Learner-Centered Teaching - Part Two: The Responsibility for Learning

 Chapter VI: The Responsibility for Learning 

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Teachers’ dissatisfaction with students’ performance is as old as the teaching profession itself. It is difficult to teach students today, because there are lots of issues and challenges teachers, must face in the English classroom. For example, many students are not well prepared for working at college-level, they do not have study skills, they feel motivated only by scores and they tend to be passive during their learning process just waiting for their teachers to make decisions about lessons. That is why this chapter focuses on looking for answers to those common problems that teachers face every day by promoting students to accept responsibility for their learning process.

First, classroom climate can be considered as one of the keys to promoting students’ responsibility. Classroom climate involves moods, attitudes, norms and tone that prevail in the classroom. There are two types of classroom climates, positive and negative.  A positive classroom climate makes students feel safe, pleased, respected and welcomed during their learning process. However, a negative class climate makes students feel uncomfortable and overwhelmed about their learning. A good classroom climate can help students to take responsibility since it is one of the key factors that influence learners’ independence. Teachers can use some strategies to promote the classroom climate like personalizing learning, involving participants, building good relationships, making students’ learning satisfying, innovating procedures, organizing class activities, individualizing learners according to students’ needs and interests.

Second, according to Weimer (2013) there are five features of the classroom climates that promote students’ that create responsible learners. (a) Logical sequence of the lesson, it involves changing the stages of a lesson because students sit comfortably expecting the next activity when teacher uses the same procedure all the time. However, an unprepared learner does not sit comfortably the whole class. (b) Consistency refers to the harmony between what teachers say and do. For instance, the consequences of students’ actions and inactions. If the teacher says that “any late homework will be accepted”, so students must bring in homework on time. (c) High standards involve the teacher setting the goals and helping students to reach them. (d) Caring is about teachers' and students’ rapport. Teacher worries about their students and shows concern about their achievement. (e) Commitment to learning involves students’ engagement and motivation to learn.

Finally, teachers must consider students’ needs and interests to help them succeed in their learning process which may help to create not only a good classroom environment but also a comfortable school climate. In order to do that, students need to develop certain behavior and attitudes which involve organization, autonomy and participation as well as some important values like respect, equality, honesty and responsibility (Harlacher, 2015). It is important for teachers to involve students in creating, developing, enhancing and maintaining the classroom atmosphere. This pleasant environment will be beneficial for all school staff such as authorities, teachers, students and parents,

In this TED Talk video, the speakers share with us how to create an autonomous and supportive classroom climate.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxlFzrfdqa4

What did I learn in this unit?

This unit has helped me to have a clearer idea about students’ learning responsibilities, how we can apply the five key features mentioned before to create responsible learners and why it is important to involve students in creating, enhancing and maintaining pleasant classroom environments.

How this information can be applied in a teaching situation?

1.  1. Teachers can promote students’ responsibility by changing the sequence of their lessons. Instead of always giving students a test in the second-class hour, it can be given in the first-class hour. Thus, students who tend to arrive late to all lessons will have the duty of arriving on time next time.

2.   2. Regarding one of the five key features which is caring. Teachers tend to apply caring when they worry about their students. For example, teachers may ask their students if they know something about a classmate who does not attend classes as he used to do.

References:

Harlacher, J. E. (2015). Designing Effective Classroom Management, Marzano Research Lab, 2015.Retrievedn from: ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uta-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4396530.

TEDx Talks. November 5th, 2015. Creating Autonomy-Supportive Learning Environments | Jon Stolk | TEDxSMU. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxlFzrfdqa4

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: ProQuest Ebook Central,  https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uta-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1119448