Student-centred: teaching in practice
Tailor-made teaching
Staff and students at Sandburg Middle School in Minnesota, USA, have discovered that student-centred teaching must meet different pupils’ needs in order to produce confident, motivated lifelong learners, says MYP coordinator Lauren Hildebrand.
I always tell folks who are interested in the MYP that it is actually a philosophy and methodology rather than a prescribed curriculum. However, nobody has ever asked me to define this methodology. I realized that MYP staff at my middle school needed to discuss this to see if we were on the same page and to make sure that we were satisfied with what we were doing.
We started with the octagonal MYP programme model with the child at the centre. What did this mean to us at Sandburg Middle School? Everyone was agreed: a student-centred pedagogy best meets the needs of our increasingly diverse population.
We have since discovered that student-centred teaching and learning (SCT/L) encourages both teachers and students to be more actively engaged in their roles; both assume greater responsibility in the educational process, and both are consequently better prepared to be active participants in life and lifelong learning.
The methodology keeps pace with the child’s developmental abilities because it the child who is constructing the knowledge at the pace appropriate to his needs. As the child matures, the connections mature and more sophisticated constructs are formed.
Now our school is beginning
to investigate the new learner profile and what it might mean
to student-centred teaching. Is
it just another ‘add-on’ to the programme? How does it fit into the curriculum? One teacher said, “Fit into? This is the foundation for teaching. If we begin with the student who comes to us, practice learner-friendly teaching, then the profile is what we hope to instill as attributes for global citizenship!”
I asked the teachers to think metaphorically in terms of their subject areas. From the physical education teacher came: “The student-centred learning approach is both the starting blocks and finish line. We begin with where the child is, and go the distance with his or her style, energies and abilities. And, the quality and quantity of student participation goes up.”
A science teacher added: “The middle school model is a fertile Petri dish for SCT/L. We teach as teams; we often have common planning times; we offer a ‘taste’ of many subjects and experiences so that our students can make more educated decisions for the future.” The art teacher noted: “Student-centred learning allows the children to be masters, not only of their own emerging canvases, but also of the materials they feel best equipped to use, and the ‘style’ that works best for them.”
Students, too, have joined this conversation. They point to the metacognitive nature of classroom journals, discussions and written reflections about the areas of interaction in their work and lives, as well as community service packets that require both forethought and afterthought. They enjoy musing on the thinking process and see the value of self-assessment. They mention that they have learned to ask a better question and define a clearer problem, and that there is always more than one solution.
“In my humanities class, we did a simulation about coming to America on the slave ships,” said a seventh-grader. “What I really liked about it was that I was inside the learning! I was on the floor, shoulder to shoulder with other children in a cramped, uncomfortable space, deciding how I would have felt in that situation. That made me think about how I was treating another girl in my class and I was pretty unhappy with myself. When
we debriefed the activity in
class, I shared this.”
We can be assured that the lesson on that day will stick with this girl because it required complex thinking about a complex issue. Pedagogy based almost completely on lecture and rote memorization creates dependent, submissive learners.
Student-centred learning is the great leveller; it is not dependent upon academic ability, economic advantage (or lack of), language, special needs, and such. It is the process by which we can better approach these issues.
Experience is the master teacher; it combines what the child is familiar with and what is new. Involving each child in his or her learning, at a pace and depth that is appropriate, while
considering learning styles, abilities and needs is a humane practice that we at Sandburg know beyond a doubt produces motivated learners.
"We begin with where the child is, and go the distance with his or her style, energies and abilities. And, the quality and quantity of student participation goes up."
"Student-centred learning is the great leveller; it is not dependent upon academic ability, economic advantage (or lack of), language, special needs, and such. It is the process by which we can better approach these issues."
