Teacher-Centered Approach

 The teacher is perceived to be the only one reliable source of information.

 A teaching method where the teacher is in actively involved in teaching while the
learners are in a passive, receptive mode listening as the teacher teaches. In teacher-
centered education, students put all of their focus on the teacher. You talk, and the
students exclusively listen. During activities, students work alone, and collaboration is
discouraged.
Pros
 When education is teacher-centered, the classroom remains orderly. Students are
quiet, and you retain full control of the classroom and its activities.
 Because students learn on their own, they learn independence and make their own
decisions.
 Because you direct all classroom activities, you don’t have to worry that students
will miss an important topic.
Cons
 When students work alone, they don’t learn to collaborate with other students, and
their communication skills may suffer.
 Teacher-centered instruction can be boring for students. Their minds may wander,
and they may miss important facts.
 Teacher-centered instruction doesn’t allow students to express themselves, ask
questions, and direct their own learning.

Learner-Center Approach
 Is premised on the belief that the learner is also an important resource because he/she
too knows something and is therefore capable of sharing something.
 In a nutshell, a learner centered approach is one where the complete learning
experience is focused on the learners. For example, the courses need to be very user-
friendly, so that learners can navigate the course without any difficulty. They should
be able to easily access the content of their choice, and skip the sections they are not
interested in. When a classroom operates with student-centered instruction, students
and instructors share the focus. Instead of listening to the teacher exclusively, students
and teachers interact equally. Group work is encouraged, and students learn to
collaborate and communicate with one another.
Seven (7) Advantages of a Learner Centered Approach in Learning:
1. Improves participation.
The first step towards the success of any eLearning program is participation. A learner
centered approach addresses all the essential needs of learners, ensuring learners get a
personalized and convenient eLearning experience. For example, if a certain learner
group prefers games and exercises, the courses should be made more interactive.
Similarly, if learners are more likely to access the course content on tablets or
 mobiles, the courses should be designed to support this need. Due to the minute
attention paid to learner’s needs, learner centered courses ensure greater participation
in learning.

2. Improves retention of knowledge.

Given that a learner centered approach places high emphasis on relevance and
engagement, it greatly influences learners’ interest levels. The learner centered
approach shifts the focus from traditional eLearning, which emphasized only on
graphs and PowerPoint slides, to eLearning with more engaging and simulating
content. For example, if you are developing a course for engineers, the course should
have real life scenarios that are relevant to their day-to-day problems. Also, the course
will have certain elements, which will make them use the knowledge they may have
acquired previously. This way, learners will retain the knowledge better as opposed to
a plain eLearning course with a lot of theoretical knowledge.

3. Boosts performance at work.

A typical learner centered eLearning course will have a lot of scenarios, case studies,
role plays, etc. For example, if an organization is training its employees on quality
guidelines or industry best practices, a learner centered course with a lot of engaging
and interactive content will help learners grasp the content more effectively. This
way, learners are more likely to apply their learning at work, leading to improved on-
the-job performance.

4. Develops problem-solving skills.

A learner centered eLearning course has a lot of real life examples, including games,
quizzes, and challenges. For example, the course may have challenges and games
involving real life problems, which will force learners to think of solutions. This kind
of training develops problem-solving skills, which is useful when learners encounter
similar problems at work.

5. Fosters collaborative learning.

Learner centered courses provide the opportunity to foster collaborative learning. You
should design eLearning courses in such a way that learners have to involve their
peers/superiors in completing the course. Alternatively, the courses should have
certain group exercises, which makes learners come together to solve problems, and
thereby share learning. This approach not only encourages collaboration but also
fosters teamwork.

6. Makes learning more fun.

Use of games and stories in eLearning makes learning more fun. A learner centered
approach provides a lot of choices to learners. For example, if a particular course
involves research, learners should be given choices of topics for research. Likewise,
 learner centered eLearning courses use lots of different mediums, such as videos,
podcasts, practical assignments, etc. With these elements, learning is no longer
perceived as boring and monotonous.

7. Facilitates personalized learning.

All learners do not have the same learning needs. Some may just like to understand
the basics of a concept, while some may like to understand a course in detail. Also,
some learners may already have some knowledge about a topic, whereas some of
them will be entirely new to the concept. A traditional eLearning course will treat all
learners the same way, and may not respond to the needs of different types of
learners. Things are different with learner centered eLearning courses. In such
courses, developers may include supplementary material with messages like “Click
here to know more” or “Here’s a refresher course”. The additional material makes
learning more effective.

Pros
 Students learn important communicative and collaborative skills through group
work.
 Students learn to direct their own learning, ask questions, and complete tasks
independently.
 Students are more interested in learning activities when they can interact with one
another and participate actively.
Cons
 Because students are talking, classrooms may often be noisy or chaotic.
 Teachers may have to attempt to manage all students’ activities at once, which can
be difficult when students are working on different stages of the same project.
 Because the teacher doesn’t always deliver instruction to all students at once,
some students may miss important facts.
 Some students prefer to work alone, so group work can become problematic.

Subject Matter-Centered Approach

 Subject matter gains primacy over that of the learner.
 Curriculum refers to the set of outcomes students will gain through their education. In
layman’s terms, curriculum indicates the knowledge and skills schools want their
students to acquire. In modern education, many things influence how the curriculum
 is structured: the needs of individual students, the values of the society at large and
the content itself. This type of curriculum separates knowledge into various content
areas. Modern schools, particularly middle and high schools, tend to operate in this
fashion. Students take classes in English/language arts, math, science, social studies,
fine arts, career and technical education, and so forth.

Teacher-Dominated Approach
 In this approach, only the teacher’s voice is heard. He/she is the sole dispenser of
information.
 The teacher does most of the talking while the students remain as passive listeners
taking down notes. This is why it is sometimes referred to as didactic (to teach)
approach or talk-and-chalk. The need to cover a substantial number of topics in the
syllabus within a short period of time is often responsible for the use of this method.
Habitual use gradually reduces the possibility of the use of other methods apart from
the problem of poor understanding and consequently non-use of other methods. It can
be used to teach large and small class sizes. The teacher can ask few or no questions
during the classroom interaction. It is simply a verbal presentation of concepts and
ideas to the students without the use of instructional materials. Information retention
is low among the students and meaningful learning is not promote because students
are not actively involved in the learning process.

Constructivist Approach
 The students are expected to construct knowledge and meaning out of what they are
taught by connecting them to prior experience.
 Model for learning based on the belief that students construct their own knowledge
and understanding.
 Persons deepening their knowledge and understanding by participating in shared
discourse with others. Persons construct their knowledge through the transformation
of experiences, linking new knowledge with existing knowledge. The learning takes
place through the activity of the learner.

Banking Approach
 The teacher deposits knowledge into the “empty” minds of the students for them to
commit to memory.
  The term banking model of education was first used by Paulo Freire in his highly
influential book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire describes this form of education
as "fundamentally narrative (in) character" with the teacher as the subject (that is, the
active participant) and the students as passive objects. In the banking concept of
education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves
knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. ... The teacher
presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their
ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence.

Integrated Approach
 The teacher connects what he/she teaches to other lessons of the same subject
(intradisciplinary) or connects the lessons with other subjects thus making his/her
approach interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary.
 “An integrated approach allows learners to explore, gather, process, refine and present
information about topics they want to investigate without the constraints imposed by
traditional subject barriers” (Pigdon and Woolley, 1992). An integrated approach
allows students to engage in purposeful, relevant learning. Integrated learning
encourages students to see the interconnectedness and interrelationships between the
curriculum areas. Rather than focusing on learning in isolated curriculum areas, an
integrated program is based on skill development around a particular theme that is
relevant to the children in the class. Integral to the model of integrated learning is the
inquiry approach. Students are active learners who research, interpret, communicate,
and process learning to both others and themselves. Inquiry approaches allow for
students to construct meaning using their prior knowledge on a subject, and new
knowledge gained during the learning process.

Collaborative Approach
 This welcomes group work, teamwork, partnership and group discussion.
 Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students’ team
together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. A group of
students discussing a lecture or students from different schools working together over
the Internet on a shared assignment are both examples of collaborative learning.

Advantages of Collaborative Approach:

 Learners actively participate;
 Teachers become learners at times, and learners sometimes teach;
  Respect is given to every member;
 Projects and questions interest and challenge students;
 Diversity is celebrated, and all contributions are valued;
 Students learn skills for resolving conflicts when they arise;
 Members draw upon their past experience and knowledge;
 Goals are clearly identified and used as a guide;
 Research tools such as internet access are made available;
 Students are invested in their own learning.

Individualistic Approach
 It wants the individual students to work by themselves.
 Individualized learning, or individualized instruction, is a method of teaching in
which content, instructional technology, and pace of learning are based upon the
abilities and interest of each learner. Closely related to personalized learning, goals
based on curriculum design and standards may be the same for all students, but the
individual learning profile and plan for each student may vary. This is because each
learner progresses through the material at different speeds, according to his or her
own learning needs and abilities. For example, a student might take longer to progress
through a given topic, skip topics that cover information already known, or repeat
topics on which they need more help

Direct Teaching Approach (Expository Method)

 The teacher directly tells or demonstrates what is to be taught.
 Direct Instruction is a teacher-centered strategy in which the teachers are the major
information provider. Main Direct Instruction models are lecturing and expository
teaching. Lecturing is a method for communicating theories, ideas, and facts to
students is a way of teaching which is aimed at helping students acquire some basic
skills and “procedural knowledge.” It is straight forward and is done in “a step-by-
step manner.”

Indirect or Guided Approach (Exploratory Method)

 The teacher guides the learner to discover things for himself/herself. The teacher
facilitates the learning process by allowing the learner to be engaged in the learning
process with his/her guidance.
 Indirect instruction method is best used when the learning process is inquiry- based,
the result is discovery and the leaning context is a problem. This can come as:
1.) Inquiry Method / Discovery Method - We will never be able to help children learn
if we tell them everything they need to know. Rather, we must provide them with
opportunities to explore, inquire and discover new learnings. The Inquiry Approach,
sometimes termed “discovery” “heuristic” and “problem solving” is defined simply as
a teaching method is “modeled after the investigate processes of scientists.”
2) Problem-solving Method - is a teaching strategy that employs the scientific
method in searching for information.
3) Project Method