Teacher-Centered: The tendency is to prefer more-difficult rather than easier instructional materials.
Student-Centered: The tendency is to prefer easier tasks and materials because students are expected to do much of their learning independently.
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: All students are expected to learn the basic skills (reading, writing, math) and the traditional content subjects (history, geography, and science) as their aptitude permits. While individual differences are recognized, all who attend school are expected to reach at least some minimal standards in knowledge and in skills.
Student-Centered: Student learning is expected to vary by interests, motivation, and ability. Therefore, not all are held to the same standards. Also, because of the knowledge explosion, students cannot be expected to learn all there might be to learn. Therefore, they should learn, not subjects, but how to learn, think, and solve problems; and they should know how to find what they need when they need it.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Formal and informal tests are given to determine the student’s aptitude for and mastery of the subject matter that has been taught—the content and the skills. Contemporary teacher-centered schools make use of standardized tests of aptitude and achievement.
Student-Centered: There is an ambivalence about both standards and assessments. Standards are problematic because of the great emphasis on individual differences. There is a preference for qualitative and diagnostic tests and, more recently, for portfolios.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Students learn right from wrong from their studies and from extracurricular activities.
Student-Centered: Moral behavior develops from the individual’s experience. It is best learned when not taught directly.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Students are expected to learn what is taught. What is taught should be as interesting as possible, but it is selected because it fits with an overall hierarchy of learning tasks. The students comes to school with both good and questionable habits and attitudes. Schools are designed to “humanize” him or her into being a good citizen and good learner.
Student-Centered: Ideally, the best learning comes when students are interested in what they learn. Therefore, teachers are to encourage students to follow their own interests in their learning. Students are assumed to have good attitudes and habits and to naturally want to learn and become good citizens.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: With a focus on basic skills, the traditional curriculum has changed little in the elementary grades since the early 1800s. The traditional subjects—reading, writing, spelling and math—are taught separately in the early grades instead of being combined into language arts or whole language. History, geography, and science are usually taught in the middle grades.
Student-Centered: There is much variation in what is taught and when it is taught. Theoretically, any subject can serve to develop problem-solving abilities and creativity. There is less hierarchy of subject matter. Reading, writing, spelling, and literature are usually combined. Social studies combines history, geography, sociology, and anthropology.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: There is a tendency to teach the traditional subjects (i.e. reding, writing, spelling, social studies, science) separately in the elementary grades. There may be some integration, but not until the basics of the separate subjects have been acquired.
Student-Centered: There is a preference for integrating subjects: reading, writing, spelling, literature, speaking, and listening into language arts; history and geography into social studies; and more recently social studies with reading and writing and science with literature.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“Teacher-Centered: Emphasis is on learning content and skills. Thinking and problem solving are learned with content.
Student-Centered: Emphasis is on process and how to solve problems—how to think. The content is less important than the process.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
[Herewith begins a series of 16 quotes from Jeanne Chall on the difference between teacher-centered and student centered pedagogical approaches. I became aware of Jeanne Chall through a post on Diane Ravitch’s Blog related to the “Science of Reading,” which remains a controversial concept, and the so-called (and stupidly called, in this writer’s estimation) “reading wars.” You may have listened to Sold a Story, Emily Hanford’s podcast series on this issue from American Public Media–which has also aroused controversy, and which the always perceptive and thoughtful Nancy Bailey has commented upon. Unfortunately, the book of Jeanne Chall’s Dr. Ravitch sites as an exemplar of theory and practice in reading pedagogy, Learning to Read: The Great Debate, appears to be out of print. I settled for the title sited below, The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? (New York: The Guilford Press, 2002). I excerpted the subsequent 15 quotes posts from that book. Should you be interested in this material for your planning book for for discourses in professional development sessions, here is the typescript of the entire series of quotes.]
“Teacher-Centered: Knowledge from the past, present, and foreseeable future; skills important for the individual and society. A core curriculum based on the traditional disciplines of reading, writing, literature, mathematics, science, social studies, and art—arranged in an increasing order of difficulty.
Student-Centered: School learning should be based on the learner’s interests and needs. Theoretically, there is no required core curriculum that is arranged hierarchically. Subject matter is not structured. The emphasis is on the learning process and on a variety of subjects that are integrated to make them more meaningful.”
Excerpted from: Chall, Jeanne S. The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? New York: The Guilford Press, 2002.
“sight words: Words that are recognized instantly, without using word attack skills. The larger the sight-word vocabulary, the more fluent the reading process. Sight words are frequently used words that make up the majority of the written text, such as the, just, bad, from and about. The Dolch List is a well-known compilation of the 220 most often used sight words that average learners should know by the end of third grade. When an individual has difficulty recognizing common words by sight, reading is slow and laborious.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
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