Traditional Teaching vs. Student-Centered Teaching

Traditional teaching is concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning environment. Power and responsibility are held by the teacher and they play the role of instructor (in the form of lectures) and decision maker (in regards to cirriculum content and specific outcomes). They regard students as having 'knowledge holes' that need to be filled with information. In short, the traditional teacher views that it is the teacher that causes learning to occur (Novak, 1998) Learning is cheifly associated within the classroom and is often competitive. The lesson's content and delivery are considered to be most important and students master knowledge through drill and practice (such as rote learning). Content need not be learned in context. (Theroux 2002, Johnson &Johnson 1991) The most common seating arrangement used by the traditionalists is rows. Student-Centered Teaching The teaching role in a student-centred learning environment is, at most, one of facilitator and guide. The students are in control of their own learning and the power and responsibility are the students concern. Learning may be independant, collaborative,cooperative and competitive. The utilisation and processing of information is more important than the basic content. Learning takes place in relative contexts and students are engaged in constructing their own knowledge (Theroux,2002). The teacher that utilises this method effectively is constantly on the move. They may be engaged with the students as a classroom collective, individually or in groups. Their involvement would include questioning, disciplining, guiding, validating, monitoring, motivating, encouraging, suggesting, modelling and clarifying (McKenzie,2002) . The teacher must make the appropriate decision when deciding how instruction should take place. Some questions that may be considered are - - How much time do we have? - Do all of the students need this information? - What method would maximise efficiency? Due to the nature of this method, the most appropriate physical set up for student-centred learning environment would be groups. by Jasmine, Michaela, Suyin and Scott