{"id":2300,"date":"2010-07-23t14:59:55","date_gmt":"2010-07-23t14:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2010-07-29t18:02:37","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29t18:02:37","slug":"the-perils-of-terminology-teacher-centered-and-student-centered-pedagogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2010\/07\/the-perils-of-terminology-teacher-centered-and-student-centered-pedagogy\/","title":{"rendered":"the perils of terminology: teacher-centered and student-centered pedagogy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>profhacker contributor billie hara wrote a post titled “learning-centered pedagogy<\/a>” last week that surfaces some of the dangers of educational jargon, particularly the terms teacher-centered pedagogy<\/em> and student-centered pedagogy<\/em>. those in higher education who advocate student-centered pedagogy are often perceived as bashing teacher-centered pedagogy, which causes problems when the term teacher-center pedagogy<\/em> isn’t well-defined. here’s billie hara’s definition:<\/p>\n “generally, teacher-centered pedagogy is, simply put, a system in which most of the meaningful course information comes from the instructor. this approach places a significant amount of responsibility on the instructor to provide the ‘right’ information, in the ‘right’ way, regardless of learning\/teaching styles.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n billie shares another definition, one from o’neill and mcmahon<\/a>. they describe teacher-centered pedagogies as ones that feature low levels of student choice, passive students, and power residing primarily with the teacher. in one of the comments on billie’s post, teacher-centered pedagogy is associated with the “sage on the stage” idea:<\/p>\n “the basic premise of the ‘sage’ is that she\/he loves the material and knows a lot about it, and some students find that passion compelling and contagious.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n does teacher-centered pedagogy imply a one-size-fits-all approach like billie argues? or one that emphasizes low levels of student empowerment? or one that revolves around experts lecturing on topics they know well? these are three different ways to define the term teacher-centered<\/em>, and the definition one uses will color how one perceives any attempts to deprecate teacher-centered instruction.<\/p>\n one’s definition of teacher-centered <\/em>also affects how one defines the term student-centered<\/em>. does student-centered teaching imply a responsiveness to the different backgrounds and perspectives students bring to the classroom? does it imply a classroom where the students are in control? does it mean the use of teaching methods other than lectures?<\/p>\n