The Shift from Teacher-Centered Education to Student-Centered Education

There are theories and descriptions that make evident the shift that is happening in the way students prefer to learn and the way that teachers need to teach.  As David Warlick states in his presentation on “Learning Literacies for the 21^st Century”, the learner of today has been molded by the environment that has changed with the era of technology.  Today’s learner needs to be given empowerment to function in an increasingly connected, creative and collaborative world.  Authentic teaching means that teachers need to learn about the technology that is meaningful in students’ lives and apply those tools inside the classroom.  With this change in environmental context has come a change in how educators can serve the needs of learners.  The creators of the video “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn” state that in the 21^st century schools must be built to produce “genius, collaborative, gregarious, brave children who care about stuff.” The model of a learner has shifted to being that of an independent, resourceful, collaborative, community-minded, globally sensitive, agent of change.  This shift seems to herald a positive and more human-based (i.e. student-based) philosophy of education.  In this way this new paradigm excites me.

As a future educator I have envisioned the possibility of making school an enjoyable place to be.  I have questioned why it is that so much of instruction in schools is disconnected from students’ interests and passions and inevitably ends up being “work” in terms of being something students feel compelled to do out of obedience or responsibility rather than innate motivation and interest.  I think this new paradigm shift in education will help students to become innately interested in learning and that internal motivation will be what releases so much of students’ untapped potential.  It will also be what can explode students’ faulty assumptions about their abilities that may have resulted from talent going unrealized because there was a lack of a meaningful reason for purposefully pursuing possibilities for expression and understanding.  This paradigm seems to herald a fresh start for making school a more meaningful part of students’ lives. 

Are there parts of the old paradigm that are worth preserving?  I think education is just like any other area of intellectual pursuit and development.  It is ever evolving.  Today’s grandest ideas and possibilities are replaced by new and more sophisticated ideas and possibilities in the near future.  There are certain aspects of the traditional paradigm that will likely still operate that serve meaningful purposes for bettering the lives of students.  Among these will likely be research-based instructional methods like direct instruction and various learning strategies.  Ultimately the productive line of thought is not whether we need to preserve the old but to remain focused on pursuing what is great now.  Anything that takes us towards more effective and beneficial educational methods and outcomes, new or old, is worth valuing and incorporating into an ever evolving paradigm of learning and teaching.