Teacher Centred approach or student-

centred approach which is the most

appropriate according to the current
times?

Silvana Llancapán Vidal

July,22 of 2020
 Numerous theories of learning have emerged throughout history that have attempted to analyze
and understand the processes of human cognitive development and have served as theoretical
foundations for various teaching approaches. These have evolved to better fit what the student
needs to learn best, taking a much more participatory role in their own learning. It is common to
see in classrooms how students are thinking beings who express their opinion and ask for it to be
taken into account, concerning what they want to learn. It is evident that the society in which we
live has experienced important social and economic changes that have made it inevitable to reform
the educational system to be more adjusted to the problematics of this modern age to evolve into
the education that is required concerning the people that are formed today. Thus, the present time
implies changes in teaching approaches regarding the role of the teacher, the methods used to
teach, and the students' motivation that each of the methods brings with it.
Traditionally the role of the teacher in the classroom has been presented as an entity that is an
authority figure who has absolute control and knowledge, therefore, this is transmitted to the
students. Regarding these thoughts, Mascolo (2009) mentions “Because knowledge is viewed as
being transmitted cumulatively from the teacher to the student, there is no need to take into
consideration the knowledge structures of the individual student, they simply receive the material
transmitted by the teacher”(p.4). Thus, students were not vivid participators of their learning
process due to their status as passive recipients of knowledge, there was no need to take into
consideration the knowledge and the ideas they got to contribute in their own education. This point
of view is clearly related to the traditional method. In contrast to teacher-centred approach, the
student-centred approach provides a learning environment in which they build their skills and
understanding. The teacher's role is no longer to be an absolute controller of the class explaining
and directing each activity, but to prepare and organize the work of the pupils and help them to
carry it out in groups, in pairs, or individually. The teacher, therefore, will encourage positive
attitudes towards the second language, the cooperation of the learners with each other, and with
the teacher which will allow the students to engage in the learning process (Hamdi,2018). The
teacher works as a facilitator selecting the appropriate content to the students’ needs, taking into
consideration their demands, what they want to learn, and how they want to learn it. Bearing in
mind all these aspects, the teacher complements this information with the knowledge that he as a
professional has, to promote and facilitate the learning of the students.
As it is mentioned in the previous paragraph, the learner is considerably more involved in its
learning process when they are under the student-centred approach which means students usually
learn inductively. According to Thornbury (1999), the inclusion of the students in the class as active
participants provides a motivating and comfortable environment for them. Inductive methodologies
enhance the student to adopt a leading role, to decide for himself what he will have to learn and in
what way. Students with successful experience in the comfortable traditional methodology often

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resist a change in which their teacher no longer explains everything to them. Learning to overcome
this resistance to change is one of the skills that must be learned by the teacher who wants to
change from traditional methodology to the introduction of inductive methodologies (Felder, 1995).
On the contrary deductive methodologies are appropriate for transmitting large amounts of
information and quickly covering extensive topics. However, these methodologies inspire very little
motivation for learning in most learners, in addition to producing low-quality, insignificant and short-
lived learning. It is said that deductive methodologies are ideal for learning many things
superficially and forgetting them quickly.
When the students live six or seven hours in the school with their teachers, the relationship
between them is primordial, it certainly affects how the students develop. All this depends on the
motivation that the teacher generates in his students. When we speak of motivation, we must
remember that two types of motivation are mostly used by each method. Extrinsic motivation as
Akhtar, Hussain, Afzal, and Gilani (2019) noted in Walker’s words (2016) “is the one encouraged
by external rewards or a tangible result” (Akhtar et al., 2019, pp.1203). It is simple to associate this
type of motivation with a relatively traditional form of teaching where the main driver is external
benefits. While the second motivation in Walker’s words as well is defined as “the motivation that
comes from the inside, where the pleasure or achievement in the task is the real reward, without
the promise of a tangible reward” (Akhtar et al., 2019, pp.1203). Thus, the key to the development
of the second type of motivation is the interaction that the teacher has with the students, which is
why it is more accurate to say that student-centred learning can better motivate the student since
they are active participants. In students-centred approach, the teacher seeks to elicit information
through questions that are interested enough to motivate students in the development of their
learning process rather than external prizes promised by the teacher or institution (Pedersen and
Liu, 2003). Usually, when the teacher dominates the class without significant moments of
interactions between him and the students, the class becomes boring. Learners are highly
motivated when they can interact actively in their learning.
Teachers are responsible for encouraging an appropriate learning environment by taking into
account the students’ decisions in their learning process. The teacher’s role in the classroom today
is primarily to promote learning in students. To this end, teachers must be trained in several, yet
useful, techniques and skills that enable them to make decisions by the heterogeneous reality of
the classroom: the different levels of language knowledge, the different rhythms of learning, the
different levels of motivation, and the different expectations of the students. The student has come
to play a remarkably active role in the teaching-learning process. Therefore, the teducator is no
longer the only responsible actor in the educational process, but there has to be a decision-making
process in it. It is in no way simple for a teacher to assimilate all these changes, since the
traditional model is deeply rooted in his or her professional work and teaches as it was taught,
repeating the same schemes from generation to generation.

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References

Akhtar, S., Hussain, M., Afzal, M. and Gilani, S. (2019). The Impact of teacher-student
interaction on student motivation and achievement. European Academic Research,
3(2),1201-1222.

Felder, R. (1995) “We Never Said It Would Be Easy.” Chem. Engr. Education, 29(1), 32-
33.

Mascolo, M. (2009). Beyond Student-Centered and Teacher-Centered Pedagogy:

Teaching and Learning as Guided Participation. Pedagogy and the Human Sciences, 1(1),
3-27.

Pedersen, S. and Liu, N. (2003). Teachers’ Beliefs about Issues in the Implementation of
a Student-Centered Learning Environment, ETR&D, 51(2).

Serin, H. (2018). A Comparison of Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered Approaches

in Educational Settings. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies,
5(1), 164-167.

Thornbury, S. (1999) How to Teach Grammar. Harlow: Longman.