LEARNER-CENTERED CLASSROOM
CLARE ANNE SOCCORRO N. DUNGO
How can learning take place? What has emerged from traditionally-used instructional materials to state of the art ones? Instructional media can range from the most common teaching tools, such as textbooks and chalkboards to newer forms, such as films and videos, to high-tech aids, such as computers, CD-ROMs, the Internet, and closed circuit television. Technology is revolutionizing education at all levels of the teaching and learning process. The information superhighway is impacting education across the globe. Successful teachers must be aware of the new technology – what beneficial characteristics it offers and how it may best be incorporated into the teaching-learning process.
In the modern-day educational system, it’s no longer a teacher-centered approach but learner-centered. This means that learners become more engaged with the content, there is a long term retention and more chances of increase in learning. The teacher, being the facilitator helps in creating an environment that encourage student learning, become accustomed to various learning styles and causes students to take on responsibility for learning. Teachers who advocate the learner-centered style are allies in managing relationships, and are eager to become co-learners and co-creators of learning experiences (Mc Combs and Miller, 2007), together with how technology is utilized to sustain and support learning.
Students, being the core of the learning process, may be given inadequate option about the content, but they will be grateful for having the opportunity to choose on how they can study or learn it. This indicates that the teacher views the students who can learn through their potentials. With this, students are challenged to accomplish exceptional output. Aside from excellent performance, the students being trusted to learn according to their ways, feel the responsibility that the teacher gave them and he feel a sense of belongingness inside the classroom whenever they’re treated with respect by the teacher as well as their co-learners. It is said that two of the greatest qualities of a teacher that make them best, are those who both command and express respect especially to various students and their differences.
Learner-centered classroom environment may at times create competitions among students however, this mostly turns a boring classroom scenario into a more fun and challenging way of learning. This also implies that students have differences and needs to collaborate with their classmates to establish outstanding output.
The question now is, how do teachers create a more productive, state-ofthe-art and dynamic classroom set-up that would best suit learners’diversities? According to Marc Prensky, writer and internationally claimed speaker on education, “ICT integration in education, and in English language learning and teaching in particular, is the first step towards living up to the 21st century students’needs because “the child is the heart of the matter”. With regard to this, Ignacio Estrada, an educational consultant and writer said that “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they l ear n”.
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The author is Teacher I at Pampanga High School