Adjusting to Student-Centered Learning Model
Written by Kaitlyn Fountain, Kearney High School Science Teacher
As educators, we are used to taking the lead in our classrooms, because well, we are the content experts right? We’ve spent countless hours mastering our subjects to be able to alter, update, and perfect our curriculum to both meet state standards, and keep our students engaged. We lead notes, direct projects/labs/discussions, walk students through assignments, and more within our classrooms. But what happens when we take a step back from that role? What happens when we switch from leader to facilitator?
The answer, you open the door for student-centered learning.
What is Student- Centered Learning?
Just like the name suggests, student-centered learning is a teaching model where students become the driving force behind their own education. In this approach, the students are the ones that often take the lead in the learning process by making decisions on what and how they learn in the classroom. Student-centered learning can be used every day in the classroom, or when completing specific tasks/projects.
Student-Centered Learning can lead to more…
- Student creativity: When students have more of a voice and choice in how they learn/show curriculum competency, you allow them to capitalize on their unique interests, strengths, and experiences. You give your students space to be creative.
- Student collaboration: When students are given more opportunities to make choices in the classroom, this opens a door for collaboration. Students can share more ideas, ask for guidance, and give feedback to one another. Through group work, students can fill roles based on their own personal strengths and interests.
- Student engagement: When students are interested in what they are learning, they are more engaged and retain more of the material. In a student-centered learning model, students have more freedom to learn the material in a way that allows them to pursue their interests.
- Student ownership/pride: When students are allowed more control to decide how they learn/show curriculum competency, they start to take more ownership of their education. Students take pride in their work.
It’s Ok to Be Uncomfortable
Taking that initial step back from being the sole leader in the classroom can be challenging. You’re giving up some control and oftentimes that can be uncomfortable for both you and your students.
However, when you take that step back, you allow your students more opportunities to lead, express themselves, and take ownership of and pride in their education.
It’s ok to be uncomfortable and even skeptical when adjusting to a student-centered learning model, here are a few helpful tips and tricks you can try in your classroom.
- Be Transparent: As you move towards a student-centered learning model, explain the process to your students including the challenges you may face and the successes you hope to see. This can help increase student buy in and help both of you as you navigate through a new style of teaching and learning.
- Get rid of strict rubrics/templates: When you give students a rubric or a template, you are limiting them to a specific set of parameters and then you get 50+ projects that are all identical. Instead, try giving your students a set of standards and/or learning objectives that they are expected to meet for a specific project/assignment. Let your students decide how they will show content competency. You’d be surprised what your students create when they are given more freedom.
- Ask before you advise: Many students rely heavily on rubrics/templates. They want to know exactly what is expected of them and exactly what they have to do to get a good grade. When you don’t supply a rubric/template, this can make students feel lost. Students will often look to you, as their teacher, for reassurance that they are doing things correctly. Before you give advice or share your own ideas, try asking your student(s) what they think about their work. Challenge them to reflect on what they are creating and how they are meeting the learning objectives/standards. Ask them if they’ve asked their peers, or clients for guidance and/or feedback. This can be challenging, but keep in mind you are now in the facilitator role. Once you start sharing your own ideas, your students may feel obligated to try them, and then they lose a chance to develop confidence in their own work.
- Use failure as a chance to learn: Failure or negative feedback in a student-centered learning model can be difficult for students to navigate because it can feel more personal. However, failure is a part of life. When you help students see that failure is not the end, but a chance to learn, regroup, pivot, and try again you encourage them to be resilient, to persevere and to not give up on themselves or their work.
Moving from leader to facilitator can be challenging, but there are many benefits to a student- centered learning model.
Know that these models will look different in every classroom. Not everyone incorporates this type of mode the same way. Some use student-centered learning every day, others use it for specific tasks/projects. What works for some may not work for others and that’s ok.
I encourage you to try this type of teaching model somewhere in your classroom whether that be through a client connection project, an entrepreneurial experience, or another real world learning experience. See how your students grow and what they create when they are given more freedom to lead their own learning.
