Teacher-Centered vs Learner-Centered (The Post I Never Finished 'til Now)

Note: I have not blogged in a while.  It's been a little over 3 months since my last blog.  When I went to blog today, I noticed I had a draft of a blog going.  It was a blog that was to set the tone for the beginning of the school year.  It will now set the tone for going back to school after Christmas Break. For what you will be reading below to make sense, you need to read my previous blog entry. 

Image from https://blog.stetson.edu/faculty-engagement/2016/09/4849/

Reviewing The Old Transcript: Teacher-Centered Learning

1) Only the students who raised their hand are engaged in the lesson.  Those who didn't raise their hand could be engaged, but I don't know that for certain.  I have no sense of what those students know or understand about the lesson.  It could be that over half the class is totally lost.

2) The questions only allowed for one right answer.  This leads students to think that math is only about getting right answers and perhaps explaining how you got your answer.  To be honest, I used to think that math was only about getting the right answer until I had taught for many, many years and came to realize that learning math is more about the journey - the multiple ways to solve the problem and the connections between the concepts - than the destination of  reaching "the answer".

3) I was the creator of the knowledge.  Students weren't constructing their own knowledge.  I was seen as the source of right answers.  Students were not expected to evaluate their own answers or thinking.  Self-reflection was only reserved for the occasional student who had an inate sense of self-reflection as a key to deeper learning.

Some Observations Relative to Becoming Learner-Centered

Notice that the heading says "becoming learner-centered". Moving from a teacher-centered classroom to a learner-centered classroom is not like turning on a light switch.  It takes time.  It is easier for me to have a learner-centered classroom in Advanced Algebra and AP Statistics, courses that I have taught for much of my career.  It is my first year teaching AP Calculus and I don't have the same sense of security in the content, in common misunderstandings, pacing of lessons, and in how the content is inter-related.  In AP Calculus, it is very easy to, and often unintentionally, turn back to a more comfortable teacher-centered approach. 

So, what am I doing to get my classroom to be more learner-centered?  I am allowing more time for students to talk.  I truly believe that the more students talk about a concept the more they are engaged in learning.  With increased engagement and teacher guidance, there are more opportunites for ALL students to understand what is being taught.  Plus, it becomes easier for me to identify which students are struggling.

I'll talk more about the strategies I have developed for creating a learner-centered classroom in future blog entries.  But if you are ready for some now, I recommend reading this blog by Sara VanDerWerf.  In it she discusses a strategy called "Stand and Talk", a valuable stragegy I have begun to use in my classroom.