Teacher-centered Practices Research Articles

Undergraduate Learning Assistants’ Understanding and Practices of Equity

Undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) are near-peer instructors that facilitate learning by engaging in student-centered, active pedagogies, and often engage in more direct contact with students than faculty. Despite their important role in STEM classes, little is known about how ULAs understand and practice equity. Instructors’ understanding of ‘equity’ directly impacts their teaching practices. Instructors with ‘equality’ based conceptions of equity that prioritize fairness and treating each student the same are more likely to adopt didactic, instructor-centered teaching practices that have been shown to less effective than other approaches, with disproportionate impacts on students from minoritized backgrounds. Further, in making sense of racial disparities in their classes or disciplines, STEM faculty often draw on color-evasive narratives that explain racial phenomena without explicitly naming race or racism as a cause of oppression and these beliefs are associated with a reduced ability to notice racist events in the classroom and with the adoption of harmful equality-based approached to teaching and mentoring. STEM faculty are not alone in drawing on color-evasive narratives. Undergraduates also hold these beliefs, and those that do are less likely to recognize microaggressions or to find them problematic. Thus, we ask (a) How do STEM ULAs at a Mid-Western primarily white institution conceptualize equity in their role as educators? (b) How do ULAs conceptions of equity influence their self-reported teaching practices? We hypothesized that a majority of LAs will draw on color-evasive ideologies, and those that do will be less likely to notice racist events in classes, more likely to perpetuate inaccurate descriptions of their classes as neutral and objective and more likely to endorse teacher-centered practices. Drawing on frameworks of color-evasive racism, Haynes’ White Racial Consciousness and Faculty Behavior model and the four approaches to equity proposed by NASEM, we qualitatively coded the data from surveys and interviews to assess LAs’ understanding and practices of equity. We find that LAs engage with color-evasive in several ways: They explain racist classroom events without naming race or racism, ascribe to equality-based understandings and practices of equity or inclusion-based understandings and practices that focus on individuals’ characteristics and needs while ignoring historical, sociopolitical and systemic causes of inequities. By delving deeply into how STEM ULAs perceive and implement equity, our work informs future interventions and training programs to enhance equitable teaching practices in STEM education. This work is supported by a Creating Inclusive Excellent Grant from Michigan State University. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Implementing Learner-Centered Teaching Strategies in Family Science

Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT), as opposed to teacher-centered practices, actively engages students in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss the importance of adopting LCT strategies in family science courses to improve student learning outcomes. Family science is particularly apt for LCT because of the interpersonal focus of the discipline. To help fill an important gap in the literature, seven LCT strategies are articulated within the specific context of family science. We highlight the following seven approaches: small group activities, questioning, think-pair-share discussions, gaming, in-class writing, low-stakes quizzes, and flipped classroom design. In addition to describing the approaches, we discuss class size, adapting the techniques for online courses, and working with students who require accommodations. Finally, we share evaluation data from students that speaks to four of the seven LCT strategies. Our hope is that this paper will offer ready-made ideas that family science instructors may adopt. To conclude, we discuss implications, challenges in implementing LCT, and areas of future research.

Teachers’ Experiences of Online/Distance Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mainstream Classrooms with Vulnerable Students in Cyprus

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school lockdowns in many countries forced teachers to deliver lessons online to ensure that students continued their studies. This shift, which caused major challenges for school systems worldwide, significantly affected the Cypriot education system, which is highly centralised and in which teacher-centred practices are widely used. In many countries, teachers and students were unfamiliar with the new teaching and evaluation methods, and learners in the most marginalised groups were deemed to be at risk of falling behind. For these reasons, an online survey was undertaken in Cyprus from March to September 2020 as part of an international online survey initiated by a university in the Northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. The survey examined teachers’ perspectives on the new online pedagogical practices; the challenges they faced; and the impact of these practices on the learning progress of all students, including two vulnerable groups, i.e., individuals with learning disabilities and immigrant students aged 6–18 years. Key findings suggest that the teachers were unprepared to design inclusive student-centred digital activities and deliver online lessons and that distance teaching may have negatively affected students’ learning experiences, especially in the vulnerable groups.

ENHANCING BUSINESS STUDENTS’ EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AWARENESS

Employability skills have become vital in helping recent graduates distinguish themselves in the competitive job market, transcending disciplinary boundaries. Dissatisfaction with graduates' communication abilities has been a long-standing concern in academia and the workplace. The shift from traditional lecture-based instruction to active learning has prompted changes in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and technical communication courses globally. These changes encompass well-developed professional communication skills, collaborative work practices, effective self-management, and social responsibility. This study addresses the imperative of understanding and addressing the skill prerequisites of the corporate sphere, as employers increasingly seek competencies beyond academic qualifications. The study employs a student-centered approach, allowing students to align these skills with real-world job requirements. The Experiential Learning Theory by Kolb serves as the theoretical foundation for this approach. The results indicate that this teaching method, emphasizing learning by doing, received positive feedback from students. It not only provided insight into the skills required by the labor market but also improved students' awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, students found that this approach prepared them for their future careers. In conclusion, this research emphasizes the importance of equipping students with employability skills through authentic, context-based learning. The findings underscore the need for a shift from teacher-centered practices to more student-centered, collaborative learning environments that foster student autonomy and responsibility. The research closes with limitations and suggestions for further research.

Toward Distributive Classroom Management: Cogenerative Dialogue and Cooperative Inquiry

The strict classroom control philosophy often adopted within public schools can have counterproductive effects on students, especially African Diaspora and Latinx students. Public schools should ideally provide quality instruction for all students. Unfortunately, teacher-centered practices reinforce stereotypes that African Diaspora and Latinx students are unruly and need institutionally imposed discipline and management, thereby undermining the mission of equitable educational achievement. Students, especially diverse urban students, would benefit from a shift in classroom management from strict control and discipline to student-centered inclusion and cooperative inquiry. We recommend distributive classroom management and examine the practice in the context of its enactment by stakeholders in one social studies classroom in the East New York Alternative Learning Center. Under this model, students demonstrated distributed classroom management actions that fostered improved classroom behaviors and expressions of group solidarity. Students maintained a fertile learning environment by proposing a distributive management practice during the research period. Additionally, students enacted the same approach in the classroom. The study’s findings suggest that teachers and students can integrate standard classroom management rules with transformative stakeholder-directed practices to benefit all participants.

Future campus connection: By design or by default

Now more than ever, tertiary educators should be able to answer the question, ‘why are we teaching on campus?’ Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we, as a group of education design staff in the central learning and teaching unit at Massey University, started questioning the notion of campus as the default space for learning. In doing so, we discovered opportunities to: better support students’ diverse needs and life loads; operationalise transition pedagogies; and harness the specific learning experiences only a campus can provide, while embracing the affordances of modern technology to enhance learning. As our unit is well placed to surface these possibilities and advocate for change, the notion of intentional campus connection is a key theme in various projects with which we engage. Collaborative project work focused on intentional design allows for the learner and the learning task to be put at the centre of the experience. Why are campus attendance decisions made? What knowledge, skills, or values are students expected to experience or demonstrate during these campus sessions? Only when we ask exactly what teachers require students to demonstrate and/or experience can we then determine the space that best accommodates the learner and the task. In some cases, existing research on learning spaces can guide us – for example, self?paced (asynchronous) online learning is a flexible and effective way for students to engage with new core knowledge (Mullen, 2020; Ng, 2015; Petronzi & Petronzi, 2020; Reidsema et al., 2017) – and in others, we can often be guided by ethical considerations. We have observed two responses when the topic of selecting learning spaces is raised in projects. The first, most common, is the decision is made based on traditions and teacher-centered practices that have, in some contexts, a questionable role in contemporary learning environments, especially for mature, distance cohorts. These campus decisions often occur by default, when teaching teams work independently from educational design teams. The second response involves a design decision led by a need for students to engage in or evidence learning on campus as it cannot (easily) be achieved any other way. For example, they may need to access special facilities or resources (e.g., gain confidence and evidence readiness in a simulation lab before work-integrated-learning experiences), or participate in an occasion that cannot be replicated online (e.g., get the opportunity to find a project sponsor at a business networking event). Our collaboration with teaching teams is often the catalyst for robust discussions that, when successful, lead to campus connections that reflect modern, learner-centered, intentional approaches to learning design. Through examples of programme and course level design changes, this poster will explore the phased approaches, systemic and cultural challenges that authentic blended design surfaces, and the future opportunities that our work has uncovered on the path to encouraging intentional connections to campus.

The Effects of Studies in the Field of Science on Scientific Process Skills: A Meta-Analysis Study

In this research, a meta-analysis study was conducted to determine the effect of student and teacher-centered practices in science lessons on students' scientific process skills. To this end, the literature related to the studies conducted in Turkey and abroad was searched. For this purpose, articles, master's, and doctoral theses published between 1999-2020 in national and international databases were scanned. As a result of the literature review, it was deemed appropriate to include a total of 100 studies in the meta-analysis. In the meta-analysis study, subgroup analysis was performed in the fields of science, publication year, education levels, sample size, application period and publication types. As a result of the meta-analysis, it was determined that student-centered practices had a positive effect on students' SPS in science lessons compared to teacher-centered ones. It was also found out that 93 of the 100 studies included in the study had a positive effect size and 7 had a negative effect size value. Of the positive studies, 6 were at the level of weak effect, 23 at the level of small effect, 21 at the level of medium effect, and 43 at the level of large effect. In light of the findings obtained, student-centered practices in science education appear to have a stronger effect on developing students' scientific process skills than teacher-centered practices.

Understanding children's funds of identity as learners through multimodal self-expressions in Mexico City

This qualitative study examined the multimodal self-expressions of 39 students in grades 4th–6th attending public schools in Mexico City. Students' shared perspectives of their learning environments and of themselves as learners throughout their teachers' participation in a program designed to shift traditional teacher-centered practices toward co-constructions of learning spaces that are conducive to dialogue, reflection, and socio-emotional awareness through art and narratives. Drawing from a multimodal social semiotics and funds of identity theoretical framework, we analyzed students' responses to three prompts that elicited their perspectives regarding their own learning and their learning environments. Prompts were completed at three different points in time during one school year. Findings include: (1) changes in classroom configurations illustrating teacher-student relationships, (2) the emergence of additional materials and resources for learning, (3) variation in the learning approaches preferred by students, and (4) expanded purposes and motivations for learning. This study illustrates how student-centered pedagogies and teacher-mediated learning processes can mobilize students' funds of identity for learning by co-constructing knowledge and connecting to students' experiences through dialogue and art.

Exploring the Factors that Influence How (And Why) Community College Instructors Teach Communication and Teamwork Skills in Computer Technology Courses

ABSTRACT In the field of network administration and programming, mastery of technical skills as well as non-technical or soft skills, such as teamwork, problem-solving, self-regulated learning, and communication, are increasingly emphasized both in practice and research. While little research exists concerning the instructional practices of such skills within community colleges, even less is known about community college instructors’ conceptions of these crucial 21st century skills. This paper reports a qualitative, exploratory study examining how community college instructors defined and taught communication and teamwork competencies in their computer technology classrooms. The data was collected from multiple data sources – instructor interviews, observations of classroom teaching, and student focus group discussions about their learning. Main findings include the influence of instructor backgrounds on their teaching practices, the situational nature of how instructors defined and conceptualized communication and teamwork skills, and the prominent use of teacher-centered practices in the teaching of communication and teamwork skills. We conclude that while faculty participants in this study considered teamwork and communication skills to be important, their classroom teaching was insufficiently student-centered to truly cultivate these skills. Thus, we argue that more training, resources, and support structures are needed for community college instructors in order to better cultivate the communication and teamwork skills of their students. This paper adds empirical evidence to the national conversations on the critical issues of skills, student employment, and pedagogy, and also utilizes a triangulating approach to better document faculty teaching practices.

The Evaluation of Teachers’ in-Class Practices and Opinions for Developing Analytical Thinking Skill of Primary School Students in the Course of Science

In this study, classroom teachers’ in-classroom practices and opinions for development of analytical thinking skill of primary school students in the course of science are evaluated. Firstly one-to-one interviews with a third and a fourth grade teachers were conducted and then observations are made in the same classrooms through same units which were related to electricity. The third-grade teacher stated during the interviews performed prior to the observation that the science course should be taught by doing, experiments and observations; and brainstorming, method-techniques of question-answer should be used to develop the analytical thinking skill of students. However, it was determined that the teacher used predominantly teacher-centred practices throughout the unit. The results of research revealed that the third-grade teacher was aware of this situation but did not reflect this during his in-class practices. The fourth-grade teacher stated during the interview that s/he taught by paying attention to learning by doing, video and visual materials for developing the analytical thinking skill. Accordingly, s/he mainly used in-class applications with teacher-student interaction throughout the unit. In this manner, when comparing the practices of this class to the third-class ones, they are expected to contribute more to the development of analytical thinking skill of students.

Investigating Teacher Talk Moves in Lessons on Basic Genetics Concepts in a Teacher Education Classroom

Recent reforms in science education highlight the need for student-centred approaches to teaching in school curriculum policy in South Africa. Science teachers are required to move away from traditional teacher-centred practices which regard students as mere passive recipients of knowledge. In this study, we examine classroom talk for the type of student participation encouraging moves employed in lessons on basic genetics concepts and the related quality of instructional strategies employed by a university lecturer during a semester course on genetics. A key feature of the course was the lecturer's use of students’ prior knowledge including alternative conceptions from a diagnostic assessment to facilitate the learning of pertinent genetics terminologies. Through a qualitative approach, we combine two recently published frameworks—the Analysing Teacher Moves (ATM) and the Elaboration frameworks—to analyse teacher talk from transcribed videoed lectures and explore the likely influence on student participation. The findings reveal two dominant student participation stimulating talk-related instructional strategies that seemed to elicit diverse and deeper responses from the students. These include higher-order initiating and rejoinder moves, supplemented by other moves, through which the lecturer provided students with factual information, often in a manner that enabled knowledge synthesis. The intentional use of open-ended questions, explanations and representations and probing students for further contributions signal deliberate pedagogic intentions to promote student interaction while navigating observed language proficiency challenges. The combined analysis framework is recommended for use in future studies on instructional practices which aim to promote fruitful classroom interaction.

Monological practices, authoritative discourses and the missing “C” in digital classroom communities

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine teacher decisions surrounding opportunities for student voice, experiences and beliefs in digital classroom communities. The teachers’ decisions reflect monologic rather than dialogic teacher pedagogies which prompted the authors to ask the following question: What led to these teacher-centered practices in digital environments? Design/methodology/approach Authoritative discourses in school policies and a missing connection between critical pedagogies and teachers’ technology practices are examined in light of teachers’ decisions to engage in monologic and/or dialogic teaching practices. The authors propose professional development and research that emphasize pedagogy that supports student voice as foundational to practices involving digital literacies. Findings Examination of the teachers’ decisions showed monologic practices void of student opportunities to critically engage in digital environments. Dominant discourses imposed through protectionist and digital citizenship policies of schools as well as lack of opportunity through professional development to connect critical pedagogy to technology impacted the teachers’ decisions. Originality/value Current research surrounding teachers’ digital literacies uses the TPACK framework to examine technology integration practices. Missing is a critical component that addresses and works to dismantle the dominant discourses and power structures in digital communities (Author, 2018). The authors build on research in critical digital literacies to argue for adding the critical missing “C” into the TPACK framework (C-TPACK) to move researchers and educators to consider pedagogies that examine ideologies at work in digital communities to provide opportunities for student voice.

Dental Hygiene Clinical Instructors' Pedagogical Beliefs and Described Practices About Student-Centered Education.

The aims of this study were to understand dental hygiene clinical instructors' teaching and learning perspectives regarding their described pedagogical beliefs, perceived roles in facilitating learning, and factors that influenced those perspectives and to assess how their espoused beliefs matched their instructional practice in relation to student-centered competency-based education. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a theoretical framework to guide the qualitative study design and analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 dental hygiene clinical instructors at a Canadian university in 2014. Transcript data derived from the interviews were coded for thematic analysis. In the results, these dental hygiene clinical instructors reported a spectrum of pedagogical beliefs, with one end defined as student-centered and the other end teacher-centered. While the instructors tended to describe their teaching as student-centered, their responses in the simulated teaching scenarios of the interview were closer to teacher-centered practices. Interview-analysis results showed that the process by which the instructors developed their approaches to teaching was multifactorial. Factors included instructors' perceptions of their own learning experiences, experiences of inter-instructor collaboration, and methods of supporting students' self-efficacy in learning. Given the emergence of support for student-centered education ideology and the program's adoption of this ideology, this exploratory study suggests that uncovering the teaching and learning beliefs of instructors is crucial prior to designing faculty development programs.

Professional learning and development of two groups of pre-service teachers with different scientific knowledge bases and different teaching training in the course of their studies

This research study evaluated the professional development of two groups of pre-service biology teachers during a year-long biology didactics course in two different academic institutions. Verbal and qualitative analyses of lesson transcripts were employed to characterize explicit knowledge, while content and cluster analyses of the repertory grid technique were employed to characterize tacit knowledge. The group of pre-service teachers with lower content knowledge (CK) and more teaching experience during their training was concerned with student- and teacher-centered practices. The group with higher CK and less teaching experience was concerned with high-order thinking skills and the knowledge gap between themselves and their students. Therefore, we recommend: (1) engaging pre-service teachers with low CK in inquiry experiences, which may foster high-order thinking skills in their practice; (2) all pre-service teachers, regardless of their CK, should practice substantial teaching while studying, which may bridge the knowledge gap between themselves and their students.

Factors Shaping the Uptake of ICT in Science Classrooms. A Study of a Large-Scale Introduction of Interactive Whiteboards and Computers

This paper characterizes how science teachers use technology in secondary school lessons, with a special focus on Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs), laptops and Digital Textbooks (DTs). This study also analyses how previous professional development or training may influence the way in which teachers use technology in their subsequent practice, as well as some possible relations with their perceptions. A total of 94 teachers from 69 secondary schools in Catalonia (Spain) were surveyed. Responses were collected and analysed combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants’ answers reveal the predominance of the use of IWBs and teachers’ computers, with scarce variety of uses, mostly aimed at supporting teacher-centred practices. Students’ participation in the use of these devices was low, calling into question the possible educational changes in science education. Although most teachers’ training in the use of technology seems to have caused little impact on their subsequent practices, some less frequent training approaches, such as training based on real examples, seems more effective in terms of changing teachers’ utilization of technology.

Clinging to the Edge of Chaos: The Emergence of Practice in the First Year of Teaching

Background/ContextNew teachers must cope with various instructional, personal and organizational challenges, an experience that often leads to difficulties enacting innovative, student-centered instructional practices learned in their preservice programs and contributes to high rates of teacher attrition.PurposeDrawing on complexity theory, this review of empirical research takes an organizational or “systems” perspective on the experiences of first-year teachers as they transition from preservice education to the teaching profession. In so doing, we aim to shift away from constructions of the teacher as an autonomous actor and instead build a more complex, nuanced, and layered understanding of the multidimensional influences that work together to shape the practices of novice teachers.Research DesignWe conducted a metasynthesis of 46 studies that met the following criteria: (a) were focused on first-year teachers, (b) offered sufficient description of participants’ professional practices, (c) featured participants who attended a university-based preparation program, and (d) were conducted since 1990. We first recorded each study's methods, findings, and descriptions of first-year teacher practices. As a second level of analysis, we used a complexity lens to identify the systems comprising first-year teacher practices, noting how those systems and their component or elements interacted to shape first-year teaching.Findings/ResultsWe found that common patterns of interactions between and among systems of first-year teaching—including the teacher herself, the classroom, the school, and the larger district, state, and federal environments—tend to reinforce traditional, teacher-centered practices. Yet, in some studies, conditions surfaced that enabled participants’ to enact student-centered and equity-minded teaching practices learned in their preservice programs.Conclusions/RecommendationsAuthors suggest that taking a complex systems view of beginning teaching, rather than singularly focusing on the teacher's actions out of context, can reveal opportunities for fostering more supportive, enabling conditions for new teachers to enact innovative practices that many preservice programs promote and experience a smoother transition into teaching.

Understanding educational change: Agency-structure dynamics in a novel design and making environment

This study investigates agency-structure dynamics in students and teachers’ social activity in a novel design and making environment in the context of the Finnish school system, which has recently undergone major curricular reform. Understanding that agency is an important mediator of educational change, we ask the following questions: How are agency-structure dynamics manifested in the social activity of students and their teachers in a novel design and making environment? How do agency-structure dynamics create possibilities and obstacles for educational change? The data comprise 65 hours of video recordings and field notes of the social activity of students aged 9–12 years old (N = 94) and their teachers collected over a period of one semester. Our study shows how the introduction of the novel learning environment created a boundary space in which traditional teacher-centered activity patterns interacted and came into tension with student-centered modes of teaching and learning. Our study reveals three distinctive agency-structure dynamics that illuminate how the agentive actions of both teachers and students stabilized existing teacher-centered practices and, at other, times ruptured and broke away from existing patterns, thus giving rise to possibilities for educational change.

Modeling Chilean Mathematics Teachers’ Instructional Beliefs on Problem Solving Practices

This study was designed to examine predictors of instructional beliefs related to problem solving that influence mathematics in-service teachers’ practices in the Chilean context. A total of 713 in-service mathematics teachers from various elementary schools participated in the survey study during 2015 and 2016. Results showed that teachers’ traditional beliefs are directly associated with their teacher-centered practices, while there was an indirect relation among reformed beliefs and student-centered practices through teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their beliefs about the value of problem solving. This association among beliefs and practices suggests that educators and policy makers should be aware of, when designing a teacher professional development, the need to emphasize other variables such as teachers’ self-efficacy and value of the task.

Interaction patterns in synchronous Chinese tutorials

ABSTRACTSpeaking in Chinese is problematic for all learners, particularly for beginners and more so during online interaction. Despite the fact that interaction has been identified as crucial for the development of speaking skills, it can be hindered by students’ lack of language competence or their anxiety. Teacher-centred practices in tutorials can further limit the opportunity for learners to speak. In an attempt to identify the best ways of supporting online speaking practice, this research explores the interaction patterns between the learners and teachers of Chinese during online synchronous tutorials. Five recordings of Beginners’ online Chinese tutorials in small groups have been analysed using social network analysis. The fact that teaching content and tasks remain similar across all instances, allows the researchers to compare interaction patterns and to find the deciding factors in forming interaction patterns. All the following can play a role: language, skills level, task, and individual teacher style. The findings reveal common practices in the teaching of Chinese speaking skills; and can inform training for online language teachers, enhancing their ability to modify interaction patterns and scaffold students’ speaking online.

Teaching Methodologies in Spatial Planning for Integration of International Students

Nowadays, the spread of international exchanges is growing among university students, across European countries. In general, during their academic degrees, the high education students are looking for international experiences abroad. This goal has its justification not only in the reason of pursuing their studies, but also in the desire of knowing another city, a different culture, a diverse way of teaching, and at the same time having the opportunity of improving their skills speaking another language. Therefore, the scholars at the high level of educational systems have to rethink their traditional approaches in terms of teaching methodologies in order to be able to integrate these students, that every academic year are coming from abroad. Portugal is not an exception on this matter, neither the scientific domain of spatial planning. Actually, during the last years, the number of foreign students choosing to study in this country is rapidly increasing. Even though some years ago, most of the international students were originated from Portuguese speaking countries, comprising its former colonies such as Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde or Mozambique, recently the number of students from other countries is increasing, including from Syria. Characterized by a mild climate, a beautiful seashore and cities packed with historical and cultural interests, this country is a very attractive destination for international students. In this sense, this study explores the beliefs about teaching methodologies that scholars in spatial planning domain can use to guide their practice within Architecture degree, in order to promote de integration of international students. These methodologies are based on the notion that effective teaching is student-centred rather than teacher-centred, in order to achieve a knowledge-centred learning environment framework in terms of spatial planning skills. Thus, this article arises out of a spatial planning unit experience in the Master Degree in Architecture (MIA) course, at the University of Beira Interior (UBI) in Portugal, to understand more about teaching methodologies, in order to promote the integration of international students. The study explores the teamwork tasks and the hetero-evaluation as new approaches in the teaching methodologies focused on the student-centred teaching. This research main conclusion is the need of promoting a shift from lecture-based and teacher-centred practices to student-centred approach.