Teacher-centered Teaching Research Articles

ACTIVE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A WAY TO PROMOTE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ AUTONOMY AND COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT IN MOROCCAN UNIVERSITIES

Active learning has gained fame worldwide since the rise of the student-centered approach, which aims at empowering the learner and promoting his ̸her autonomy and self-learning. In this respect, the Moroccan higher educational system is making tremendous efforts to valorize active learning, independence and develop learning strategies. This study aims to analyze the Moroccan university students’ attitudes towards this instructional approach as the latter has not gained fame yet in higher education in Morocco. Hence, the authors adopted and implemented this approach during a whole school year and came up with tremendous results, which enabled them to write this article that describes a new teaching method and how the university students welcome this method of instruction. The study is based on quantitative and qualitative data collection accomplished using a questionnaire administered to 120 physics, science, and chemistry university students and an online interview conducted with the same respondents. The study demonstrates that most (89%) respondents value the learner’s autonomy and active learning, but very few favor teacher-centered instruction. The research results would help academia improve and develop the higher education system in Morocco.

A rough sail for learner-centred education as a global reform policy in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Learner-centred education has become a global reform policy among Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines. This policy however raised critical issues in pedagogy as it placed learner-centred teaching in binary opposition with teacher-centred instruction, thus creating a simplistic dichotomy between good and bad teaching in the Philippines. With this research problem, this study used ethnographic methods to examine teacher and students’ understanding of what constitutes good pedagogy in one class within an urban public school in the Philippines. Ethnographic findings suggest that teacher-centred pedagogies are still valued by the students and teachers in this study not only as practices of good teaching but most importantly, as enactments of ‘academic care’. This ‘academic care’ provides an important orientation towards understanding how learner-centred pedagogies could be articulated for the Filipino context and could offer a possibility which bridges the presumed dichotomy between learner-centred and teacher-centred pedagogies in the Philippines.

Who's got the power? Unpacking three typologies of teacher practice in one-to-one computing classrooms in Finland

This study explores teachers' practice and aims to understand the complexity of and the difference between teacher-centred teaching and student-centred learning in the one-to-one computing classroom. Generally, prior research has examined moving from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred learning. Here, we scrutinise one-to-one computing practices in Grades 1–6 in Finland by analysing how power and control emerge from the way teachers organise the physical classroom and communicate in practice. We target variations in practical classroom orchestration as well as in how teachers reason about their practice. A mixed-method analysis was conducted in two phases, including 15 classroom observations and subsequent teacher interviews. First, a quantitative analysis displayed three clusters of ways teachers distributed power and control in their classroom orchestration. Second, the clusters were integrated in a qualitative analysis of the interviews. The findings show that the variations of teacher practice depended on their beliefs and higher-order learning goals related student autonomy in the use of material resources. It also showed a variation in the way teachers scaffolded students’ individual work and created collaborative learning opportunities. In the one-to-one computing classroom, this emerges from issues that teachers can control inside school regarding the use and organisation of material resources. However, another factor that made teachers adapt their practice was the integration of heterogeneous student groups into their classrooms.

Collaborative leadership in English language classrooms: engaging learners in leaderful classroom practices and strategies

ABSTRACT The perception of the teacher as the authority in the classroom is deep-rooted in education yet this notion seems to contradict the fundamental values of democratic education. Schools grant teachers an abundance of authority and decision-making power. The pedagogical implications of how teachers use this power in the classroom are not well-understood. Especially in the Japanese context, a majority of English language classes in pre-tertiary institutions are taught through teacher-centered instruction with an emphasis on the grammar-translation method despite its impeditive effects on learners’ communicative language development. Then, the question becomes why language teachers insist on teacher-centered instruction knowing that it is not conducive to developing students’ communicative language competence. This study argues that teachers’ leadership identity is influential in their pedagogical and class management decisions and thus, leadership practices in the classroom warrant further investigation to address students’ struggle with active participation and communicative language competence in the Japanese educational settings. A series of semi-structured interviews were held with teachers from various Japanese universities. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used for the data analysis to reflect the participants’ lived experiences and how they made sense of those experiences. The findings indicated that the pedagogical and class management strategies fostered through the participants’ collaborative leadership identity proved to be effective in creating an open, democratic, and participatory classroom environment. This new learning environment helped nurture learning habits in students which appeared to be effective in developing their communicative language competence.

Learning without Teachers (?): a study of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha

The title character in Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, tried to revolt against teacher-centered teaching and started his own journey to get enlightenment through self-quest or self-investigation. However, this research paper studies Siddhartha declaration acquiring enlightenment through his self- education with contradictory ideas and marks a direct or indirect involvement of teachers in his education. The essay supports its line of departure giving the background of Siddhartha’s journey of enlightenment, studying his self- education as a part of teacher-based education by answering the question in two different topics (why did he leave teachers? / Can education be possible without teachers?) and finally draw its conclusion. Though Siddhartha is an artistic work and the ideas of this paper may not be applicable in the real classroom scenario, the reliability of the analysis of the book would become fruitful since it gives some perspectives to understand our practices philosophically- if not practically.

Pemberdayakan Kompetensi Guru Dalam Penguatan Model Pembelajaran Cooperative Learning Siswa di SDN Kenari 07 Pagi

Cooperative Learning is a model of logic regarding the form, arrangement, magnitude and concepts related to each other. The concept is always related to everyday human life. Cooperative Learning in the form of Empowering Teacher Competencies in Strengthening Cooperative Learning Models Students not only increase curiosity but always develop according to the times, Cooperative Learning is a model that aims to instill and develop the learning process in teachers. Based on the results of observations at SDN Kenari 07 Pagi in the learning process, teachers still use conventional or teacher-centered teaching methods as information providers, with the literacy movement students are expected to improve the good quality of each problem-solving concept in the form of application questions. The purpose of this community service activity for PKM is Empowering Teacher Competence in Strengthening Cooperative Learning Learning Models is to increase knowledge which changes from time to time. The subjects of this community service are all students at SDN Kenari 07 Pagi.

Investigating the Influencing Factors of Teachers’ Information and Communications Technology-Integrated Teaching Behaviors toward “Learner-Centered” Reform Using Structural Equation Modeling

In the context of information-driven Education transformation, this study investigates factors that influence the continuous transformation of teacher information and communications technology (ICT) teaching methods. Although some studies have found that teacher psychological cognition exerts different effects on different types of teacher ICT-integrated teaching behaviors, the current literature on influencing factors lacks the classification of behaviors. Based on the learner-centered transformation, this study divides teacher ICT-integrated teaching behaviors into teacher-centered teaching behavior and student-centered teaching behavior, and constructs a hypothesis model of influencing factors on teacher ICT-integrated teaching behavior. We collected questionnaire data from 795 primary and secondary school teachers, then validated and adjusted the model through structural equation modeling (SEM). The social environment exerted a significant indirect impact on teacher technology application behaviors via mediation of teacher efficacy and outcome expectations. The two types of self-efficacy directly affected the student-centered ICT application behavior more than the teacher-centered ICT application behavior. The student-centered ICT application behavior exerted a significant impact on the teacher-centered ICT application behavior. This study confirms the significance of classifying teacher ICT-integrated teaching behavior and supports the transformation of learner-centered ICT-integrated teaching by improving the social environment to realize equitable and sustainable Education development.

Difficulties of Grade X students in learning Trigonometry

Abstract This paper aims to explain the difficulties of grade X students in learning trigonometry that were explored from an empirical study in the year 2017 AD. The researcher used explanatory mixed research design where 155 students of grade X were selected randomly from the four schools of Kirtipur municipality to conduct initial survey to find low achievers and most difficult content areas of trigonometry by using achievement test. Then five low achievers and respective three mathematics teachers were selected and interviewed with the help of semi-structured interview guidelines to explore what difficulties had they experienced and encountered in learning trigonometry. The results revealed that mean achievement score of students in institutional schools was greater than that of students of community schools. However, there are some common areas of difficulties of students in both types of schools for learning trigonometry including the difficulties related to memorization of facts; comprehension of new concepts; transformation of verbal problems; derivation and proofs of trigonometric relations and unfamiliarity with the solving process of problems in application level. These difficulties are due to several reasons including abstract nature of contents, poor prerequisites among students, demonstration of teacher centered instruction, and focusing on rote memorization rather than conceptual understanding. Hence, it is recommended that both students and teachers need to focus on conceptual learning rather than rote memorization for meaningful understanding in trigonometry.

The Assessment Evaluation Rubric: Promoting Learning and Learner-Centered Teaching through Assessment in Face-to-Face or Distanced Higher Education

It is common to create courses for the higher education context that accomplish content-driven teaching goals and then develop assessments (quizzes and exams) based on the target content. However, content-driven assessment can tend to support teaching- or teacher-centered instruction. Adult learning and educational psychology theories suggest that instead, assessment should be aligned with learning, not teaching, objectives. To support the alignment of assessments with instruction in higher education, the Assessment Evaluation Rubric (AER) was developed. The AER can be utilized to guide the development and evaluation/revision of assessments that are already used. The AER describes, or permits the evaluation of, four features of an assessment: its general alignment with learning goal(s), whether the assessment is intended to/effective as formative or summative, whether some systematic approach to cognitive complexity is reflected, and whether the assessment (instructions as well as results) itself is clearly interpretable. Each dimension (alignment, utility, complexity, and clarity) has four questions that can be rated as present/absent. Other rating methods can also be conceptualized for the AER’s 16 questions, depending on the user’s intent. Any instructor can use the AER to evaluate their own assessments and ensure that they—or new assessments in development—will promote learning and learner-centered teaching. As instructors shift from face-to-face toward virtual or hybrid teaching models, or as they shift online instruction (back) to face-to-face teaching, it creates an ideal opportunity to ensure that assessment is optimizing learning and is valid for instructional decision-making.

Teacher profile of teachers who attend the Educational Research and Teacher Training Center.

In the configuration of the teacher profile, the way in which the teacher represents his professional function and the way and intensity in which he feels challenged by others plays a decisive role. To know the predominant type of profile in teachers who attend courses at the Educational Research and Teacher Training Center from the National Medical Center Siglo XXI (NMC SXXI). Cross-sectional study in professors who attended the aforementioned center, where the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Teaching Methodology was applied to know if the teaching profile was focused on teaching or learning. 43 professors were included, with an average age of 40.84 ± 6.7 years. 65% came from general hospitals (GH). The majority disagreed with teacher-centered education, while learner-centered education had a high agreement; however, when comparing medians, no significant difference was found. Although there was a clear significant difference in the learner-centered profile in terms of those under 40-years-old, both genders as well as teaching background, especially within the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) (p = 0.000) and more specifically in the NMC SXXI Specialties Hospital (p = 0.001) and at the GH (p = 0.000). There is a dominant trend in the learner-centered teaching profile; however, it was higher for teachers with teacher preparation within IMSS than outside this institute, as well as for professors from the Specialties Hospital and GH.

The Impact of Student-Centered Learning through Use of Peer Feedback in the Dance Technique Classroom

ABSTRACT This study compares two methods of teaching a dance technique class to determine which yields a greater increase in high school students’ technical skills. The historic, widely accepted method of teaching a dance technique class is through direct, teacher-centered instruction. However, current research, largely on undergraduate college students, suggests that student-centered instruction may be more effective. In this experimental study a group of high school students (n = 23) received standard, direct instruction, while the intervention group (n = 24) received student-centered instruction. All students took pre- and post-performance assessments and were scored on a skill rubric. Analysis of these assessment scores indicated a statistically significant increase in students’ technical abilities in both the direct instruction group and the intervention group, however, the experimental group was not found to be more successful than the control group. The results of this study found that future research on this topic should include teaching students how to give and receive feedback before entering a student-centered curriculum structure.

Change in Learning Motivation Observed through the Introduction of Design Thinking in a Mobile Application Programming Course

Traditional teacher-centered teaching focused on classroom lectures has met numerous challenges in recent years, which has motivated teachers to make use of design thinking for their classes. This study made use of design thinking in an iOS programming course to find ways to improve the students’ critical thinking, learning motivation and solve practical issues through mobile APP development. In the program, students were required to answer situational motivation questionnaires before and after design thinking is implemented in the course. Results showed that the values of the Cronbach’s Alpha for the initial course expectation in both iterations were reliable. Subsequently, when students feel that the solutions are recognized and supported by other students and teachers in the course, there is an upward trend in the curves of their external regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation. This study successfully designed the course content and evaluation methods that have shown significant increase in the students’ motivation through the incorporation of design thinking in the mobile application programming course.

‘Frustration drives me to grow’: Unraveling EFL teachers' emotional trajectory interacting with identity development

This study explores EFL teachers’ identity and emotion interaction across their career span from an integrative perspective. Based on the Dynamic System Model of Role Identity, qualitative interviews with three EFL teachers working in Chinese universities reveal a pattern of surviving, striving, and thriving career stages. Teachers develop from an enthusiastic companion frustrated with teacher-centered teaching, through an ambivalent motivator striving to be an expert teacher, to a fulfilled life coach. Action anchor, temporal dimension, and contextual mediation are discussed for the interplay between emotion and identity development. The study provides a more nuanced understanding of language teacher identity development.

The Application of Activity-based Method in English Reading Teaching in Senior High School

Activity-based method in English reading teaching in senior high school is put forward in the new National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School (NECS). With the development of the times, the demand for hundreds of thousands of senior high school English teachers is changing, because educators stress a great attention to the application of the modern information technology and activity-based method. Therefore, around how to apply English activity-based method in the reading teaching in high school, this paper designs three learning activities to address the problems of the traditional teacher-centered teaching and the knowledge-orientated leaning. The result of this study can penetrate the consciousness of practical meaning into the frontline teachers by fully understanding the new conception and implementing it based on their own teaching needs.

Measuring Teaching Practices at Scale: A Novel Application of Text-as-Data Methods

Valid and reliable measurements of teaching quality facilitate school-level decision-making and policies pertaining to teachers. Using nearly 1,000 word-to-word transcriptions of fourth- and fifth-grade English language arts classes, we apply novel text-as-data methods to develop automated measures of teaching to complement classroom observations traditionally done by human raters. This approach is free of rater bias and enables the detection of three instructional factors that are well aligned with commonly used observation protocols: classroom management, interactive instruction, and teacher-centered instruction. The teacher-centered instruction factor is a consistent negative predictor of value-added scores, even after controlling for teachers’ average classroom observation scores. The interactive instruction factor predicts positive value-added scores. Our results suggest that the text-as-data approach has the potential to enhance existing classroom observation systems through collecting far more data on teaching with a lower cost, higher speed, and the detection of multifaceted classroom practices.

Model Direct Instruction on Service and Service Understanding in Badminton Game

This study aimed to determine the effect of the direct instruction model on serviceability in badminton games. This research is a mixed method. The population in this study were VIII grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Sindangwangi Majalengka totaling 93 students. The sampling technique used was random sampling so that the study sample was obtained, namely students of class VIII.B, which amounted to 28 students. The research instruments used in this study were service tests and interviews about understanding service. The data analysis technique in this study is the normality test, and the hypothesis test is used to determine the effect of the direct instruction model on serviceability in badminton games. Based on statistical calculations for service tests obtained by Z Hit (4.59)> Z daf (2.35), the Hi received means the influence of the direct instruction model on serviceability in badminton games at a level of confidence (α) of 0.05. As for understanding service excellence, as you know, service excellence is the first attack to get points. This study concludes that there is an influence of the direct instruction model on service in badminton games. The finding is that the direct instruction model still has that is all teacher-centered instruction.

Medical Students’ Perceptions of the Medical Education Learning Environment at the University of Nairobi: II. A Qualitative Study

Background: The educational environment (EE) has a significant influence on effective student learning. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) is a validated tool to assess the EE. A DREEM survey done in early 2019 among medical students at the University of Nairobi highlighted many problems. It was therefore important to explore why such perceptions existed among the medical students.
 Objectives: To explore medical students’ perceptions ofthe medical education learning environment at the University of Nairobi. Methods: Qualitative focus group discussions (FGD) were held among medical students in years III to VI in groups of between 8and 12students. The discussions were recorded using a Samsung J6 phone voice recorder, transcribed, coded, and analysed for themes until saturation was reached.
 Results: We held six FGD with medical students in years III to VI and identified four thematic areas: 1) poor educational infrastructure, 2) poor educational structure, 3) teacher-centred teaching, and 4) lack of social support for students in difficulties.
 Conclusion: Exploring the perceptions of the EE confirmed students have a poor view of the educational environment. The issues raised are good feedback on teaching, governance and the social culture of the institution.
 Keywords: Learning environment, DREEM, Medical students, Qualitative methods

Teaching Reform and Practice of Higher Vocational English Course under the New Situation

With the continuous development of society, people’s living standards gradually improve. In this new situation, higher requirements are put forward for the English level of higher vocational students. We need to change the traditional teaching mode and the teacher centered teaching mode. In the new situation of higher vocational English teaching, students and teachers are required to take the initiative to cooperate, and teachers, as the guide of teaching, students as the practitioners of learning, the two roles should be integrated, so as to make higher vocational English teaching more efficient under the new situation. This paper first analyzes the necessity of higher vocational English teaching reform, analyzes the current situation of teaching, and finally discusses the teaching reform and practice.

Enhancing instructional outcomes with a serious gamified system: a qualitative investigation of student perceptions

PurposeThis paper aims to evaluate the students’ perception of their learning experiences concerning serious gaming and gamification instructions and determines whether they were motivated enough and engaged during the educative process in a resource-poor context. Moreover, the study evaluated the impact of interactive instructional environment outcomes in terms of students’ perceptions of the learning catalysed by gamified systems, particularly in enhancing attitude change coupled with knowledge acquisition.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a qualitative research design technique to collect the data. A total of 108 first year secondary school students participated in a sexual health literacy course that lasted for a five-week learning period. Using a cluster-sampling technique, three classes were randomly assigned to serious gaming, gamification and teacher-centred instructions. Individual face-to-face interviews were used to assess students’ perceives required satisfaction with three instructions. Data were audio-recorded, and coding analysis was used using NVivo software facilitated qualitative data analysis.FindingsThe results show that serious gaming and gamification instructions trumped the traditional teacher-centred instruction method. While intervention students were all positive about the serious gaming and gamification instructions, non-intervention students were negative about conservative teacher-centered learning whose limited interactivity also undermined learning relative to the two innovative interventions.Research limitations/implicationsAs a justification to limit face-to-face classes, this study may be useful during an emergency phenomenon, including the current situation of amid COVID-19. The implementation of serious gaming and gamification as remotely instructional options could be among the measures to protect educational communities through reducing close-proximity, and eventually, control contamination and the spread of viruses.Originality/valueThe application of serious gaming and game elements should not be conceptualised as universal but context-specific. This study shows that particularism is essential to optimise the results in terms of coming up with a specific design based on the scope of evaluation for positive results and develop an intervention that will work, especially in the resource-poor context of the developing world.

A systematic literature review on developing students’ statistical literacy skills

Statistical literacy is crucial for preparing students to become part of a modern society that is continuously bombarded with arguments that are derived from data-based decisions. In this regard, the teaching of statistics is a fundamental aspect of the mathematics curriculum at any educational level. Therefore, this study presents a systematic literature review of 36 articles that examine statistical literacy skills among students. Specifically, this study focused on identifying teaching methods that influence the development of statistical literacy among students. It was found that four dominant factors influence the development of statistical literacy among students: the learning environment, students’ attitude, teaching method, and students’ basic knowledge. Some studies have focused on students’ demographic factors, including their age, gender, and grade level; however, there are no conclusive findings on their role in influencing the development of statistical literacy. The study also revealed the three most common teaching methods in statistical literacy studies were teacher-centered teaching methods, student-centered teaching methods, and materials-based teaching. Out of these methods, materials-based teaching was the most commonly used to develop statistical literacy among students. Based on the findings, implications for teaching and learning statistics were discussed.