred on the student. What does it mean to have a student-centered classroom? What are some of the specific ways that you have worked to create a student-centered classroom? Is this even a direction that college classes should be going in?
What kinds of professional resources are available for those who want to make these kinds of changes or explore issues further? What are some obstacles that might be encountered while moving to classes that are student centered?
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Syndicate
Student Centered = Students are responsible
I see that every few months, someone posts to this discussion...so thought I would honor that. This "student-centered" thing is not new--but it continues (I think) to be somewhat misunderstood. My pedagogy seeks to put students in the center of their own learning--not in the center of deciding what is read or what goes on in the classroom, alhtough student input is great to some degree. I am, after all, professing to be the expert in the room (sage on the stage?). While I prefer to keep lecture to a minimum (a feature of student centered-ness), that means that students need to have done the reading/writing and are prepared to discuss the assignments. When student step up and engage in their own learning, the work becomes exciting, dymanic, and so much fun for all of us that it ceases to be work. Now....getting there is something else...and a discussion for another day.
Risë
Student Responsibility
I would certainly agree that students should be invested in their own learning. For me, the difference between high school and college, particularly the community college, is that students are making the decision to be there and have probably made some sacrifices to come to class. I don't think that student-centeredness means giving students total leeway and giving everyone an "A" because it will make everyone happy.
I think that one component of being student-centred is providing what students don't know that they need. Now, I'm just speaking off the cuff here, but I think things like discipline and guidance are not really things that students are going to ask for, so they need to be provided by the instructor. There is plenty of room for students to make decisions about what they want to talk about or whether they should work in small groups or on their own. Student-centeredness, I think, comes down to respect and compassion.
So, the question becomes "how do we get students engaged in their own learning?"
on being student centered
One thing that I think gets overdone in what I'll call "PC" notions of student centeredness is the notion that students actually know what is best for them when it comes to their education. Yes, students should be able to work on topics of interest to them, but if we take this montessori approach, where students go where they like, too many of them are not going to step outside their comfort zone. It's incumbent upon us to impose some things upon students, to push them toward ideas, readings, writings and such for which they have no expressed interest. They are free to reject these ideas after consideration, but if we just leave students to wander only where they will, we've abdicated our responsibility as teachers and professors.
I so agree
This is where I also start to struggle with the idea of the student centered classroom. I do try to create a class where students can fully engage with ideas on more than one level, but sometimes I get frustrated with the idea that students always know what to do. The idea of pushing people beyond what they know is also central to our work, especially with students who might be coming from experiences that don't prepare them to ask hard questions, or to discover what might exist beyond their own experiences.
problem with cliches
I think the opposite of being student centered, the lecture model, tied closely to Carnegie Units, is the student as the "fool on the stool" with me, the teacher, being the "sage on the stage." Maybe we could make a poem out of "the guide on the side, the fool on the stool" and the other cliches that come from this discussion. If only figuring the right sort of balance was as easy as coming up with little mocking ditties.
My wife used to complain while she was earning her Education MA that she wanted a sage on the stage. She wanted someone who had the knowledge to impart. Abd she was/is no dummy. It's a tough balance to let students construct knowledge which works well in the writing classroom, while at the same time having to give them, or give them access to, the knowledge, the raw data, so they can more effectively construct their own substantive view(s). bradley