Written by: Alen Kuriakose, Trainer, HSSW
One day while I was entering my class, I noticed that my students were engaged in noisy conversation. I scolded them and asked them to be quiet. But one of my students asked me , “why should I listen you?”.” We are the masters here, because we pay fees and came to study and you should listen to me and what I am talking”. I was shocked like when apple fell on Newton’s head, but relieved as he was with his discovery of laws of motion; when I thought deeply about his question and found out how relevant it is in the present education system.
Why do we teachers always want the students to listen us? Why do we compel them to learn only what we teach them? Are we Hitlers? Why couldn’t we listen to what they have to say? It is what the system says, just because of that. But as teachers we should make sure that our students are makers of knowledge, not just takers of knowledge.
So it is clear that students should construct knowledge of their own from the surroundings where they are. Learning should be a joint enterprise where the teacher and student actively participate to create new meanings. The emphasis is on the learner as an active “maker of meanings”. The role of the teacher is to enter into a dialogue with the learner, trying to understand the meaning to that learner of the material to be learned, and to help him or her to refine their understanding until it corresponds with that of the teach-er. Here the student transforms himself from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning pro-cess. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the text-book.
Learner-centred teaching makes student work hard:
I believe teachers do more work than students do. We prepare lessons, we teaches them, we ask questions, we call on students, we add detail to their answers. We offer the examples. On any given day, in most classes teachers are working much harder than students. We should do all these things, but I don’t think students develop sophisticated learning skills without the chance to practice and in most classrooms the teacher gets far more practice than the students.
Learner-centred teaching includes skill acquisition:
Learner-centred teaching teach students how to think, solve problems, evaluate evidence, analyse arguments, generate hypotheses—all those learning skills essential to master a particular area. So students do pick up fast, some do not. Here comes the teacher’s role where they can support the students who lag behind and they can do the final touch to the findings of the students.
Learner-centred teaching motivates the learning process.:
In the present system teachers make all the decisions for the students regarding learning. Teachers decide what students should learn, how they learn it, the pace at which they learn, the conditions under which they learn and then teachers determine whether students have learned. Students are not in a position to decide what content should be included in the course or which textbook is best, but when teachers make all the decisions, the motivation to learn decreases and learners become dependent. Learner-centred teaching is like a democratic system of government, where power is shared with the students and teachers, The teachers might give students some choice about which assignments they can do. They give chance for open discussion in class. They might let students set assignment deadlines within a given time period. They might ask students to help create assessment criteria.
Learner-centred teaching encourages collaboration:
In this approach, it sees class-rooms as communities of learners. It says that students can learn from and within each other. Certainly the teacher has the expertise and an obligation to share it, but teachers can learn from students as well. It sees learning individually and collectively as the most important goal of any educational experience.
Learner-centred approach’s foremost aim is building a strong knowledge foundation for the learner and to develop learning skills where they shall be motivated to learn in a systematic way with their own effort and with the support of the teacher, thereby creating a self-awareness in the learner.”
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