Learner-centered approach

By Svitlana Babak
School of Moryntsi
Korsun-Shevchenkivskiy district
Cherkasy region
2014

The process of active
learning
is illustrated
by a Chinese proverb:
Tell me, and I’ll forget.
Show me, and I’ll remember.
Involve me, and I’ll learn.

There are lots of characteristics of
learner-centred instruction:
 students are active participants in their
learning
 they themselves make decisions about what
they will learn and how
 they construct new knowledge and skills
 students work in collaboration
 students monitor their own learning.

Why are learner-centered
activities necessary?

Learner-centered learning works best
through pair and group work.
“Students have equal responsibility for performing a
task and find it difficult to “hide” in a small group”
H. D. Brown

Five basic principles of group workFive basic principles of group work
Equal
participation
Group
processing
Face-to-face
interaction
Positive
interdependence
Individual
accountability
Face-to-face
interaction
Individual
accountability
Positive
interdependence
Face-to-face
interaction
Individual
accountability
Equal
participation
Positive
interdependence
Face-to-face
interaction
Individual
accountability
Group
processing
Equal
participation
Positive
interdependence
Face-to-face
interaction
Individual
accountability

Some ways to create the feeling are to:
 establish mutual goals
 give joined rewards
 provide a task structure that involves a division
of labor
 provide shared materials and information
 assign roles
Positive interdependence

Can be achieved through:
 use of structures for achievement (mini-
topics numbered expert roles)
 participations (summery, reflection)
 listening (sharing ideas)
 a structure that allows for individual
evaluations.
Individual accountability

Can be accomplished by allocating
turns or timed contributions,
or division of labor.
Equal participation

When students interact
with other students
it maximizes student involvement and aids
in concept development.
For interaction to be productive,
students must learn
communication skills and
key vocabulary.
Face-to-face interaction

Students need time and procedures
to analyze how well their group is
functioning.
Group processing

Series of activities
Jigsaw activities
1.Divide a text into three or four parts. Also divide
your class into 3 or 4 groups according to the parts
of the text. Assign each group a section of a text.
2.Students in their groups read their section and
discus what they understood. In every group they
know only 1 part of the text.
3.Then students write out 2 questions to their part of
the text.

4.Form new groups of students so that in new groups
there is one representative from all previous
groups. Now everyone in every group can learn
the whole contents of the text from each other.
5.They answer each other questions.
6.At the end of the activity give a quiz to check my
students’ knowledge of the text. In this way I
motivate my students to work hard in the groups.

Personalized name tags/interview
Each student receives a blank name tag to be
completed as directed by the teacher.
1.Students have 5 minutes to fill in their name tags
with the information listed below.
NAME TAG
a)First name, last name.
b)Three hobbies, interests; career goals.
c)Three favorite foods; two favorite classes.

3. Student 1 uses the completed name tag to
introduce himself or herself to Student 2 while
Student 3 does the same with Student 4. Reverse
the procedure, 2 to 1 and 4 to 3. Allow one minute
for each introduction. Time it carefully.
4. Student 1 introduces Student 2 to the whole team
using his or her name tag. Student 2 introduces
Student 1 to the whole team. Student 3 introduces
Student 4 and Student 4 introduces Student 3.
Again, provide one minute for each introduction.

1.The teacher assigns roles to each team member
(e.g. writer, reporter, time keeper, facilitator).
2.Team members have 5 minutes to discuss things
that they all have in common such as family
members, pets, interests, travel, and so on.
3.Teams discuss their commonalities and choose
the 5 most interesting ones. The writer lists the
team’s 5 commonalities on a shit of paper.
4.Teams share the things they have in common
with other teams or with the whole class.
5. The teacher posts commonalities on the board
with each teams name so that others may read
them later.
Commonalities

1.Students brainstorms activities they could do on a
Saturday night. This might be done as a webbing
activity. In a webbing activity, the central idea
takes the form of a verb with lines representing
related ideas emanating from it and from each
other.
2.Each team compares its list of activities with other
teams or with the entire class.
Problem Solving Activity

3.The teacher announces that each team has
$100.00 to spend on Saturday night. Team
members must decide what they will do together to
spend the money. Team members discuss their
ideas and the writer lists planed activities and cost
of each.
4.The reporter on each team shares the decisions of
its team with the rest of the class. This may be
done simultaneously by having the reporters list
projected budgets on the blackboard.
5.Team activities can be posted on notice boards.

K stands for What you/we know about
something.
W – What you/we want to know about something.
L – What have you/we learned about something.
In this activity, students are given a topic. They make
a table consisting of three columns KWL. They list
what they already know about a given topic and write
these facts in column K(know). In the second column
W they write what they would like to learn or learn
more about. A learning resource or activity is then
performed. It can be a text to read, or a film to watch,
acts. Following this learning, the students list what
they have learned in the third column L.
KWL Activity

After completing a KWL activity,
students will:
pre-assess their knowledge of a given topic
explore new knowledge of this topic
articulate new knowledge of the topic

Summary
 All these activities help students build
their knowledge of the language.
 They naturally stimulate and develop the
students’ cognitive, linguistic and social
abilities.
 Team work encourages students to
engage in such high-level thinking skills as
analyzing, explaining, synthesizing, and
elaborating.

1. Brown H.D. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
1994.
2. Cohen, Elizabeth G. Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the
Heterogeneus Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press,
1994.
3. Johnson D.W., Johnson R., and Holubec E. Circles of Learning.
Cooperation in the Classroom. Third Edition. Edina, Minn:
Interaction Book Company, 1990.
4. Johnson, David W. and Roger T. Johnson. Learning Together
and Alone. Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic
Learning, Fourth Edition. Edina, Minn: Interaction Book
Company, 1994.
5. Sharan, S., Sharan Y. Small-Group Teaching. Englewood
Cliffts, NJ: Technology Publications, 1976.
6. Slavin, R. E. Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, practice.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990.
References

Learner-centered approach

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