“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.
“Unchallenged kids get the message. If adults expect little of them, expect that they must be reminded, hectored, hassled, expect them to be goof-offs, then they will goof off. Of course, some people will goof off no matter what expectations are set. But teachers should assume the highest standard of performance until they are shown that it is not forthcoming. This is the proper start for each young person’s education. If that standard is substantial and persuasive–if it symbolizes the dignity of a demanding expectation–more often than not, adolescents rise to the occasion.”
Excerpted from: Sizer, Theodore. Horace’s Hope. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
“sight word approach: A method of teaching reading and spelling in which small numbers of instantly recognizable sight words are presented while the child masters them.
While many early readers naturally learn to read words through frequent exposure to them in stories, sight words often should be explicitly taught to individuals with a learning disability. Sight words can be hard to learn for these children because they frequently have trouble following common spelling and pronunciation patterns, such as are, were, been, and some, and require a strong visual memory for words.
To avoid such confusions when using the sight-word approach to teach reading and spelling, words should be carefully selected initially to follow consistent spelling patterns.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“summative evaluation: Evaluation carried out for the purpose of gathering information to assess the overall worth of educational staff, programs, and products. Evaluation is often motivated by a prospective decision, such as purchasing a product, adopting a program, or determining the amount of a raise for staff. See also formative evaluation.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
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