Effective Science teaching at the secondary level demands a shift from a teacher-centered approach to a student-centered approach.
The statement 'a teacher's skill is lost in the students lack thereof' comes to mind. Let's look at some of the characteristics of the different approaches.
Teacher Centered Approach:
1-Knowledge is transmitted from professor to students
2-Students passively receive information
2-Students passively receive information
3-Professor’s role is to be primary information giver and primary evaluator.
4-Emphasis is on right answers
5-Only students are viewed as learners.
Learner/Student-Centered Approach:
1-Students construct knowledge through gathering and synthesizing information and integrating it with the general skills of inquiry, communication, critical thinking etc.
2-Students are actively involved.
3-Professor’s role is to coach and facilitate. Professor and students evaluate learning together.
4-Emphasis is on generating better questions and learning from errors.
5- Professor and students learn together
Students tend not to learn if their learning needs are not met. If the lesson does not appeal to the student then most likely that student will not be paying any attention. That student would probably just be able to recall information but cannot solve basic problems for themselves. A student centered approach is needed because the more a student's input is involved in discovering the answers to a solutions, the better that student becomes at problem solving. Student centered approach allows students and teachers to come up with more than one solution to solve a problem. Students and teachers can both discover how solutions can be interrelated. In a teacher centered approach, there is a set method of doing things and that method is however the teacher taught the students to work. Student centered approach gives a more hands on way to learning and students and teachers can get a better look at how different topics relate to life.
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