FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE

HMEF5073_V2
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
SEPTEMBER 2018 SEMESTER

NAMA : OCTAVIUS GULING

NO. MATRIKULASI : CGS01375006
NO. KAD PENGNEALAN : 740825-12-5531
NO. TELEFON : 0138787972
E-MEL : octaviusguling@gmail.com
TUTOR : Dr. George Tamaki
Title: Student-Centered Learning (SCL) complemented Teacher-Centered Learning in
preparing for 21st century workforce.

Introduction
The Government of Malaysia through the Ministry of Education Malaysia seeks to elevate
world-class education as a discourse in the nation's education policy and put the educational
process an important field in everyday life, especially in schools that serve as an institution of
knowledge development. One of the agenda in the National Education Transformation Plan
(2015-2025) is to elevate the quality of the teacher. In connection with the government's desire
towards this world-class education, educators should make a paradigm shift towards the thoughts
and perceptions that will involve the preparation of the chosen teaching strategies in the
classroom.

A Forum report, The Future of Jobs, launched during the Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos, looked
at the employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future, listed demanded skills for 21st
workforce. Those skills are complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people
management, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence, decision making, service
orientation, negotiation, and cognitive felicity communication, collaboration, critical and
creativity skills to survive in global job market. Therefore, students-centered-learning can be one
of the crucial approaches in promoting these skills to students in preparing them to be effective
and productive workforce of the future.

The aim of this essay is to expose why student-centered-learning best meet demand of the 21st
century work force.

Overview of student- centred learning.

Student-centered learning is a long overdue trend in education. We may have heard this phrase a
few times if you’re active in the realm of education, or at your child’s school. The phrase is
quickly becoming elevated to buzzword status. But what does it really mean to have learning be
student-centered (SCL)?

SCL is a concept that can be traced back to the early twentieth century. It was first mentioned in
the writings of Frank Herbert Hayward in 1905 and was later credited to John Dewey’s work in
the 1950s (O’Sullivan, 2003; O’Neill & McMahon, 2005).

Student-centered learning is also associated with the constructivist theories of education

championed by Swiss clinical psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget observed that children cognitively
construct knowledge and meaning through new experiences and interactions, as opposed to rote
memorization. According to (Hesson, 2007), Student-centered learning is a broad teaching
approach that encompasses replacing lectures with active learning, integrating self-paced
learning programs and/or cooperative group situations, ultimately holding the student responsible
for his own advances in education.

Student-centered learning strategies shift the focus of activity from the teacher to the learners,
and are particularly relevant to tertiary and professional education, because they foster
motivation and incentive to learn. In acting as a facilitator guiding the students, rather than just
instructing them, the teacher is allowing the learners take an active part in deciding what they
learn, how they learn and how they can evaluate what they have learnt. Ideally, this means that
the learners have more responsibility and ownership of their learning, and are not simply passive
‘vessels’ receiving knowledge from the teacher (“How students learn: Student-centred learning,”
n.d.)

Even though there is no agreed upon definition or singular program for realizing student-
centered learning, the unifying theme is that in student centered learning the model shifts from
being adult-centered and standardized to student centric and individualized. Specifically, the
learning is personalized to the students’ unique needs, interests, and aspirations, and designed
with their ideas and voices at the table (Kaput, 2018).

In spite of the lack of definition, there is, a principle which has been agreed by all proponents
and researchers of the SCL approach. This is that SCL is based on the philosophy that the student
– otherwise referred to below as the learner – is at the heart of the learning process. This is a
notion which underlies all attempts at applying the SCL approach. Whilst this means that the
student is the focal point of the process, where as the role of the teacher remains paramount.

Why Students-Centred learning best met the demand of 21st century workforce.

Just as our economy and industries have changed, so too must our system of public education.
Education Evolving asserts that if we truly want to reform or “fix” our nation’s public education
system so all students can be successful and have their unique needs met, then we must change
the design of the system (Kaput, 2018). 21st century learners must possess both self‐direction and
an ability to collaborate with individuals, groups, and machines (McCoog, 2008).

Rephrasing the 2016 Annual Report of job of the future, 21st century job market demand skills of
complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with
others, emotional intelligence, decision making, service orientation, negotiation, and cognitive
felicity communication, collaboration, critical and creativity skills.

Promote critical thinking

As mention earlier that one of the aspect demanded by 21st century work force is they are able to
think critically in solving complex problem. School should be able to prepare students and
groom students on critical thinking before they entered the job market. Studented-centered
learning can be an approach to educating students in promoting critical thinking. A study done
Elaine Sayre in 2013 to explore the effectiveness of integrating student-centered methods in high
school social studies classrooms as a means of promoting critical thinking skills. All students
were given the same pretest and posttests. Students were divided into three groups:one was
taught using student-centered methods, one was taught using teacher-centered methods, and one
was the control group and was not directly taught by anyone. Based on analyzing
students’ posttest scores compared to their pre-test scores, student-centred learning produced a
higher average score increase (Sayre, 2013). This study was also supported recent study where
constructivist teaching strategy enhanced critical thinking (Stanley, 2017).

Emotional intelligence

Changes in the work market lead to a need for a change in methods of training in order to adapt
to the current dynamics. Emotional intelligence is not just a concept, but an
important element in the educational process (Radu, 2014).

In student-centered classroom management approaches, the teacher gets to know his/her

students, share their ideas. Student-centered classrooms and their management approaches allow
teachers and students to see one another as people. Students take on responsibilities and have
responsible freedom and choice within the classroom. Teachers establish caring interpersonal
relationships with students. The climate is warm and productive in a person-centered classroom
where students feel safe to express their ideas/opinions and make mistakes. Teachers help
students to develop socially, emotionally, and academically, using responsible consequences
with the goal of self-discipline. Person-centered teachers share leadership and teachers and
students determine shared norms and begin to establish trust in the classroom (Freiberg and
Lamb, 2009). These teachers take their students’ points of view into consideration, avoid unkind and sarcastic
disciplinary attitudes, encourage cooperation among the students, and are aware of their students’ emotional needs
(Reyes, Bracket, Rivers, White, Salovey, 2012). There is a positive and significant relationship between
student-centered learning and emotional intelligence (Tok, Tok, & Dolapcioglu, 2013).

Promotes social skills

What makes students-centered learning approach different from other traditional forms is that
students are interdependent on each other through the learning process, have to participate in
group discussions, solving problems, making decisions, ensuring the assignment is complete, and
each is individually held accountable (Copeland, 2005). Student-centered learning is through
cooperative learning is an effective method to teach a diverse class because it incorporates
heterogeneous grouping, and fosters communication, interdependence, and other social skills
(Schmidt, 2007). Since students must work with a diverse population to achieve a common good,
they learn to collaborate with their classmates; skills that will carry out of the classroom into the
global world (Evertson & Neal, 2006). This supportive environment stimulates students to
become more involved and responsible for their social skill and learning processes.

Teacher-centred Approach vs. Students-centred Learning Approach

There are a number of factors to consider before deciding which approach is the best to use in
teaching (Ernesto, 2005; Diane, 2013). First, one has to consider which of the two is more
advantageous to both the teacher and the learner who is the main beneficiary from the learning.
To start with, the student-centred teaching approach has advantages such as shared leadership
where the students take the role of presenting their assignments, writing, tests and they also
facilitate their groups (Walters, 2011). The students share responsibilities in the class. This may
entail other responsibilities other than studies although they also help one another in the studies
too.

The students are actively involved since they work in groups to arrive at the desired principles
or results. They take part in communication hence developing their communicative skills as they
learn from their own mistakes. Another advantage is that both the teacher and the students learn
together. The students in the course of discussion engage their teachers and this way, the two
parties learn from each other. The teachers also get to learn from the students and the activities
they carry out.

In this approach, there is the aspect of collaborating, supporting, and co-operating with one
another where all the students get challenged as well as supported at their own level in learning,
an aspect that is very essential even in the society outside the classroom environment. The
students are self motivated and enjoy the learning since it is an activity they are actively engaged
in and they choose the topics they are comfortable to take without any strain or possibility of
failure since they take what they can best understand.
According to Weimer (2013), this approach is based on multidisciplinary system where the
students do not only major on one topic and are therefore able to acquire more knowledge in
taking these studies. This way, the system supports inclusion of all kinds of students even those
with disabilities. Students assess themselves and can also get assessed by their instructors for
group-work, product, and process. This helps them realize their weaknesses and know where to
put more effort in the studies.

Just like the student-centred teaching approach, the teacher-centred approach also has the
positive side of it (Jeanne, 2009; Doyle, 2008). One is that the class is usually orderly and quiet
since the teacher is usually in full control of the class and the activities taking place in the class.
This is because the teachers understand the strengths and weaknesses of their students better.
Students learn independently without having to rely on their classmates, a property that helps
them to think critically and are able to make their own decisions.

In this approach, the students will rarely miss an important topic since it is the teacher who plans
what topics to teach and may be in a better position to know which topics are most essential for
the students. They receive expert knowledge since the teachers are trained on whatever field they
choose and therefore have well based knowledge to deliver to the students.

After going through the advantages and disadvantages of the teacher-centred and the student-
centred teaching approaches, it is clear that the student-centred teaching approach is more
advantageous than the teacher-centred approach. The students tend to have an easier time taking
their studies in the student –centred teaching system especially because they have the freedom to
be their own leaders and learn from their mistakes.

Suggestion
From the above discussion, these two teaching approaches are essential in any school curriculum
since each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For a very effective system of learning,
these two approaches should be used together to achieve the best result.

Conclusion
Selected literature is extremely relevant to the essay.

Able to identify and discuss issues by providing excellent opinions and suggestions.

Excellent presentation of Author’s voice.)

Conclusion
O’Sullivan, M. (2003). The reconceptualisation of learner-centered approaches: A Nambian
case study.
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, 24(6), 585-602.

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Felder, R. M. & Brent, R. (1996). Navigating the bumpy road to student-centered instruction.
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Biggs, J. B. (1990). Teaching: Design for Learning. in B. Ross (ed). Teaching for Effective
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