I.

UNIT 3 : ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF LEARNER-

CENTERED CLASSROOMS
II. LESSON 2: Learner-Centered Classroom: Roles and Responsibilities
A. Of Teachers
B. Of Learners

III. DURATION: 3 hours

IV. INTRODUCTION :
The best way to help students understand why the classroom has to change
from teacher-centered to learner-centered practice is to enhance their
academic success. As mentioned in the previous lesson, the classroom's
physical condition and the students that the students interact with constitute
their immediate environment in a learner-centered classroom. The
environment is defined as the total of one’s surroundings. These surroundings
affect students’ learning and motivation to learn. The immediate person that
surrounds the learner in his physical learner-centered classroom is the
teacher. The interaction of the teacher and learner produces the classroom
climate for learning. Teachers prepare students for their careers by teaching
them the learning skills, behaviors, attitudes, and critical thinking strategies
which are all part of the learner-centered teaching in the classroom.

V. OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

1. Discuss and compare the role of teachers and students in a learner-
centered classroom.
2. Identify the new skills that are a must learn by students in a learner-
centered classroom.
3. Evaluate how teachers can help students undergoing change, meeting
expectations of a learner-centered classroom.

VI. LESSON PROPER :

Activity 1 -
Think of a teacher that is most unforgettable to you in elementary or
high school. Are there things that when you encounter at present (see,
hear, touch, smell) make you “go back to the past” and recall this
teacher? What are these things?

Analysis:
1. What makes this teacher unforgettable to you?
2. Describe the encounter in the classroom with your unforgettable teacher in
the past.
3. What kind of rewards or punishment did your teacher impose in the class?
For what student behaviors were the rewards and punishments for?
4. Were the rewards or punishments given effective?
5. What is the lesson learned with that encounter? Describe the connection that
these experiences brought you relative to your learning process.
(adapted from Lucas, M. and Corpuz, B., 2014 p.259).

A. Role and Responsibilities of A Teacher in a Learner-centered

Classroom
 The teacher's role has been changing dramatically during the past few
decades, reflecting a more student-centered classroom. Role shifted from a
viewpoint that emphasized “how teachers teach” to one that now focuses on
“how students learn.”
This change in perspective does not mean the teacher’s role is diminished;
actually, quite the opposite is true. Teachers have never been more essential
to ensuring student outcomes.

The role and responsibilities of a teacher in a learner-centered classroom are the

following:
1. Building the student-centered classroom. The very first and most important
role is building the learner-centered classroom. In every classroom, the most
successful learning occurs when teachers are facilitators or activators of
learning. Instead of giving formulaic sets of worksheets, tasks, or practice
problems, teachers must design active, engaging learning experiences that
build on student strengths and interests. Students are empowered to think
more complexly during these learning experiences while creating and
engaging with content through real-life problem solving and perseverance.

2. Creating a safe environment. The foundation for any learning must be built in
the context of a safe, nurturing classroom with positive, open communication.
Learning is most meaningful and engaging when the classroom climate is one
of welcoming errors and disconfirmation as a natural and positive part of
developing and exercising new skills. Teachers care deeply about their
students, work, and goals. Their actions and efforts reflect the school
community's values, the classroom, and the education profession. By creating
a mutually respectful classroom that embraces a diversity of thoughts and
ideas, students can articulate their thinking judgment-free even if those
thoughts may differ from others’ opinions and ideas.

3. Communicating learning goals. Because of this instructional and professional

shift, teachers must communicate the teacher-student relationship.
Establishing and sharing clear procedures with students early will set the
structure for positive interactions and aspirations later.

From the start of the school year or when students first enroll in a class, clarify
what they expect from being in that class. This challenges conventional
methods. Instead of the teacher telling the students what to expect, this
approach begins the process of co-creating learning goals. It proactively
addresses any anxieties or misconceptions that students may have about the
teacher, class, or content in general. The most successful teacher-student
relationships are ones built on safety, trust, and respect. Those foundations
are established only when students fully understand and share their teacher’s
vision for learning success.

4. Providing Structure for feedback. Another important aspect of building learner-

centered classrooms is for teachers to provide a structure and establish a
frequency for communication and feedback with students and parents. In the
past, teachers would communicate through grades, report cards, phone calls,
 or parent meetings at specific points throughout the year. In the learner-
centered classroom, teachers provide continuous feedback to students daily,
which instead provides more specific, meaningful, and productive feedback
that leads to higher growth over time.

Fisher and Frey (2011) explain that feedback must be timely, understandable,
and actionable. It’s crucial that teachers give timely feedback throughout the
problem-solving process, both in small groups and in individual conversations,
not just on a concluding assessment. This communication ensures students
have time to react to and implement the feedback through revisions. The
specific or understandable nature of feedback ensures that students know
exactly what parts of their reasoning need revision or what parts of their
solution path contain inaccuracies. Actionable feedback ensures students can
take an objective view of a teacher or student feedback and immediately
make changes.

5. Get students involved in their performance evaluation. In a traditional

classroom, performance evaluation and learning assessment are reduced to a
series of numbers, percentages, and letter grades presented periodically on
report cards, through activities and standardized testing. These measures say
little about what a student is learning and provide little in the way of useful
feedback to the student to improve their performance and achieve mastery.
The student-centered learning environment is based on a form of narrative
feedback that encourages students to continue learning until they
demonstrate they've achieved mastery of a subject. This form of learning,
feedback, and evaluation encourage students to resubmit assignments and
work on projects until mastery is achieved.

6. Emphasizing responsibility. Responsibility is a fundamental principle in the

classroom. Responsible behaviors include showing how they arrived at the
solution, showing work, recording their reflections, and being open about their
creative processes. Teachers must communicate to students that
expectations of responsibility are non-negotiable by setting expectations early,
making requirements clear, telling students how they will be evaluated and
given feedback, sharing rubrics at the beginning of projects, and asking
students to set goals. This clarity encourages students to take an ownership
stake in their learning while teachers create the best learning conditions.
Suppose a student produces work that doesn’t meet expectations as
measured by a rubric. In that case, it’s the teacher's responsibility and the
student to determine why it doesn’t meet expectations and develop a plan for
the student to revise work in order to meet or exceed expectations.

Part of ensuring responsibility is making sure that students feel valued in the
class. Accountability isn’t compliance or a rule, but a mutually agreed upon
operating principle based on the ultimate goal of having students succeed to
learn at the highest levels.
 7. Allow students to share in decision making. Creating a student-centered
classroom requires collaboration. It requires placing students at the center of
their learning environment by allowing them to decide why, what, and how
their learning experience will take shape. Before students are willing to invest
the mental, emotional, and physical effort real learning requires, they need to
know why their learning is relevant to their lives, wants, and needs. Explaining
to students that they need to study a subject "because it's required for they're
grade level," or "they need to know it to get into college" does not establish
why in terms of relevance from students' perspective. Such explanations
result in a lackluster performance, low motivation, and poor learning.

8. Give students the opportunity to lead. Providing students the opportunity to

show in the classroom is a great way to develop a student-centered learning
environment that fosters engagement, growth, and empowers students to take
ownership of the learning experience. Each day, consider allowing a few
students to each take charge of individual activity, even if the activity requires
content skills beyond the students' level. Then rote students between
leadership roles so each student gets the opportunity to lead an activity. You
may even consider introducing the leadership role or activity they'll lead to
each student the day before so they'll have time to prepare and take
ownership of their activity.

Creating a student-centered classroom doesn’t mean teachers advocate chaos or

de-emphasize high expectations. It does mean to provide a fun, positive, and safe
learning environment to help students think, learn, collaborate, and create in a new
and previously unimagined way.

B. Role and Responsibilities of a Learner in a leaner-centered classroom

The student's role in a student-centered learning classroom is literally at the center of

the learning process. The student is an active participant in virtually everything that
happens in the classroom. Students will help make decisions about certain things,
such as how a lesson will be delivered or even what is taught. They will have as
much freedom as possible, given the other contextual factors that the teacher needs
to consider. They will take responsibility for what is learned and be accountable for
the results of the learning process. Students will aid each other while working to
achieve established learning goals.

The following are role and responsibilities of a student in a learner-centered

classroom:

• creating products that are meaningful to them

• confidently amplifying their voices, each in their own unique and genuine
style
• thinking with complexity and applying knowledge and skills to new situations
• using tools to communicate in compelling ways
• reflecting on their learning and experiences through discovery
 • should take ownership of the learning process, determine, or guide the
selection of content matter used to teach skills and concepts.

What is taught and learned in a student-centered classroom becomes a function of

students' interests and involves students' input and teacher-student collaboration.
For example, when learning about Philippine history, students might decide a class
play. Each student acts the role of a key historical figure and would prefer writing a
regular report or bibliography. In this example, all students benefit from the decisions
of other students.

The how in a student-centered learning environment is just as important as the why

and the what. Students process information, understand, and learn in different ways.
Offering students the option of how they'll learn will allow each student to adopt the
method of learning that will be most comfortable and effective for them. It also allows
the student to feel more invested in the learning process. Teachers should consider
offering students various performance-based learning options that meet academic
requirements.

VII. ABSTRACTION:

Learner-centered classroom emphasized on the shift in teacher-student

responsibility. Success of the transition from teacher-centered to learner-centered
depends on the facilitator's effectiveness as someone who can ensure students are
cognizant of what is expected of them and with sufficient capacity to accept
ownership of their learning. In essence, the dynamics of this new learning classroom
environment is derived from the interaction between teachers and students and the
extent to which each is willing to relinquish traditional roles. As higher education
moves into a new phase, the position of learner-centered teaching and learning
merits high approval reviews and claims that it helps students developed
competencies and skills, made them equipped in making meaningful contribution to
society and the economy. The employment of a range of constructivism, active
teaching strategies, blended learning, experiential learning, and virtual learning
environments, effectively reinforced the student-centered orientation of courses and
served to consolidate higher-level cognitive competencies promoted elsewhere
(Moulding 2010)

VIII. REFLECTION/LEARNING INSIGHTS

The quality of teacher-student relationship is the key to all other

aspects of classroom management and teacher effectiveness (Robert
Marzano, 2020).

Give the students 15 minutes to discuss among themselves rules and

policies they would like to impose inside the class. Ask them to write their
suggestions on the whiteboard. You'll be surprised how many rules
students will come up with. As the teacher fills up the whiteboard with their
ideas and suggestions, soon, it will be found out that some common
 themes start to appear. Which means that students want to be heard,
seen, valued, and respected.

POST TEST

Essay (25 Points: 5 items x 5 points)

Answer the following items on the space provided or on a separate sheet if needed.

Rubric Scoring

Criteria Performance Indicator Points

Content Provided pieces of evidence, supporting 3
details and factual scenario
Ability to Expressed the points in clear and logical 2
express Ideas arrangement of ideal
Total 5

1. Why building the student-centered classroom is the most important role of a

teacher? Explain
2. On the viewpoint of the focus shifted from “how teachers teach” to “how
student learn”, does teacher role in the classroom diminished? Explain
3. Learner-centered classroom requires placing students at the center of their
own learning environment. How can this be possible?
4. Compare the role of the teachers in a learner-centered classroom from
traditional classroom. How are they differ?
5. How can teacher-students relationships in the learner-centered classroom be
described and established?

IX. REFERENCES

Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2011). The formative assessment action plan:
Practical steps to more successful teaching and learning. Alexandria,
Virginia USA: ASCD

Lang-Raad, Nathan (2018) Why is the teacher's role so important in

creating a student-centered classroom? Retrieved from
https://www.wevideo.com/blog/for-schools/why-is-the-teachers-role-so-
important-in-creating-a-student-centered-classroom

Loveless, Becton (2020) Developing Studet-centered Classroom retrieved

from studentcorner.com/developing-a-student-centered-classroom.html

Moulding, N.T. 2010. Intelligent design: student perceptions of teaching and

learning in large social work classes. Higher Education Research and
Development 29, no. 2: 151-65.