Sunday, September 13, 2009

Advantages and Disadvantages of Student Centered Learning

Advantages

Student-centered learning has advantages for both
students and teachers. Students develop learning and other
skills and gain meaningful knowledge that will help thern
throughout life. The relationship between rights and responsibilities
is learned. Students discover that learning is interesting
and fun. Several have written in their course evaluations
that they learned more because they were involved and
liad fun being involved.
Teachers have less traditional work to do. especially
in the upper level classes during the latter portion of the
academic terni. Students are more attentive and willing to
participate in the class. Complaints about irrelevance and
unfairness decrease. Reports and papers generated by students
increase a teacher's collection of useful information.
Teacher evaluations do not decline and usually improve
(Tables 1 and 2) especially in upper level courses and with
some SCL experience on the teacher's part. Teaching is interesting
and fun.
Disadvantages

One disadvantage is that there are students who do
not relate well to student-centered learning in spite of a
teacher's best efforts. This is most prevalent at the lower
levels but can occur in upper level classes. Judging from
course evaluations, this is about 15 percent of the lower level
and less than 5 percent of the upper level. However, because
there are many different teaching styles encountered at a
university. these students have the opportunity to learn in
alternate ways in many other classes.
Another disadvantage is that the students have to
work in teams. They complain about being on teams. but
most often the complaints are accompanied by acknowledgments
that they understand that they are preparing for the
'real world'. They appreciate real world experiences even when
they do not like them. Also students find it difficult to work in
teams because they have not been taught team skills. Most
teachers in agriculture and natural resources are not trained
to teach team skills. Fortunately there are many programs,
articles, and books which can help instructors become better
teachers of team skills.

Disadvatages and Advantages of Traditional Classroom Setting

DISADVANTAGES

In a traditional classroom environment, there are usually anywhere from twenty to thirty children and one teacher. In some cases, that teacher might have a "teacher's aid" or an assistant teacher. This is where the disadvantage starts- it is simply impossible for one person to give each student the one-on-one attention or instruction that may be required

In a classroom of twenty to thirty children, there are going to be several children with differing learning styles and academic strengths and weaknesses. A teacher and/or teacher's aid is going to be woefully unequipped to handle any and all learning styles or weaknesses. And woe to the teacher who has a couple of students who present themselves as "problem students," a child who is difficult to manage or who disrupts the classroom is also going to take away time that the teacher could be using to help with one-on-one time with his or her students.

Which brings to light the next disadvantage of a traditional classroom. In a traditional classroom environment, it's not uncommon for children to become bored or frustrated. Some children learn better by visual means, others will learn better with auditory means, and still others are going to learn better with a hands-on approach.

It is virtually impossible for a single teacher to accomodate all methods of learning when he or she is responsible for teaching a large number of children. Thus, children who do not fall into the "traditional learning method" category are far more likely to "fall through the cracks," become bored or discouraged, or to display behavior problems in the classroom.

The traditional classroom environment works well for a large number of children, but there are many others who simply have difficulty learning in this environment, have difficulty interacting with peers that are strictly in their age range, or who require more one-on-one attention and time to grasp certain concepts.

The fact that a traditional classroom environment consists of one teacher and a large amount of students, in and of itself, is a big issue. But another issue that should not be ignored is the fact that children are seperated and segregated into classrooms filled with other children only in their own age-range.

AVANTAGES

In traditional classroom setting, children are taught how to wait their turn, how to treat others with respect and that there are consequences to disobeying the rules, all skills that some parents find difficult to teach in a home environment. As the children age they are monitored less, but there are still very clearly defined rules and the punishment for breaking those rules are consistent and enforced. Inadvertently this teaches the child a decision making process that will serve them well later in life. Is what I am about to do worth the consequences that I will receive for doing it? No one succeeds in this life without taking risks and so the sooner a child learns how to judge the ratio of risk to gain the better equipped they will be to handle important decisions later in life when the consequences can be dire.

Perhaps the most important thing a child can learn in a classroom is how to find their place in a group. Think about your daily interactions as an adult. Whether in the work place or on the road, while shopping or enjoying a night out on the town, how you define yourself within a group of the school day. The desire to protect ones child from these things is very natural but the hard fact is that adult life also has its share of intimidating people and those that would gladly take advantage of you or teach you things you'd rather not learn. Everyone deals with these issues regularly and it is how you deal determines your success or failure at any particular endeavor. Again this skill set, although not specifically in the classroom's curiculum, is an integral part of what is learned there.

Classroom life is not without its risks. Unfortunately intimidation and unsavory characters are also a very real part with these incidences that makes the difference. Allowing your child to encountered these scenarios in the relatively safe environment of a classroom will give them the skills they need to deal with them later in life. Just like learning to chew there are bound to be mistakes made along the way, so watch carefully but allow your children to grow.