How Learner Centered Approach is different from other teaching learning approaches?
Dawn of Learner-Centered Approach
Bringing Learners into the ‘Limelight’
Teaching and learning have certainly revolutionized drastically in the past two decades, moving from traditional classrooms to advanced digital learning spaces. If you look at the teaching spaces in the modern ecosystem, you’ll find the role of technology in every bit of it.
From e-learning sessions and online exams to web-based educational research and academic content development, everything has not just transformed in its appearance but also in the methodologies followed for the transfer of knowledge.
So it is this innovative educational environment which created the necessity for a ‘Learner-Centered Approach’ – a method where the needs of students or learners are given a priority over the old-style teacher-centered sessions.
What’s the Major Shift?
Well, the key transition highlighted in this approach focusing on students is the underlying autonomous learning culture where they are not completely dependent on their teachers for acquiring knowledge but they rather work together and communicate openly with one-another throughout the learning process.
Here, the role of a teacher is reformed from a mentor to a facilitator. Hence the learners are no more in the passive mode of receiving everything delivered to them by the teacher playing an active role. This, however, doesn’t eradicate the teacher’s role but changes it from being a fountain of knowledge to a facilitator, guide, participant and a manager as well.
What makes it Brighter?
Student-Centered learning is better than the teacher-centered approach in a plethora of ways which makes it a preferred choice for both online and physical classrooms. It can be used with young as well as adult scholars and in various types of classes based on their sizes or abilities.
An interesting example of using this methodology would be in a multilingual class where students will be highly motivated to interact in one common language (English in most cases) even if they don’t have perfect command over it.
Are Our Classes Future-ready?
Every educationist with a growth mindset throughout the world is now welcoming this next level of teaching and learning with open arms since it is well-understood that teachers cannot really ‘teach’ the students but only ‘assist’ them in absorbing the learning process smoothly.
Overall, the teacher-led lecture halls are on their way to becoming history soon, entirely overtaken by the student-centered classrooms, where the learners are equipped with autonomous life-long skills for learning and problem-solving too.
Khushboo is an avid reader, dedicated trainer and a nature lover too. She is passionate about expressing herself in words as she finds it a marvelous medium to share all that she learns through experience. Her innate inclination towards writing was further shaped by her higher education in Journalism and Mass Communication since it aptly polished up her intrinsic skill. As of now, Khushboo is working in educational content development as well as training niche to utilize her flairs completely and living it up!