Student-Centered Classrooms

As we have been talking this past weeks in class, it is very important for teachers to know the characteristics of effective instruction.

This way of teaching and learning is based on student-centered classroms, in which students are involved on their own knowledge to become autonomous learners.

As teachers, we have to bear in mind that all students are different, with different backgrounds, experiences and ideas, so, we cannot pretend to teach them in the same way or to expect from them the same products.

So, in this type of classrooms, students are encouraged to reflect their own learning, to share information with peers and to learn by doing authentic tasks in order to construct their knowledge by meaningful experiences.

It is also necessary to assess the pupils not only with written tasks about theorycal concepts or with exams, but also the teacher has to assess the students in a meaninful way. This means that assessment tasks have to be very different to engage all different learning styles, and the teacher has to observe to every single student to see his own development.

In conclusion, to promote a student-centered classroom, the teacher has to design activities related to their own lifes, with different ways of working so the students can also collaborate in groups and construct their own learning by comparing and discussing ideas with peers. With all this characteristics we will students be more and more autonomous, to become independent persons.