hy.
Progressivism came into the educational landscape with a new belief about the nature of the learner. Then comes the suggestions of what a modern teacher should be like. Along those things emerged new teaching approaches, strategies, styles, and practices. Contrary to the behaviorists, they proposed that students are 'candles to be lighted, not pails to be filled.' According to them, learners are individuals who already have their own knowledge and skills that they already have from birth (nature) or from the environment (nurture). They oppose the idea that everything comes from the teacher alone. They believe that the teaching and learning process is a two-way relationship between a teacher and a learner. This new educational philosophy suggested a new role for teachers.
If traditional teachers are lecturers, 21st-century teachers become facilitators. They no longer view students as blank slates. They just ignite the light within them. We owe this thought to the constructivists. Students are no longer listeners but participants, where motivation plays an integral part. Instead of saying that 4x4 is equal to 16, the teacher gives marbles and asks the student to create 4 groups of 4 out of it. They can explore knowledge in a meaningful way that suits their needs in the light of their innate capabilities (meaningful Learning, see Piaget and Ausubel). According to Edgar Dale in his Cone of Experience, Learning is more meaningful when the learners learn on their own. It is commonly called " 'learning by doing.'
Why is there a need to view
things this way? To answer this, we should bear in mind that every individual
is unique in every way. That is why the common thing for everyone is
disagreement. We would most likely disagree with each other on things because
we have different preferences. Every human person has different viewpoints on
everything. A farmer sees things differently as politicians do. The same thing
applies to parents and children, terrorists and soldiers, criminals and law
enforcers. In my case, I prefer Air Supply a million times more than Justin
Bieber, while others view him as their god. The key here is the principle of
individual differences. We should understand that school is a melting pot of
culture. It is a miniature model of our society where different kinds of
learners from different walks of life have different upbringings, not to
mention personalities and temperaments. One that is beautiful to someone might
be contrary to the other. We need to look at things this way because
understanding that every one of us is unique will open our eyes to the
importance of how we treat our students. Seeing things this way will help understanding
and more efficient and meaningful Learning.
Aside from the principle of
individual differences, I would like to add Edward Thorndike's 'Theory of
Connectionism.' His proposition is that students learn more when he is ready
(Law of readiness). To elaborate on that point, you cannot teach abstract
reasoning in kindergarten because they are not yet prepared for it, because at
this point of their life, they are just beginning to recognize things on a concrete
level. To put this into practice, a student-oriented teacher would not force
students to hold things that they still could not grasp. The same thing that we
do teach is to let a 2-year-old drive a ten-wheeler truck.
To sum up my points, we should put students in the center of
the teaching-learning process because:
· Every individual learner has his or her innate
capabilities
·
Learning is more effective when it is meaningful
when the students are motivated.
·
Learning is more effective when it suits the
needs and the prior knowledge of the learner.
·
Learning is more effective when the learner is
ready.
The bottom line of this is why we require an Identification
card or a name tag. It is for us to know them so that we know how to work with
them.
#21stcenturyteacher
#studentcentered
#teaching
#learning
#Principles
#traditional
#meaningfullearning
#individualdifferences
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