Teacher-Centered or Student-Centered Classroom

It can be undoubtedly said that there are several different pedagogical methods in

education. Teacher-centered and student-centered approaches to classrooms are examples of

these distinct teaching methods. Besides the teacher-centered approach also called the custodial

approach, the student-centered approach which is a humanistic approach has started to be

applied in many classrooms regardless of the field. While the custodial and humanistic

approaches both offer many unique features, there are some similarities that can be seen

between these two.

Despite the assumption that these two seem utterly different, it cannot be denied that

there are several similarities between student-centered and teacher-centered classrooms. The

first similarity between the humanistic and custodial approaches can be seen in their purposes.

Just as student-centered approach, creating an environment where maximum productivity and

efficiency is possible is the main purpose of the teacher-centered approach. Even if their

schemes and applications are dissimilar in many aspects, their main purpose is to provide the

maximum success of students and the highest utility of the lessons, which can be said to be the

same from both perspectives.

The second resemblance is associated with relationship-building. Both student-centered

and teacher-centered classrooms propose that a strong relationship between students and

teachers should be encouraged. In a humanistic approach, building close relationship with

students is crucial since students’ participation is needed in order to create a class atmosphere

where high interaction and communication arise. However, from a custodial perspective, a

close bond should be established between the students and the teachers so that the students do

not misbehave thanks to their emotional connection with their teachers.

 Although as it is stated before, the teacher-centered and student-centered classroom are

alike in terms of goals and building relationship, it can be apparently said that there are three

differences which makes them completely different.

There are three main differences between student-centered and teacher-centered

approaches. To begin with, when it comes to leadership and management, it is clear that these

two approaches have many dissimilarities. Whereas in the humanistic approach, leadership and

classroom tasks are shared among the students and the teacher, in the custodial approach, they

merely belong to the teacher. For instance, in classrooms where the teacher-centered approach

is accepted class rules are resolved by the teacher. In contrast, in humanistic classrooms, while

making class rules, the involvement of students is seen to be highly significant. Moreover,

classroom tasks such as taking attendance or shifting the calendar are the responsibilities of the

teacher in custodial classrooms. Nevertheless, in classrooms whose center is students, all tasks

are shared among the students just as leadership.

The second evident difference is rewarding for motivation. Teachers who are a

proponent of teacher-centered classrooms prefer external rewards such as compliments, free

time and sweets when students do something pleasing, which may greatly increase the

motivation of students, thereby this rewarding may encourage students to act properly later.

Nonetheless, in humanistic classrooms, rather than physical ones, psychological rewards which

are more related to emotions are preferred to appreciate the suitable behaviors and encourage

students to continue to behave properly. Moreover, in a student-centered approach, it is thought

that extrinsic rewards can lead to appropriate behavior in the name of physical rewards and

strong dependence on the teacher, which can be prevented by giving intrinsic rewards (Garret,

2018).

The final difference between these two approaches is the organization of the physical

environment. While in teacher-centered classrooms, the teacher should be in front of the

students as a major player, in student-centered classrooms, students should be more active both

individually and as a group. Therefore, U design whose focus is on the teacher is applied in

custodial classrooms so that all students can concentrate on what the teacher says without any

distraction. On the contrary, in the humanistic approach, the sitting design in small groups

where students can particularly communicate with each other is more likely to be applied. In

this way, instead of only listening to the lecture, interaction and collective works are

encouraged among the students as well as developing students’ relationships.

All in all, humanistic and custodial classrooms are similar to each other when it comes

to their goals and their views of point to the student-teacher relationship. However, the student-

centered approach and teacher-centered approach differ from each other in terms of many

aspects which are class management, rewarding and physical design of the classroom. Taking

the similarities and contrasts into account, one cannot be said to more effective than the other

unless all factors that can affect the class atmosphere are considered.

REFERENCES
Garrett, T. (2008). Student-centered and teacher-centered classroom management: A case

study of three elementary teachers. The Journal of Classroom Interaction.