Hello and welcome to the podcast today.
We are talking about the Learner-centered paradigm and a significance in modern education.
So with Learner-centered paradigm, it's a big shift from the way things have been going
in traditional classrooms for a quite a long time now.
Learner-centered paradigm is focused on the students rather than the teacher.
So it's a move away from the traditional model of a classroom where the teacher is the
focus of the classroom and the teacher speaks, the teacher teaches while the students
listen and the students are supposed to absorb everything, take notes and learn as the
teacher teaches.
This is a big shift away from that.
So with the Learner-centered paradigm, the learners have autonomy.
The students are able to make choices and decisions on their own.
There's more exploration.
They can take ownership of their education and hopefully become lifelong learners.
There's active engagement.
So rather than the teacher standing up front talking and lecturing and just spewing information
to students who are supposed to be listening and taking it all in, there's more student
discussion.
We're seeing that there's some good results from that.
The students are able to do some problem solving on their own.
It promotes critical thinking and it's actually increasing retention and the research on it
is really good.
There's been some different studies and some research and we'll talk about those a little
bit in a few minutes.
There's also a personalization for the students.
It can take care of individual student needs and meet those needs and take into account
the different backgrounds that students have and the learning paces.
It's really good for differentiated learning because rather than a one-size-fits-all type
of learning, it can meet students where they are.
One thing that's really neat about it is how it's inquiry-based learning for students.
They get to explore and feed their natural curiosity but they're not just left to their
own device, they're still guided by a capable train teacher.
You've heard anything about the learner-centered paradigm.
You may have heard that instead of sage on the stage, it's a guide by your side.
The teacher is there still to teach you but more as a guide as you learn a little bit
more on your own, you're a little more self-guided than you would be in a traditional classroom.
As I said, research is showing that it does improve academic success, Stanford, how to
report out that they did some research and the school of education there talked about
how effective it can be at retention for students.
Right now in a traditional classroom, if you're in your average public classroom in United
States, they are still mostly teacher-centered and there's been a little bit of a shift
toward learner-centered but it's a slow shift.
It takes a while for the pendulum to swing that way.
There's a teacher given projects and assignments and there is some time to complete them on
their own but there's a timeline for finishing them and they're given time to work on projects
but not much autonomy.
We do see students working in groups often but it's still basically doing what the teacher
has taught you to do, what the teacher is asking you to do and there's not much student
choice and not much student agency.
So a typical day in an elementary school classroom, the bell rings and students come in, they
unpack everything, they might turn in some homework in the morning, make their lunch choice,
teacher takes attendance and then students usually get started on some form of morning
work for younger students that might be some focus play time, they might have some morning
bins for older students in the elementary classroom that could be some daily activities,
there might be some daily math problems or a daily journal, maybe some independent work,
maybe some ELA and a lot of times if they're able to finish that morning work on their
own and there's still some time left while the teacher is getting everything together
in the morning as far as attendance and lunches and getting everything in order then there
might be time for them to work on some unfinished work or maybe read a book and then after that
a lot of classes will move on to maybe some math in the upper grades like fourth, fifth and
sixth grade levels might switch classes within the grade level to more appropriately teach
students at their own level for math and sometimes for other subjects as well but usually
just switching between classes within the same grade level and then they'll come back to
their own class after that and most likely have recess after recess they might do language
arts or social studies something like that before lunchtime and there's usually some group
work in there somewhere and again if you finish then you're working on unfinished work or
reading a book or sometimes drawing depending on which grade it is and then it's lunchtime
so go eat your lunch go play on the playground for a little bit and then you come back in
from lunch and just a little bit of time left maybe an hour, hour and a half and a lot of
times in the afternoon teachers will plan science or history maybe some art and then generally
get ready to go home and maybe after school they might have to have some extra curricular
activities and then there's probably some pullouts during the week or some time out of the classroom
maybe for library or PE music band thrown into the schedule one or two times a week so they're
occasionally interrupted with things like that maybe once or twice a year there's a field trip but
the basic skeleton looks about the same it just varies a little bit by grade level but most
of the time when you walk into a classroom the desks will face where the teacher is sitting or
standing and there's usually either a whiteboard or a TV screen or something where the teacher can
project what they're working on but they typically look about the same you know there's some variation
in the different classrooms and depending what part of the country you're in and how advanced
your school district is there might be different technologies in different classrooms and
the upper grades tend to work on their own a little bit more than the younger grades but
basically most of the students in the class are doing the same thing give or take a little bit here
and there for some differentiation but not much autonomy so what would it look like if we were to
give students some more options maybe some choice boards so they could pick which way they learn
different subjects what if we let them discover how they learn because people do learn differently
I tend to be more visual I need to see how things are done some students need to have hands-on
experiences before they can learn something so what if we were to do that let them discover how they
learn less time doing the traditional work that you would think of for a classroom in the United
States and and actually around most of the world too but what if there was less time more doing
that work and more time discovering as I said how they learn what they like to do to help them learn
more time to be creative a lot of times there's a little bit of time to be creative but even that
can be very structured and very focused I study a little bit some about some different ways education
takes place around the world and there are a few countries and they tend to be at the top of
top of the list for performance that spend more time outside of the classroom more time to let
the kids discover what they like to do more time to be kids and be curious and do some hands-on learning
and some exploring or even inside the classroom having more hands-on experiences with
writing and helping others let them discover what their talents are and what they have
affinities for the Stanford I mentioned the Stanford Graduate School of Education and I was recently
looking at their website and there's a quote here from from that website article I was reading
schools that incorporate these key features of student center practice are more likely to develop
students that have transferable academic skills they feel a sense of purpose and connection to school
as well as graduate attend and persist in college at rates that exceed their district and state
averages and that's definitely positive we want kids to succeed and feel a sense of purpose
and connection to school and definitely want them to graduate and attend college and persist
in college and these are very good things I think we've seen in the last few years that some
workplaces have started to focus more on their culture still doing their jobs but
focus on the workplace culture and the results have been amazing there are some companies that
allow their employees I think it was Google that I was reading about that allows their employees
20% of their time at work to be focused on something for that they're interested in
personally as long as it somehow relates to the company and there have been some amazing
innovations with that there's an article on leadership IQ that says these companies embrace
innovation inclusivity and employee empowerment they create environments where employees feel inspired
and valued by fostering open communication and shared values they maintain positive workplace
cultures and that sounds great and so if we can take that same design and apply it to the classroom
and of course you still need someone in charge and in these workplaces you know such as google or
Yahoo I think also Zappos the I think Zappos is a shoe company same design same idea there's still
people in charge there's still a hierarchy for their employees but there's more autonomy and more
freedom for people to just feel as though they are part of that work environment that their voice is
heard so along those lines what if we were to give students more flexible assignments some choice
boards different ways to prove competency instead of just here's the information and this is how
you're going to prove that you understand it and this is how you're going to prove that you remember
it and then we grade you on it and that's it if we can give students some flexibility then they can
feel more autonomy and feel more as though they have a hand in their education
if we could give flexible if we could make classroom environments more flexible like some of
these workplaces are I was looking at some pictures of these different companies office buildings
online and there's different seating it's not just a floor is full of cubicles with
computers and you know desk chairs they're letting people sit in couches or at bigger tables with other
people or I even saw in them I think it was the Google website that they had some hammock chairs I
think Google is the one that is such a colorful very inviting workspace looks like a really fun
place to work and there's a real sense of community there so if we could transfer those ideas to the
classroom be really interesting to see how kids would be affected by that couple
years ago I've been a sub for quite a few years now and a couple years ago I walked into a first first
grade yeah first grade class and I was a little bit surprised when I walked in because it wasn't your
typical desks all in a line and facing the front and everybody had their friends pencil box on the
on the desks there were no desks actually there were several different tables around the room different
heights tables you could stand at tables you could sit at tables low to the ground so kids could
sit on the floor and then there were also different chairs all over the room there were bean bags and
the scoop chairs for kids there were pillows to sit on on the ground and at first I thought oh this
doesn't look very organized I wonder how this is going to go it looks like these first graders have
a little too much freedom in here and the as I said the first time I walked in there was a little bit
surprised and concerned but as I got to know the teacher and the culture that she created in the class
and as weeks went on and the the students understood her expectations and we're given some autonomy
and some freedom and flexibility it was pretty amazing to see the transformation in the kids and
they were just in first grade and I think at first I was worried oh man I wonder what the teacher who
gets them in second grade is going to think you know these kids are used to being able to wander the
classroom and they're not going to know how to sit down and she proved me wrong she had complete
control of that classroom but in a way that the kids loved and in a way that the kids really
responded to and and the teacher who got them in second grade was very impressed it went very well
and I think that was one of my first experiences at a more not just flexible seating but a more
learner-centered classroom and and it worked really well so shout out to Miss Melika Tone where
we are teaching now I wish you still were with us here in in Brea I would love to
try that in in my classroom once I have a classroom I'm so many classrooms I walk into and I
spend a lot of time even though I'm a teacher substitute I spend a lot of time as a pair of
professional substitute as well and you're trying to walk around the classroom and it's so crowded
with furniture and desks you can't even move around and it just feels a bit stuffy the desks are
facing the teacher or the board what if instead of that we if you're going to have desks maybe
make the desks face the center of the classroom maybe there's way you could I know it's hard to do
when you have so many kids in a classroom but somewhere where they'd be able to communicate with
each other more I do appreciate some of the teachers I've been in with recently
have the kids talk to each other quite a bit she said she'll give them something to think about
something to talk about and say okay turned your elbow partner and discuss it and then after a
couple minutes she'll bring the class back together and have some reports from around the room
about what they talked about and what their conclusions were so I was thinking about how to some
different ways to implement this well this is the you know as we're talking right now just about the
flexible actual organization of the classroom you know flexible seating so I thought maybe instead
of having everything in place the first day just have everything pushed to the sides of the classroom
and talk to the kids about how they want to set it up and talk to them about how can we make the most
of our space in the classroom how should we set up our classroom or you could have you could start
out with a basic setup and then as you establish some rules and expectations because you are still
the teacher in charge and you do still want to establish that hierarchy for a better word you
want to make sure that the kids understand that you are still in charge of the classroom and you
have some expectations but let them feel some freedom I watched a video from edutopia that had
a lot of different seating in the classroom and one of the things that I thought was so neat was
they had taken one of those bunk beds where it's a twin size bed on the top and then
underneath it's like a loft bed where underneath there's room for a desk or a small couch or something
like that and they had that in the classroom and it made a real neat reading area so I don't know if I
could get away with that in my classroom I'd have to talk to the principal obviously but that would
be I feel like that would be really fun for the kids I remember a couple years ago
we had a snoopy doghouse built for a play at the school and it wasn't needed after the play and
one of the teachers loved snoopy and had a lot of snoopy things in her classroom and so
and it was good-sized and so she took it into her classroom and made it a reading area for the kids
she was a first grade teacher and just something different like that the kids just loved it and it
was I think she used it more as a reward but you know something where you get kids excited about being
in the classroom and and things that they look forward to another thing that's great about
the learner-centered paradigm is the psychological safety the social emotional learning that
takes place we're still focusing on that there's a big push for that right now and
making the kids feel safe some different ways to do that is just to model the positive behavior
really an atmosphere of encouragement and there's something we used to actually do at my church
years ago that I've thought about translating to the classroom and they just had postcards available
just blank postcards available and you could grab a postcard and write a note to somebody and
stick it in the the I don't know offering bag or or box or whatever it was in it the church would
mail them out for you and I thought about doing that in the classroom and we could have
kids write encouragement cards to each other to their parents their families to kids in other classrooms
and then I would just collect them and and get them to where they needed to be and just get kids used
to being a positive force in each other's lives and and being encouraging to each other so
that sense of psychological safety I think the encouragement and the positive behavior being
modeled to them really contributes to that another thing I would want to make sure of is and I think
the learner centered paradigm would be a good way to do this is to instill some responsibility in them
but not just responsibility where it feels like a chore
but responsibility where there's also care and cooperation as part of it that they learn to
help each other and so not only I'm responsible for my area and my things and I'm not responsible
for yours and not quite that but responsible for themselves but also responsible to take care of
each other and help each other so if somebody's struggling to clean up their area maybe you could
step in and help them um I'd also like to along with the responsibility teach them about
conservation and I don't like to go too crazy with that um but I think the idea of trying to
conserve supplies and you know even just to have a recycling can a trash can in our classroom where
we made sure that we were recycling any bottles and cans and keeping our classroom clean taking care
of our own things and then just trying to be good stewards of what we have I think another aspect of
the change that I would like to see is community and accountability um I think it would be great
you know a lot of times we have our classroom rules already printed and on the wall and we just
read them to the kids we go over them and talk about them but I saw on one of the websites I was
looking at I think it might have been edutopia that they created a classroom contract together
so they came up with the the class rules and the classroom contract and then the teacher put
what they decided on on like a big piece of poster board excuse me and they all signed it
and so that shows them some responsibility too it's more like a contract that they're signing that
this is what we've agreed to and it's not just some rules that are being imposed on them but some
different routines and and things that they've come up with um and also establishing some routines
for discussions that we respect each other and um I think I've seen a teacher use a talking piece
where if you are holding the talking piece then you're the one that's allowed to be talking so
just that general sense of accountability and community and um care for each other um I think that
this really does align with uh the learner centered paradigm because the focus would be on the students
and their participation in their own education um I don't want the kids just sitting in hard chairs
for hours I would want them participating and moving around and uh just a different environment
that they're part of their own education instead of just sitting and listening to me talk is if I
have all the knowledge and they don't have anything to contribute that's that's not what I want my
classroom to be like I want them to feel a sense of agency as they're uh learning in the classroom um
when it comes to their education I want to help them create an appreciation and an ownership for their
education and to really see the relevance of what they learn I just have to laugh when I
trying to help my own kids with their math because some of it is just I have older kids now and some of
it is just not relevant I mean I don't think you need to take statistics unless you're gonna use it in
your uh profession and you know I I think that if kids are learning and they're seeing the relevance
of what they're learning I think that goes a long way to motivate them so um I think that
moving toward this learner-centered paradigm um helping kids to take ownership of their education
and be responsible for what they're learning and instead of just howling them to get their work done
having them help choose what they're learning so that they can really enjoy it and
um just feel like they're doing something that they want to be doing I don't want kids to
dread coming to school so definitely one of my goals is for my classroom to be inviting for students
I want it to feel like a place they want to be um kind of like their home away from home um honestly
I would love for kids who aren't in my class to walk by and wish they were um I would want kids to be
excited about hey maybe next year I get to be in Mrs Wagner's class and um just have it be a really
good experience and and of course ideally mine wouldn't be the only classroom like that but um
I want it to be an inviting place where students are joyful in learning and uh feel like they have a
part in their education and it's not just something that's being imposed on them and they're doing
assignments that they don't really understand the purpose of so um I would just love to instill a
joy for lifelong learning in my students um I do realize it's probably not going to be the easiest thing
to um make a reality I think one of the first steps would be to meet with the principal and the
grade level team to explain and share my vision and uh you know hopefully they would be open to that
and who knows maybe the other teachers would be willing to try it as well and um if not if I was the
only one that was going to be changing to this more of this model and I think it does need to be a um
a transition not just overnight I think uh we might need to
spend a year or two to make the shift um a year maybe a couple of years span to give everybody a chance
to buy in and and also to not overwhelm myself but um let's see I was saying if uh if not if the other
grade level teachers don't want to um kind of follow the same design for their classroom then
I definitely would want to make sure I discuss how it will impact their classrooms um especially
and their teaching styles especially if we are switching for any of the subjects like maps I know
quite often and especially in uh fourth, fifth and sixth grade the teachers of the same grade level
will get together and and um figure out the different levels for the students and um
do some rotations for the different math levels so I would want to make sure that
it's not a difficult impact on their classrooms um I don't want to be a rebel and just do my own
thing so I want to make sure that this plan would work with our school culture so I know I would
definitely need to discuss it with the principal and at least the other grade level team um
and then if there's buy-in for that I know I would need to um create a list of
classroom supplies and needs because if I'm gonna have flexible seating um ideally I would
prefer some I'd really like to have a lot of open space in the middle of the classroom and
some different uh maybe pillows to sit on on the floor or I just want kids to feel like they're
comfortable instead of just sitting at a desk all day not too comfortable because you still have to
learn but um just some different seating options and so maybe some different heights of tables and
maybe some uh like the the lap desks and um the there's these I don't even know what to call them it's
like uh almost like a tray that the kids can use while they're sitting on the floor um so I know that
there would be a financial need um and and the having a shift over a couple years might help that as
well where you're not buying all the furniture one year um so yeah as far as resources
well first of all the first resource would be permission from the principal and buy in from
um the other grade level teachers and then definitely some finances for the
non-traditional furniture and supplies um the first couple years might cost the most but
you know if you could stretch that out or um over a couple years or who know get donations
do you a go fund me something to help cover those costs um
I think the stakeholders that I would have to involve would be obviously the principal
and possibly somebody from the district but I know at least in in our district the
principles are given some freedom as far as as something like this would go but the the
principal and the other grade level teachers and families would be um who I would need to
involve because the families at least in our district are fairly willing to help if you have
an idea like this and if they if they have some buy in then they're pretty good at stepping in to help
it was really fun seeing some of the examples um that I found online of the different
classrooms that have already tried this I didn't realize that we have so many schools around
the country that are already participating in this so that was really neat to see some of those
examples and if you just google uh non-traditional classroom or learner centered paradigm examples then
you'll be able to see I think I have some links in in my references to you'll see some different examples
I really want students to remember their time in my class as positive I want them to look back and
and think of it as a good thing um when I look back on my education I think my first
favorite most positive experience had to be third grade and my teacher's name was my half-worth
she actually just passed away last year um it was just the best classroom um you know back in when
I was in school I'm gonna date myself here in the early 80s out that makes me sound old um it was
definitely not normal for a for an elementary school teacher to let you call her by her first name
but that's what my did and I don't know she made us feel like family and it was just a such a great
experience in her classroom she was so kind and loving and encouraging um and then I had some
teachers like that in a handful of them um I remember one in junior high and and one in high school too
that really did especially in high school I think my mouth teacher really did um let me kind of
tailor the learning experience to what I needed and that was way back before anyone probably
ever even heard the term differentiated instruction but math was my best subject and so
mr. crisp would let me do the work on my own while he was teaching and then I would be done with my
class work and homework before most of the other kids were even starting on their class work and he
let me read a book or do homework for another class or hurry on dating myself again listen to my
walkman but I appreciated that he trusted me and I can say I did not let him down I did the work
I got good grades in that class and and I appreciate that about him so I I would love for students to
look back on my class the way I remember my and mr. crisp and a handful of other teachers that they
enjoyed learning felt heard felt ready to move on in their education after being in my class
and to be able to hear from parents um positive feedback about maybe a change they saw in their
child's outlook on school and learning and and also from administration to give positive feedback
and to have administration be excited about moving forward with the the strategies that I've tried
and I think the way to see if it is successful is well I was thinking about parent and student surveys first
so that would probably be I don't know if that would seem if that would give me a good idea if it
was successful but I would at least get a good idea of whether they liked it or not and then
if I'm if the students are achieving the standards that would be probably the most important thing
and if they're ready to move on to the next grade level um I think that's how I could measure that
so I think you know after the first I would say even after the first six months or so I could
see if it was working and and adjust wherever I needed to um there might be some
opposition from people in the same school maybe from the districts um speculation
maybe even from families because it's not the traditional method of teaching that they're used to
and then it would be a bit of a financial burden the first couple years if the district didn't have
a budget for me to do to get different furniture like that but um I can't see too many obstacles
to trying this out um I'm excited about it I I really hope that I'll be able to try something like
this and I think that even though there's been a slow shift um that this isn't what most people
are used to in the United States um there has started to be a shift in um towards the Learner Center
paradigm and I think we're headed in that direction and I think it'll really make an impact on
the student's educational experience and improve their outlook and their performance and
um I think if I can help people to catch the vision and uh just get some buy-in from people and
have some people trust me that it it's a good idea I think that can help make it a reality and
um especially if you know looking at some of the examples that I've seen from from other people so
um I will put the um the links in my show notes for you and um I hope you've enjoyed listening to
what a Learner-centered paradigm might look like in the classroom and I really hope I get to try
this out so thank you for listening and we'll talk again soon.