Education For The Whole Child

The different types of student-centered learning methods are described and compared to teacher-centered approaches. Different studies were researched with mixed results. Student-centered methods, when applied to secondary education students and above, provide social and emotional value to the students and improve reasoning and creative ability. Teacher-centered methods work best in the primary grades and with students faced with low SES.

The great challenge for constructivism is that the world in which students and teachers interact is not utopian. Students come to class with predetermined ideas about a course, or with personal needs that distract from attention from the classroom experience. Some students are not willing or able to interact with peers due to emotional issues, thus

students in relation to teaching and learning. First, I discovered their love and need of hands-on experiences. Every day that my students participated in a learning experiment, every student was involved and excited to see the results of the experiment. They constantly wanted to be the, “lucky volunteer”, and in their culminating project, I had students name their favorite part of the entire unit, and all 22 students mentioned one of the six experiments they participated in. Second, I discovered the power of student directed learning. Half way through the unit I began placing students who showed great understanding of the topics with students who had more difficulty understanding the topics of the unit. On these days, based on the conversations I observed between students, the students really enjoyed this opportunity of, “being the teacher” and their classmates enjoyed the experience of learning from a classmate. According to Adam Fletcher, an author with a focus in K-12 literature, states, “When students prepare to teach other students, learning suddenly involves active thinking about material, analysis and selection of main ideas, and processing the concepts into one’s own thoughts and words” (2016). Third, I discovered who they are as learners and what best suites them as individuals. Based on the formal and informal formative assessments the students took throughout the unit,

The established higher education model that I tend to gravitate toward and support in my higher education philosophy is the student centered learning theory also sometimes called learner-centered teaching or a student-centered model. The theory of student-centered learning can be contributed to Hayward as early as 1905 and in 1956 to John Dewey (O’Neill and McMahon, n.d.). The student centered model is driven by a need for a change in the traditional educational environment and when incorporated and implemented correctly we will see

The lack of student centered learning is an issue because of the fact that it is not widely known. Student centered learning is a teaching approach that incorporates participating in self-paced learning programs and/or group scenarios, substituting lectures with active learning, leading up to holding the student responsible for his or her own improvements in education. The focus on this kind of learning could greatly improve our education system in America because it makes the students responsible for their success. The teaching of that type of responsibility will make for a more reliable and advanced generation.

A constructivist Early Childhood classroom is one that focused on the role of each child. The curriculum and lessons are guided by what the teacher knows about his/her students’ needs and interests. If the teacher has introduced something and it is not going as planned, he/she can reshape it based on what the children are interested in about the subject. It can also allow for the study of certain things to go much deeper than planned. As long as the students are interested and still wanting to learn about the subject things can keep being added to extend their knowledge. It allows the children to learn from the things that they already know, but reshaping or adding it to the knowledge that they have previously known. The children are allowed

His vision is a “learning-centered” classroom—and that includes the teacher learning as well. Wilhelm (in addition to Vygotskysay that students need enough encouragement and instruction to allow them to do things on their own.

Constructivism is learning through experiences in our environment. Using this method we are essentially teaching ourselves through occurrences in our environment. This method of learning is demonstrated In a early childhood classroom by teachers providing guided opportunities that allow for children to explore their environment in various ways. At the end of these activities the teacher typically initiates a class discussion on the information learning through an activity. An example of an activity you may see in a classroom could be a scavenger hunt where the students find an object to match every color; this could take place inside or

“Social constructivism is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality” (). This deeply connects with education because the theory focuses on the idea that human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. In a constructivist style classroom, the focus shifts from the teacher to the students. It is not the expert sitting there lecturing to a bunch of kids and expecting them to learn the information they are spitting out at them. In the constructivist style classroom, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning and participate in a more student run process.

There are several ways that student-centered learning can be described, and they all lead back to the same basic idea, the student. First, student-centered learning can be defined as a discipline that involves the interaction of a team of students that experience creative learning to be used in the real world (Thornburg, 1995). Thornburg (1995) also mention that students are essential to the classroom, just like a team member is essential to a game. He says that teachers are part of the definition of student-centered learning, but they are not the main attraction. The students are the focus, and the teacher is the one who can assist among small groups of students. Eaton

Learner-centered Teaching by Maryellen Weimer (2002) is a work in which embraces cognitive, educational psychology and constructivist philosophies that emphasize active learning in a social context, where learners are free to hypothesize, explore intellectual curiosities, and exhibit self-regulation (Weimer, 2002). To integrate a learner-centered pedagogy, a transformation of thinking, must occur that challenges the idea of the teacher in front of the class and the owner of the knowledge, instead,

The instructional setting takes place in a fifth-grade classroom in a charter school. The classroom consists of eighteen students. Three IEP students, four students with behavioral or social concerns, and three students from the Hispanic culture. Several of the students participate in the free or reduced lunch program. In this setting we will be focusing on ways to implement learner-centered education. Learner-centered education engages students on working on their education and encourages them to reflect on what they are learning and how they learned it (Weimer, 2012). Learner-centered teaching takes the focus away from the teacher and gives it back to the student. Students need to understand they’re in charge of their education and need to take an active role.

The constructivism approach does not deal with a particular question or concept for example, if a group of students do not have a particular concept, how does a teacher work with them to foster their development of that concept?

One of the most debated arguments in the area of education has been the fight to make more single–sex schools available for students. Co-ed schooling has been the standard for education that many children enjoy being in. Many argue however that changing schools to be single-sex is one of the best solutions to upgrade the education for children. However, a school that provides single-sex education is not automatically a better school than a coeducational one. Thus, when seeing the whole picture, single-sex education is the same, if not worse than co-education.

Constructivism is a method of teaching that lends itself well to social studies content area because it encourages students to become critical thinkers who take