managing the learner centered-classroom

Managing the Learner-
Centered Classroom
Carlo Magno, PhD.
crlmgn@yahoo.com

The K to 12 Basic Education
Curriculum is enhanced.
Learner-
Centered
Decongested
Seamless
Respon-
sive
Enriched
Focuses on the
optimum development
of the Filipino
Flexible to
local needs
Continuum following an
expanding spiral
progression model
Integrative, Inquiry-
based, Constructivist,
Technology-enhanced
Allows for
mastery of
competencies

The Learner-Centered Classroom:
Critical Features

Features of Learner-centeredness
• Acknowledge and attend to
students' uniqueness by taking
into account and accommodating
practices to students' states of
mind, learning rates,
developmental stages, abilities,
talents, sense of self, and
academic and non-academic
needs.

• Know that learning is a
constructive process and thus try
to ensure that what students are
asked to learn is relevant and
meaningful, and also try to
provide learning experiences in
which students are actively
engaged in creating their own
knowledge and connecting it to
what they already know and
have experience.

• Create a positive climate by
taking the time to talk with
their students on a personal
basis, getting to know them
well, creating a comfortable
and stimulating environment
for them, and providing them
with support, appreciation,
acknowledgment, and
respect.

• Come from an assumption
that all their students, at
their core, want to learn
and want to do well, and
have an intrinsic interest
in mastering their world
and relate to each
student's core rather than
trying to "fix" or
ameliorate a deficiency.

Glasser (1994), outlines six conditions
that must be in place in the classroom
for the students to do "quality school
work." These conditions could be
considered learner-centered.

Conditions of Learner-centered
Schools
1. There must be a warm, supportive classroom
environment. In this environment teachers allow
students to get to know them and, it is to be hoped,
liked them. Glasser points out that we work harder
for someone we know and like.
2. Students are asked to do only useful work. And
teachers must explain the usefulness of what they
are asking students to do. Information is taught if it
is directly related to a life skill, students express a
desire to learn it, teachers believe it is especially
useful, or it is required for college.

Schools
3. Students are always asked to do the best
they can do. The conditions of quality work
include students' knowing the teacher and
appreciating that he or she has provided a
caring place to work, believing the work
assigned is always useful, being willing to put
a great deal of effort into their work, and
knowing how to evaluate and improve upon
their work.

Schools
4. Students are asked to evaluate their own work.
As self-evaluation is a prerequisite to quality
work, all students should be taught to evaluate
their own work, to improve it based on that
evaluation, and to repeat this process until
quality has been achieved.
5. Quality work always feels good. Students feel
good when they produce quality work and so do
parents and teachers as they observe this
process. Glasser believes that it is this feeling
good that is the incentive to pursue quality.

A key researcher of
resiliency, Bonnie Benard
(berliner & Benard,
1995), outlines resiliency
traits that we believe
need to be fostered in
schools:

Fostering Learner-Centeredness
• Social competence
• the ability to establish
an sustain positive,
caring relationships, to
maintain a sense of
humor, and to
communicate
compassion and
empathy.
• Resourcefulness
• the ability to critically,
creatively, and
reflectively make
decisions, to seek help
from others, and to
recognize alternative
ways to solve problems
and resolve conflict.

Fostering Learner-Centeredness
• Autonomy
• ability to act
independently and
exert some control over
one's environment, to
have a sense of one's
identity, and to detach
from others engaged in
risky or dysfunctional
behaviors.
• Sense of purpose
• ability to foresee a
bright future for one
self, to be optimistic,
and to aspire toward
educational and
personal achievement.

Metacognitive
and cognitive
factors
Motivational
and affective
factors
Developmental
and social
factors
Individual
differences
Domains

Metacognitive
and Cognitive
Factor

Principle 1:
Nature of the learning process
• The learning of complex subject matter
is most effective when it is an
intentional process of constructing
meaning from information and
experience.

Principle 2:
Goals of the Learning Process
• The successful learner, over time
and with support and instructional
guidance, can create meaningful,
coherent representations of
knowledge.

Principle 3:
Construction of knowledge
• The successful learner can
link new information with
existing knowledge in
meaningful ways.

Principle 4:
Strategic Thinking
• The successful learner can create and use
a repertoire of thinking and reasoning
strategies to achieve complex learning
goals.

Principle 5:
Thinking about Thinking
• Higher order strategies for selecting and
monitoring mental operations facilitate
creative and critical thinking.

Principle 6:
Context of Learning
• Learning is influenced by environmental
factors, including culture, technology, and
instructional practices.

Motivational
and Affective
Factor

Principle 7:
Motivational and Emotional
Influences on Learning
• What and how much is learned is influenced
by the learner's motivation. Motivation to
learn, in turn, is influenced by the individual's
emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals,
and habits of thinking.

Principle 8:
Intrinsic Motivation to Learn
• The learner's creativity, higher order thinking,
and natural curiosity all contribute to
motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is
stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and
difficulty relevant to personal interests, and
providing for personal choice of control.

Principle 9:
Effects of Motivation on
Effort
• Acquisition of complex knowledge and
skills requires extended learner effort
and guided practice.

Developmental and
Social Factor

Principle 10:
Developmental Influences on
Learning
• As individuals develop, there are different
opportunities and constraints for learning.
Learning is most effective when differential
development within and across physical,
intellectual, emotional, and social domains is
taken into account.

Principle 11:
Social Influences on Learning
• Learning is influenced
by social interactions,
interpersonal relations,
and communication
with others.

Principle 12:
Individual Differences on
Learning
• Learners have different strategies,
approaches, and capabilities for learning that
are a function of prior experience and
heredity.

Principle 13:
Learning and Diversity
• Learning is most effective when differences in
learners' linguistic, cultural, and social
backgrounds are taken into account.

Principle 14:
Standards and Assessments
• Setting appropriately high and challenging
standards and assessing the learner as well
as learning progress including diagnostic,
process, and outcome assessment are
integral parts of the learning process.

The Domains of Educational
Systems Change

Domains of Educational System
Change
Technical domain
• Concerned with specifying the content
standards, curriculum structures, instructional
approaches, and assessment strategies that
best promote learning and achievement of
all students.

Change
Personal Domain
• Concerned with supporting the personal.
Motivational, and interpersonal needs of
those who serve and/or are served by the
system (for example, teachers, administrators,
students, parents)

Change
Organizational Domain
• -Concerned with providing the organizational
and management structures and policies that
support the personal and technical domains
and, ultimately motivation, learning, and
achievement for all students.

The Personal Change Process
• To facilitate and bring about the kind of
changes we have been proposing, an
understanding of the personal change process
is important. Both teachers and students are
required to "change their minds," to modify
their current thinking about learning and
schools.

Stage 1: Increasing Awareness and Inspiration to
Change
• This stage of the personal change process shows
the person who needs to change is personally
relevant and possible, this stage inspires hope.
Stage 2: Observing Models and Building
Understanding
• This stage of the personal change process
involves looking at models and decreasing the
what and how, this stage builds understanding.

Stage 3: Adopting Strategies and Developing Ownership
• This stage of the process concerns tailoring strategies,
coaching, trying out, and revising; this stage develops
ownership.
Stage 4: Adopting and Maintaining New Attitudes and
Practices
• In Stage 4, the person working on personal change
adopts strategies for on going self-assessment,
networking, and support; this stage maintains and
sustains new attitudes and practices.

Principles of Change
• These principles of change are overarching
principles that facilitate change independently
of, but in interaction with contextual and
environmental factors.

1. Change begins with believing change is possible, with the
inspiring of hope.
2. Leadership qualities that contribute to the establishment of
empowering contexts for change include sharing power,
facilitating discussions and active communication, being
inclusive, and having effective conflict resolution and
negotiation skills.
3. Change occurs one person at a time and is, in essence, a
change in thinking such that people see themselves as
learners and have a willingness to share the ownership of
knowing.
4. Change is a lifelong process, similar to learning, that is
continuous and ongoing.

5. For change to be sustained, new attitudes,
perspectives and ways of thinking about
change must be internalized; trying to sustain
particular programs, practices, or policies
without corresponding changes in attitude
may impede change.
6. A respectful change process is invitational,
not mandated, it includes time for reflection
and practice.
7. The establishment of learning communities
can support change and enhance motivation
for change.

8. A focus on learners and learning can create a
common vision and common directions for
change.
9. Change strategies must attend to participants'
levels of will, skill and social support.
10. Change is facilitated by empowering contexts
in which individuals feel ownership, respect,
personal support, and trust.
11. Change involves that all learners have the
ability to make choices about their own
learning, and seeing students and parents as
customers of the system.

12.Effective change commitment to
making necessary resources,
including needed knowledge and
skill training available to all.
13.Change is viewed differently by
different cultures and groups.
14.The purposes and plans for change
must be understood and accepted
by all stakeholders.

Workshop
• A Learner-centered principle is assigned to each group.
• Come-up with examples of classroom practices
pertaining to the principle assigned to you.
• Example:
• Principle 2: Goals of the Learning Process
– The Objectives of the lesson is given to the students
– The outline of the activities are written on the board. The
teacher checks the part that are done.
– The teacher sets an expectation every time students
engage in a project.
– The teacher shows examples of good work that serves as a
model.

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