Student-centered approach Prepared by: Brwa Othman Omer Dept. of ELT

Student-centered approach Prepared by: Brwa Othman Omer Dept. of ELT Supervised by: Dr. OytunSözüdoğru

Outline • What is Student-centered approach? • Creating Student-centered classrooms. • changing classrooms. • Role of the teacher. • Class size. • Various abilities. • paring. • Monolingual classes. • Timing. • Interest. • personalization. • Resistance.

Student-centered approach! It is an approach in which content, material and activities are all affected by the students. The students become the center of this process and the teacher or instructor would only guide students to learn independently.

Student-centered approach! • in student-centered approach open ended problems are proposed for students to solve through critical and creative thinking and which would not be solved otherwise • Students are given opportunity to involve; otherwise education will not occur because education is their responsibility too.

Creating student-centered classrooms • Instructors have to lay emphasis on learning while they share power with students. • Teachers should help students have their own goals or offer them self-directed activities and then they will gain self-confident and knowledge. • Students should be encouraged to know how they learn best and apply their strategies.

Creating student-centered classrooms • Teachers should be more of a guidance rather than a leader. • Students should be moved to groups from whole-class learning.

Changing class roles • Changing classrooms affect the following: • Relationship between the teacher and the students is more cooperative. • The materials are more experiential, thematic and inclusive of different perspectives. • Instruction allows for a broad range of learning preferences, builds from learners’ strengths, interests, and experiences, and is participatory.

Changing class roles 5. Grouping of the students help them to cooperate, gives them a sense of sharing. 6. Evaluation is according to multiple intelligences. It uses authentic assessment.

Role of the teacher • Before getting started, the teacher helps students prepare to work together with explanations. • The teacher is ready to give advice and encouragement while the students are working together. • When they are finished, the teacher provides feedback, suggestions and answer questions.

Class size • The best student-centered class should contain 12 students. (groups of: 3,4,6) • The larger the class is, the more necessary it is to be student-centered. • Large class sizes make problems in regard of time.

Various Abilities • Putting the students into different groups according to their abilities and tasks. • Weaker+stronger (better) • Weaker+weaker (hoping to be motivated by the betters) • Better+better (hoping to encourage the weaks)

Pairing • Students would usually like to be paired with friends. • Less popular students would be excluded • Best friends agree with each other most of the times and don’t have much to say to each other.

Monolingual classes • Students would absolutely speak their mother tongue while discussing a matter. • Convince them not to, this is their only chance to improve. • Encourage them that they are good enough to speak English. • Make “Only English” a rule and walk around to prevent them from breaking this rule.

Timing • Give them a time limit. • Stating the exact time for an activity depents on the remaining time and how talkative they are. E.g (you have twominutes) • If they don’t like the activity, we may consider changing and stop in the middle of the time, but if they do we may give more time.

Interest • Some students are not interested in the topics • Assign them to discover aspects that interest them . • You can tell students to choose their own topics

Personalization • Personal experiences are important to be shared. • These experiences that are personal grab attention more and makes students interact and listen to each other.

Resistance • I don’t wanna speak English, because my English is not good?

Resistance • Tell them the advantages of working together. • Working together is more fun than just sitting • Remind them that your class is their only chance

Solutions What are you going to do about it?

References • Froyd, J., Simpson, N. (2008): Student-centered learning: Addressing faculty question about student-centered learning. Presented at the Course, Curriculum, Labor, and Improvement Conference, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://ccliconference.org/files/2010/03/Froyd_Stu-CenteredLearning.pdf • Vetter, A., Reynolds, J., Beane, H., Roquemore, K., Rorrer, A., & Shepherd-Allred, K. (2012). Reframing Resistance in the English Classroom. English Journal, 102(2), 114-121. • Jones, L. (2007). The Student-centered Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy. (2010). Student-centered learning [fact sheet ]. Retrieved from https://teal.ed.gov/sites/default/files/Fact-Sheets/6%20_TEAL_Student-Centered.pdf • Powell, M. (2013, 24 December). 5 Ways to Make Your Classroom Student-centered. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/12/24/ctq_powell_strengths.html • Bogdan, P. (2014). Student-Centered Learning Environments: How and Why? Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-centered-learning-environments-paul-bogdan

Student-centered approach Prepared by: Brwa Othman Omer Dept. of ELT