The DNA of a Student-Centered Classroom

This is the second in a series of posts about a movement that I am starting in my school.  My school predominantly instructs in a teacher-centered model, and my aim is to shift that to a student-centered instruction model.  This series will serve as a means to flesh out my ideas as I plan for professional development during the 2014-15 school year.

Today's post will examine the characteristics associated with a student-centered classroom. The first post focused on the reasons behind the movement.  Future posts will focus on the roles of teachers and students in student-centered classrooms, resources available to help in planning for professional development, and an outline of how I intend to structure my professional development sessions.  In the fall, I will revisit this series to assess how the professional learning is going, identify areas that I need to address, and share any lessons that I have learned.

In conducting my research on student-centered classrooms, certain characteristics continually showed up.  I have listed the ideas that I found most often below, see if you notice any patterns.

1. Relationships Matter
   The building of a strong relationship between a teacher and student to take greater risks, ask questions, and make mistakes.  This is essential in a student-centered classroom as the students will be called upon to take a more active role in their learning.
   
2. Students Ask the Questions (More of the questions)
   At the root of a student-centered classroom is curiosity.  Students that ask good questions and are curious about the material are able to interact with the subject matter at a deeper level.  If students are not interested enough to ask questions, odds are that they are not making connections with the material.  Teachers play a pivotal role in crafting good questions through modeling and guiding the students in learning this valuable skill.
   
3. Instructional Methods are Varied
   Cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning, project based learning, peer-to-peer learning, occasional direct instruction, are just some of the instructional methods that are used in a student-centered classroom.  With the vast amount of content, one single instructional method is not sufficient to achieve the learning goals of the students.  Students can even engage in selecting
   
4. Learning is Personalized
   Teachers take the time to learn about the best ways that their students learn in a student-centered classroom.  While this is hopefully done in all classes, it is imperative in a student-centered classroom because it allows teachers to tailor their instruction in ways that their students learn best.  The future of education will largely be focused on personalized learning, and it currently is a key component of student-centered learning environments.
   
5. Assessment is Varied
   Assessments in a student centered classroom come in all shapes and sizes.  Formal, informal, projects, demonstrations, and observations are just a few of the types of assessments that are utilized in a student-centered classroom.  Again, allowing the students to provide input on the type of assessment used, or to even create the assessment, is a possible option.
   
6. Ideas Come from a Variety of Places
   Ideas for lessons, projects, etc. come from a variety of places.  This prevents the classroom from becoming stale and predictable for the students.  The variety of sources- colleagues, mentors, Twitter/PLN, students, to name a few, increase the likelihood that the work that is done in the classroom will appeal to the students.
   
7. Ample Opportunities for Practice
   Given a multitude of opportunities to work with a specific topic or skill gives the students more opportunities to learn, make mistakes, and demonstrate their mastery of the content.  The key here is for the feedback to not be punitive in nature, practice needs to be provided for learning purposes.
   
8. Student Choice
   This is a large component of a student-centered classroom.  Instead of dictating what the end product will look like for any given task, teachers allow the students to utilize their own creativity to decide how best to demonstrate their learning of a specific topic or skill.  This goes along with the personalization of the students' learning.
   
9. Feedback is Prevalent
   The teacher in a student-centered classroom spends less of class time lecturing or giving direct instruction.  This frees up more time for the teacher to be interacting with their students while they work, and increases the amount of formative feedback - not grades- that the students can use to grow.
   
10. Students Set Learning Goals
    In a student-centered classroom, students set their own learning goals.  This act further personalizes the learning for the students because they are working towards goals that they have identified as important for them.  This activity is something that the teacher will need to demonstrate and guide the students in for the early part of the year, as the year progresses the students will become better equipped at setting their own learning goals.

image attribution flickr user Michael Knowles

Are We Measuring Anxiety?

When I transferred to a new school for my new position, my son came with me for fourth grade.  To say it was a culture shock for him might be an understatement.  The new school is a Title 1 school with a large proportion of ELL students.  The year has gone pretty smoothly for him, he's made some great friends, joined different school clubs, and been really happy with his decision to change schools.  Recently, however, he began expressing a desire to return to his old school, but could never explain why he had changed his tune about his current school.  My wife and I tried in earnest to identify any potential problems, we even talked to his teachers to see if anything had happened at school that may have led to this about face.  There were no incidents that his teachers could point to that would lead to this change... but then it hit us!

It was... the test!

Last year, as the testing season approached, there was an uptick in focus on testing strategies and the like. Not a dramatic increase, but enough for him to become aware of the change.  This year, however, has been completely different.  There is a higher proportion of students that require this type of instruction (personally, I disagree with this type of instruction) and that has added substantial anxiety for my son.  He is a strong student that really does not need this type of focus in order to be successful on the state test.  He is, though, chock full of anxiety and this increased focus has left a mark on him.

Just over the weekend, he was given a thick packet of practice tests that he had to complete.  Again, let me reiterate that I do not feel this is beneficial for any student, not just my son.  He dreaded the entire activity, and to be honest it appeared to be nothing more than busy work to my wife and me.  There were a total of 120 questions for him to answer, and as a teacher, I had a hard time finding the worthiness of this assignment.  He completed the activity over the course of the weekend, but along with that came an increase in his anxiety level.  There were lots of tears, worries, loss of appetite, and difficulty sleeping.  I did not conduct any scientific experiments, but I think it is pretty clear where these developments came from.

I have tried understand the rationale behind the teacher's thinking in assigning this packet, but I have been unable to find anything redeeming.  Besides this packet, there have been similar incidents during the school day that have raised his anxiety level about the upcoming tests.  This whole environment is new to my son and me, and it really raises some questions about what we are doing in education by placing such an emphasis on a one-time test to evaluate a student's growth over the course of a school year.  How does this standardized test, comprised of multiple choice questions, given on one day in April, truly assess a student's growth?  In my eyes, it is far from authentic, and only provides a partial snapshot of a student's abilities, if that.  Making matters worse, the results of this test are utilized to make decisions for these students' future educational placement.

I have tried to remain supportive of my son's teachers throughout his time in school, because I know how hard teaching can be, and did not think it would be beneficial for me to question decisions that his teachers made.  Being an educator myself, I am aware of the multitude of decisions that we make each and every single day in the classroom, and accept that sometimes teachers make decisions that they may later regret.

That being said, I do not feel as though I can remain quiet on this specific topic anymore.  It has now hit home, and I have seen firsthand the effects of being consumed with test prep.  There has to be a better way to assess our students without creating this heightened level of anxiety in them.  In this day and age of rapid technology development, somewhere there is a better answer.  It might be that the students develop e-portfolios throughout the year, focused on specific standards, that can highlight their learning and growth. Of course, I am aware of the inherent challenges that this type of system could present, but I wonder if they are as potentially damaging to students as the current system.  Based on what I have seen over the past few weeks, I think not...

Have you experienced a similar reaction to standardized testing?  How can we assess our students' growth in more authentic ways?