The article, Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher, had several points that spoke to me as an ECE instructor.
We teach students how to observe and document children’s interests and then create activities or offer materials that build on that particular interest identified through our observations. By offering these types of activities and materials, they are encouraged to continue to explore and build on their present knowledge. We as instructors and teachers need to be able to expand this type of process from infant and preschool children to the school setting; elementary school through to post secondary.
I think we need to be creative in our teaching methods and open to letting the students have a say in how they learn the material. As a student myself, if I don’t see the value in a lesson then I have hard time focusing and completing the tasks assigned. Feeling empowered to be able to take charge of my own learning motivates more then listening to the ‘sage on the stage’ for hours and then having to write a huge paper. Understanding we all learn in different ways helps us as instructors let go of the reins a bit and let students make some of the decisions.
Motivation is so important in learning. The carrots and stick method doesn’t work very well or for very long. Students need to be motivated from within to push themselves to achieve greater understanding of a topic or become more competent in a particular skill. I believe giving students some control over how they achieve these goals is going to be more of a motivation than the promise of a ‘good grade’ at the end.
We all have learning objectives that need to be taught. How do we transfer this practice into our own classrooms while ensuring our students leave us with a good understanding of the learning objectives and the ability to preform the job they will be hired for?