PART TWO: THE
FIVE KEY CHANGES TO PRACTICE
Learner-centered
teaching
THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER
Teachers and students have a different role in the
class: Teacher is the active person and students are the passive part where
they observe what the teacher is doing.
In
learner-centered teaching, teachers work hard to facilitate and to support
students to work in learning-related tasks and to develop the students´
efforts.
Here teachers have
a facilitative and monitor role which improve the student´s independence and
responsibility for their learning.
It will be
explored an aspect of teaching when teachers develop learner-centered: the role
of the teacher.
Defining the
role
In
learner-centered teaching, teachers are a guide to facilitate learning.
The role will be
described metaphorically:
According to Fox
(1983), a teacher who facilitates learning is like a gardener, because
gardeners are who make flowers accomplish their goal.
Hill (1980, p.48)
states that facilitative teachers are like guides because they advise students
and give them tools in order to obtain the best of themselves.
Barr and Tagg
(1995, p.24) say that facilitative teachers are compared with coaches because
a coach is a person who designs the game like a teacher that designs the way of
learning of each class and not only instructs.
Using the
role
The main use of this role is to allow students to focus more on learning tasks and to give them an easy acquisition of content by allowing them to develop their critical thinking.
Role
difficulties
The role requires a
deep interaction of students’ skills. So, it is difficult to know if they want
to adequate their learning into the role. For example, if a teacher teaches a
concept and asks for an example the teacher must keep into
account that this role depends on motivation, persistence, tenacity and, patience
because it is possible the teacher will not have a correct answer.
Principles of the implementation of the teacher role
According to
Weimer (2013), the teacher role in learner-centered teaching follows general
principles that are used to execute the role:
Principle 1
Teachers need to let
of doing learning tasks and to allow students to do more of them like organizing
the content, asking questions, summarizing, and others in order to discover
their own content.
Principle 2
Teachers always
are telling what they are doing and what things are developing in the class,
and students are not able to figure out by themselves the class. So, teachers
must allow students to discover the content they have developed.
Principle 3
Activities and
assignments developed by teachers are the most important part of learner-centered
environments because they are the vehicles where learning occurs, and it
creates significant learning experiences.
Principle 4
Teachers need to
feel empathy towards their students doing legitimate learning in the class and applying
new things.
Principle 5
It is important to
develop collaborative work in students and teachers are who encourage this
action by developing cooperative skills.
Principle 6
To create a good class environment and orientation into the class is one of the principal goals in the learning-teaching process, for that reason, teachers and students must work together to develop them and to get a peaceful environment.
Principle 7
Grading is considered
an important part of learning environments, but teachers should pay more
attention to focus students on improving their skills and knowledge than just
the grade which does not fully reflect their development in the class.
Applying the
teaching role
The best way to
apply these principles is by using the approach Task-Based Learning which
encourages independent activities to develop the student’s language.
Intervention
To let students to
discover and to get knowledge by themselves based on their own experiences and
mistakes can make learning a powerful tool in the class.
Learning demands
intervention of teachers in the process, so they ask students as many questions
as they can in order to emerge the level of practice when they give ambiguous
descriptions which are helpful in implementing actions.
Conclusion
As conclusion, teachers need to connect students to the class by being a guide and to facilitate learning when teaching English. I think it is important to learn this role and to know how to apply it using the different aspects which were developed in the text. On the other hand, as a personal situation, I could apply the 7 principles through a grammatical structure where students will organize the content by asking questions or summarizing and making students create significant learning experiences.
References
Fox,
D. “Personal Theories of Teaching.” Studies in Higher Education, 1983, 8(2),
151–163
June 16, 1980, p. 48.
Education.” Change, Nov.-Dec. 1995, pp. 13–25.
Weimer,
M. (2013). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice.
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