Teacher vs Student Centred ESL Classrooms (Module 5 Output)

What I've come to realize as an ESL teacher and a post-graduate student is that our teaching practices don't always match up with our educational philosophies. The purpose of this article is to help other teachers become more aware of their educational philosophies so they can better align their teaching practices to these philosophies.

In this article, I will first outline the general differences between the teacher and student centred ESL classroom. In part two of the article "Error Correction", I will focus on one particular area of ESL that I have found to be quite teacher centred: error correction. My intention is not to say that teacher centred classrooms are wrong or bad. I know that the terms "passive students", "lecturer", and "teacher-centred" have almost become curse words in the ESL industry (and maybe in other educational settings too). However, with the shift from teacher centred to more student centred classrooms, I have noticed that our practices don't always align with these shifts. Many of us are relying on traditional, teacher-centred practices when we hold strong modern, student-centred beliefs about education. Thus, my suggestions to make teacher-centred approaches more student-centred is simply to help those who hold more modern beliefs about education to better align their practices with their beliefs.

Let's start with a visual comparison of the two:

Teacher (or Subject) Centred Classroom

Student Centred Classroom

Self-Reflection

Role:

1. When your students ask you about a new word or grammar point, do you quickly give them the answer? Or do you guide them to the answer by showing them resources or asking their peers to help?

2. When presenting new grammar and vocabulary, how often do you present it in a clear and organized way before beginning any activities? How often do you ask the students to discover the meaning themselves?

Planning and Curriculum Design:

1. Do you often turn to the textbook to design lesson plans and find extra resources? Or do you ask the students beforehand what they want or need to learn/practice?

2. Are your students able to give suggestions and feedback on your lessons? How do you get this feedback?

3. When given suggestions and feedback, how likely are you to use this to inform your future lesson plans?

Instruction:

1. Do your students often sit facing you, quietly taking notes? Or do they work in groups to identify rules or meaning for themselves?

2. How often do you change the structure of your lesson when you are in the classroom? Can students change the direction of the lesson or do they need to follow the structure you've outlined?

3. Can students ask questions before, during, and after instruction (to a reasonable extent)? Or do they need to save questions for the end of class?

Evaluation:

1. Do you create evaluations based on the objectives of the course/textbook? Or do you create evaluations based on what the students' goals, needs, and interests?

2. How active are the students in the evaluation process?

3. Are students given feedback solely from you as the teacher? Or do they have to evaluate themselves and each other on a regular basis?