It has often been said that change is a part of life. We know that to be true. Some things, such as technology, change rapidly. The hot tech gadget today is cast onto the obsolete trash heap tomorrow. Some things change much more slowly and educational processes is one of those. In many educational circles the teaching philosophies that grew out of industrial revolution of the mid to late 19th century have changed very little in the last 150 years. One of those philosophies is the teacher centered classroom. What is meant by that term, "teacher centered classroom"? It is a simple fact that the educational activities of the school classroom revolve around something. In most cases it is one of three things: the teacher, the curriculum, the student.
For centuries in most schools, the classroom was teacher centered. He/she was the constant. His/her teaching methodology was static, based in lesson plans that focused on primarily one learning style and the goal was to get the students, all of them, to come to learning by the method determined by the teacher. Teachers who had been teaching many years were set in their method and often resisted change, still using lesson plans written many years before. Sure, the curriculum may have changed, supplemental materials and technology may have driven some adaptations, but the methodology was pretty much the same from year to year. Far too often the unspoken attitude was, "I am the teacher. I am a professional educator. I know the best way to do it. You come to learning through the style I present."
A few decades ago the educational gurus of America came to the conclusion that the classroom needed to be more curriculum centered. Since it is the curriculum that lays out the material the brightest educational minds had determined needed to be mastered, everything needed to revolve around the curriculum. We know how that worked out when phonics based learning was replaced by the whole language program and an entire generation of students failed to learn to read well. Not surprisingly, phonics or phonetically based learning has returned to the classroom in the majority of elementary schools in America.
The student centered philosophy holds that in a classroom of 24 students there could be as few as four and as many as eight different ways students learn most effectively. It doesn't mean they CAN'T learn any other way. It simply means that they can learn faster, more effectively, with greater retention, even in their most difficult subjects, when the material is presented in a way that connects to their learning style. There will also be students with varying degrees of cognitive ability, cultural experiences and background knowledge and the teacher must use various methods of presenting the material to meet the needs of all the students in the class. This is called differentiated instruction and it creates great challenges for a teacher who has the "my way or highway" attitude about the way he/she teaches. But, make no mistake. It IS the only way we can effectively reach a level of academic excellence in our schools as they become more and more diverse. Gone is the day when a veteran teacher can continue to employ one old "tried and true" teaching style. The challenge now, a challenge that will only become more daunting in the future, is not just WHAT do I teach, but HOW do I teach this material so ALL my students have a chance to learn and master the work?
Here at ACS we are working with our teaching staff to develop the student centered classroom environment we know our increasingly more diverse student body requires. I am thankful for our teachers who have been willing to re-tool and re-create their methods to reach all the students they are blessed to teach each day. We have more work to do, but day by day we are making great strides. We have a tremendous teaching staff. Pray that God will continue to bless their work!
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