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3.2 Student-Centred Education

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  1. Preparation
  2. Starting Student-Centred Education
    2.1 Instructions at the beginning of a period of independent learning
    2.2 At the start of a subsequent period
    2.3 Students work on optional assignments and core content
    2.4 Pace of work
    2.5 Collaboration
    2.6 Learning Style
    2.7 How would a (model) student using this learning environment describe the way they work?
  3. The Teacher’s Roles in Student-Centred Education
    3.1 Roadside Assistance
    3.2 Coach
    3.3 Gardener
    3.4 Midwife
    3.5 Detective
  4. Pitfall
  5. Examples
  6. Summary Student-Centred Education
  7. Credits

With ‘Student-Centred Education‘, teachers allow their students to gain experience, in a playful way, of taking responsibility. They encourage their students to become increasingly autonomous because, ultimately, they will have to find their own way. In doing so, teachers mainly provide indirect guidance.

During each reporting period, I reserve part of the available time for independent learning. Students work at their own pace on the core content and on self-selected topics.

 

Introduction video

For more information check out our other introductory videos here.

Current approach:

How have I, up to now, given my students a say in (part of) their own learning process?

Future approach:

How will I, in the future, give my students a say in (part of) their own learning process?

Introduction

‘Student-Centred Education’ is one of the three modules of the ‘Planning lessons’ perspective of Friendly and Fair Teaching (FFT).

Figure 32: Planning lessons (overview)

In ‘Student-Centred Education‘, each student takes responsibility for directing themselves, at least in part, and is given the opportunity to shape part of their own education. Throughout ‘Student-Centred Education‘, students continually make their own choices. As they learn to handle this freedom responsibly, they develop autonomy.

Figure 122: Student-Centred Education (overview)

Minimum requirements, but no uniformity

With ‘Student-Centred Education‘, every student makes use of the learning environment you have prepared in their own way. Within that environment, you set minimum requirements, but you do not require every student to work in exactly the same way. Instead of constantly deciding what each student should do, you become a coach for students who increasingly follow their own path. For you, this may feel liberating; for your students, it can feel like an adventure. You allow yourself to be surprised by their achievements.

Alternating Teacher-Centred Education and Student-Centred Education

Alongside ‘Student-Centred Education‘, you also provide ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘. The combination of these two approaches promotes Subjectivation. Within the dynamic between freedom and structure, students discover their individuality.

By alternating these approaches, you set in motion a process that can be summarised by the following metaphor: From an organised journey to an expedition.

  1. During ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘, you determine the route.
  2. During ‘Student-Centred Education‘, you send your students on an expedition. In this situation, you become a form of Roadside Assistance, helping them when they no longer know how to continue. In this context, also read the interview with Dick Bruinzeel.

Motivated students continue learning beyond the classroom. Driven by their intrinsic motivation, they achieve good results both at school and elsewhere (Formal and informal learning).

1. Preparation

Because students differ in the extent to which they are able to complete an assignment, you allow them to choose tasks that suit their individual level. If your students are not yet accustomed to directing their own learning, begin cautiously by offering just two alternatives. As they gradually become more comfortable making choices, increase the number of alternatives and, with it, their freedom of choice.

  • You establish a period during which students work independently.
  • You prepare several assignments, including both core content and optional assignments. You give students the opportunity to work on both closed and open-ended tasks. When preparing assignments, you take into account that students have different learning styles. Add an explanatory video to each topic so that students can watch your explanation whenever they need it (Flipped Classroom).
  • When preparing assignments, you also take account of the fact that students have different learning styles. Within each topic you offer, you give students the freedom to decide for themselves how they wish to study that topic.
  • Where possible, add an app that enables students to assess their own progress.
  • Prepare a form on which students record their choice at the beginning of a period (See below Instructions at the start of an Independent Learning Period).
  • Where possible, use AI to add an application that enables students to assess themselves, receive feedback and monitor their progress. Explore AI applications that allow you to track students’ progress, provide feedback and maintain an overview of their results.

Preparing multiple assignments is particularly labour-intensive the first time. Consider working together with colleagues, both when developing the assignments and when assessing students’ work.

2. Starting Student-Centred Education

2.1 Instructions at the start of a period of independent learing

See also: (Practice Period)

At the start of a period, give your students the following advice:

  1. Use your time to work on the core curriculum, optional assignments, or pursue your own interests within this subject.
  2. You are now being given a certain amount of freedom. I ask you to use that freedom responsibly.”

Give each student a form on which they indicate which topic they would like to study during this period. They choose a topic from a list of possible topics that you have made available for that period. They also indicate what they want to achieve with that topic during the period. If a particular topic cannot be chosen by everyone because of limited materials, ask students to indicate an alternative choice as well.

Completing the Core Curriculum

Clearly indicate which core curriculum your students are expected to have mastered by the end of the period. If an app is available that allows students to assess themselves, have the student complete the self-assessment first. If the app indicates that the required level has been achieved, the student shows you the result and the task is considered complete.

Completing an Optional Assignment

Explain how a student completes an optional assignment.

To complete an optional assignment, the student first fills in a (short) form about the topic, in which they assess their own work. When students complete optional assignments, give them the opportunity either to present their work to the whole class or to present it only to you. After the presentation, compare the student’s self-assessment with your own assessment. You determine the final mark.

The more often a student sets a goal and evaluates whether that goal has been achieved, the more realistic their understanding of their own abilities becomes.

Need Help?

What can a student do if help is needed?

  • Watch instructional videos related to the chosen topic (Flipped Classroom).
  • Help one another or ask experts for advice (Socialisation).
  • Ask you for advice. You then provide helpful suggestions.
  • Ask questions online.

2.2 At the start of a subsequent period

At the beginning of the next period, students receive their original form for reference. The second form begins by asking how successful the previous period was.

  1. If the previous period was successful, a more ambitious plan for the next period is appropriate.
  2. If the previous period was not successful, a less ambitious plan is recommended.

This enables students to set achievable goals.

The second form also asks whether students have any suggestions for improving the learning materials. As with the first form, students select assignments and indicate what they want to achieve with them.

Clearly indicate which core curriculum students are expected to have mastered by the end of the period and explain how an assignment is completed.

2.3 Students work on core content and optional assignments

Once students have handed in their plans, everyone begins working on assignments that are available to all students.

The Triangle clearly shows students what you expect from them during independent learning. Throughout the period, each student works independently on different types of assignments.

Offering freedom to students reveals just how different they are. The following are a number of points where these differences manifest themselves: planning, pace of work, collaboration, and learning style. This section concludes with how a (model) student might make use of your learning environment.

2.4 Pace of work

Each student decides, to a certain extent, how to use the available time during the period. Two groups of students soon emerge.

  1. One group starts working immediately. Before long, these students come to you to have completed assignments signed off. They set an example for the rest of the class. Fast-working students may achieve their goals halfway through the time you have allocated. You can then encourage them to help other students, do something enjoyable related to your subject, or work on another subject.
  2. The other group does not start working straight away. If a student does not begin working but is not disturbing anyone, leave that student alone at the beginning of the period. In doing so, you place the responsibility for getting started with the student. Halfway through a period, you indicate which students have not yet signed off on their assignments. During that lesson, you go to these students first. The other students must wait to ask questions until you are finished.

If a student neither works nor behaves appropriately, you manage or redirect their behaviour using ‘Gestures’, Tips, and, if necessary, a Future Behaviour Letter.

2.5 Collaboration

In ‘Student-Centred Education‘, students are free to decide for themselves whom they work with. This may develop into a long-term collaboration that they have chosen themselves (see the right-hand column via this link).

You can make it easier for students to ask others to work together by including activities during whole-class teaching in which you decide who works with whom (see the left-hand column via the same link).

2.6 Learing Style

Students choose assignments that match their preferred learning style:

  1. In practice, most students choose structured assignments with clear guidance.
  2. A smaller group enjoys exploring and chooses open-ended assignments. In this way, every student discovers different aspects of your subject.

2.7 How would a (model) student using this learning environment describe the way of working?

“By practising the core curriculum, I acquire the subject knowledge I need. Each time I master a skill within the core curriculum, I demonstrate it to the teacher. For an optional topic, I set myself a goal that takes my prior knowledge into account. During independent learning, I work in my own way. By assessing my optional assignment together with the teacher, I gain a realistic understanding of my abilities. Because at the start of each new period I can see to what extent I achieved my previous goals, I become increasingly able to judge which goal is achievable for me in the next period. This gives me ownership of, and insight into, part of my own learning process. At the end of every period, the teacher asks me for suggestions to improve the learning materials.”

3. Teacher Roles in Student-Centred Education

For each of the five roles described below, make yourself as unobtrusive and as quiet as possible so that you do not disturb the rest of the class while they are working. This illustration represents that attitude.

Figure: Genie in the Bottle (overview)

3.1 Roadsite Assistance

FFT describes your overarching role during independent work as Roadside Assistance. During independent work, while a student is on their personal journey (see the interview with Dick Bruinzeel), a student may become stuck. You then take on the role of Roadside Assistance and help that student get back on track.

If you are able to motivate a student, that student is also more likely to continue working on a topic at home and elsewhere. This fits the image of a personal journey (formal and informal learning).

When students are given a degree of freedom and autonomy, they show considerable differences in the way they work. This means that the support you provide differs from one student to another. To illustrate these differences, four additional roles are described below that you can adopt as Roadside Assistance: Coach, Gardener, Midwife and Detective. Together with the role of Roadside Assistance, these five roles are specific to ‘Student-Centred Education‘.

Depending on what you observe in a student, you adopt one of the following roles.

3.2 Coach

A coach encourages students to find solutions themselves by asking the right questions. In most cases, this enables students to continue working independently (See also Checklist for the Motivational Coach).

A coach:

  • does not intervene when everything is going well.
  • understands that educating is the art of gradually letting go.
  • offers helpful suggestions: first respond to a student’s question with a counter-question to guide them towards the answer.
  • adopts the attitude of the ‘lazy teacher’, asks questions and follows up with further questions. Deliberately not providing a ready-made answer, or not immediately giving attention, is a conscious educational choice.
  • remains modest and sees each student as an individual (observing and listening). To students, you are not an elevated ‘sage on the stage’, but an approachable ‘guide on the side’.
  • helps students recognise and avoid patterns of reasoning that hinder independent learning. See the perspective ‘Observing – Patterns of Reasoning’.

In addition, a coach is responsible for the way the group works. Most of the time this goes well because you give students the opportunity to take charge of part of their own learning process. As a result, students have less reason to disrupt the lesson (preventive). Furthermore, the ‘Framework’ and the Triangle clearly indicate what is and is not permitted.

Nevertheless, there are occasions when you need to address a student’s behaviour or effort during independent work, for example when a student is disturbing another student or is not working on your subject. By doing so, you maintain a calm learning environment. Managing and Correcting Behaviour is carried out in the following order:

  1. Start by using Gestures (see Non-Verbal Behaviour Management – Step 1).
  2. If gestures do not have the desired effect, give a Tip (see Verbal Behaviour Management – Step 2).
  3. If necessary, ask the student to write you a Letter about Future Behaviour (see Correcting Behaviour with a Consequence – Step 3).

You introduce these three steps in the reverse order during the Practice Period.

Coaching is a varied activity because you support each student in a way that suits that individual. You are there for your students whenever they need you. Read more in the blog Quality Time.

3.3 Gardener

A Gardener:

  1. understands that a student grows according to an inner plan and that you cannot speed up this process by pulling the student out of the ground.
  2. allows growth to take place calmly and organically, while avoiding anything that might slow down or hinder the process.
  3. knows that whatever receives attention will grow.

3.4 Midwife

This noble gadfly [Socrates] had deeply understood the greatest thing one human being can do for another: to set them free, to help them stand on their own. But in understanding this, he also understood himself; he realised that, if this is to be achieved, the helper must know how to hide himself and must generously be willing to become nothing. Spiritually speaking, he was a midwife—as he called himself—and in this service he devoted himself selflessly and with complete dedication. His selflessness consisted precisely in the fact that the person he helped remained unaware that they had been helped and how they had been helped.” Kierkegaard (2007), Søren

This illustration ‘Genie in the Bottle’ reflects the idea of the helper remaining hidden:

Figure: Genie in the Bottle (overview)

Two comments on this quotation:

  1. By not encouraging a student at the beginning of a period, you take on the role of a Midwife. You calmly wait for the moment of birth (the moment when a student begins working of their own accord and later shows you the result).
  2. This does not mean that you do nothing. There comes a moment when you help to accelerate the birth (the achievement of a result).

When a student decides independently to start working, this has a greater effect than when the student starts because of your encouragement. Therefore, doing nothing (for a while) can be valuable. Read this blog as well.

3.5 Detective

When you notice that a student has talent in a particular area, give that student an individual recommendation to help them develop further. In the role of Detective, you search for hidden talent.

Figure 106: Detective Searching for Talent (overview)

Talent can reveal itself in many different ways. Students possess different kinds of intelligence: musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Gardner (1993)

As a result, you will notice considerable differences between students. Equipped with newly acquired skills, students will independently explore new paths, including those beyond your own subject area.

It is entirely possible that a student possesses greater skills than you in a particular area. Talent can be recognised at two moments.

  1. When you first meet the group. During your first meeting with your students (at the beginning of the school year) you explore the talents they already possess within your subject area.
  2. When a student encounters a topic during your lessons.

Whenever a student gains experience with a particular topic, there is a possibility that they have talent for that subject.

When a student demonstrates talent:

  1. Ask the student during the second half of a period to help classmates who are falling behind. This helps the group progress together despite differences in ability.
  2. Ask the student to give an interactive presentation.
  3. Invite the student to take responsibility for aspects of the school’s culture, such as the school newspaper, the student council or participation in performances. Such an invitation can have a significant influence on a student’s development (Broadening and Deepening Learning Goals).

The development of talent can be compared to metamorphosis or shedding an old skin. During this process, you may sometimes feel that a student is working inefficiently or missing opportunities. Resist the temptation to judge too quickly until the student has chosen their final direction. A student who determines their own path of transformation possesses intrinsic motivation and autonomy. This contributes to Subjectivation
If a student takes a new direction in a choice assignment, consider whether this approach could be adapted into an assignment for other students.

See All Teacher Roles.

4. Pitfall Student-Centred Education

What problems arise if you allow your students to work almost entirely independently in order to give them as much freedom as possible?

  1. You reduce the amount of time available to explain something to the whole class or to practise a skill together. This can result in gaps in knowledge and skills. One way to overcome this is by adding an instructional video to a topic (the flipped classroom approach).
  2. If you provide little social guidance, it becomes difficult for students to be socially mobile within the group and to invite different classmates to work with them. See Group Composition.

Resistance from colleagues

If you devote too much lesson time to Student-led Learning, there is a good chance that some colleagues will have little confidence in this approach. See this PDF.

You can overcome the disadvantages mentioned by alternating ‘Student-Centred Education‘ with ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘

5. Examples

Inquiry-based Learning

If you notice that several students encounter a similar problem while working independently, take this small group aside and explain it to them. Meanwhile, the other students, who do not need this explanation, continue working independently.

In this way, you provide a small group of students with exactly the information they need, just when they need it.

  • This is only possible if the group working independently does not disrupt your teaching of the small group. A good relationship with the whole class is therefore a prerequisite for inquiry-based learning.
  • If a student does become disruptive, first try to resolve this using gestures, through Non-verbal Behaviour Management. If this has no effect, finish the instruction for the small group earlier and allow everyone to continue working independently. Once the disruption has been resolved, continue teaching the small group.

Check Marks – Cumulative Assessment Grade

Consider using an assessment method in which students move directly on to the next task after successfully completing the previous one:
With this method, the assessment grade is linked to the number of successfully completed tasks. A number of successfully completed tasks together build up the final assessment grade (for example: three tasks successfully demonstrated to the teacher = highest grade).

Once a student has successfully completed the maximum number of tasks, you can reward them by asking them to help other students or to do something enjoyable related to your subject. These fast-working students may also continue with work for another subject.

See Assessment.

The following quotations illustrate why freedom and autonomy are essential.

Quote 1

Nietzsche:

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. A lack of consistency, a change of mind and a desire to wander were matters of duty. A fixed opinion was a dead opinion, a determined mind a dead mind, worth less than an insect; it should be crushed beneath your foot and utterly destroyed.” (Prideaux, 2018)

Student-led Learning makes it possible to explore, to lose your way and to make mistakes. That is precisely how learning takes place.

Quote 2

Nietzsche:
The surest way to corrupt a young man is to teach him to value those who think alike more highly than those who think differently. – “Let the young soul look back upon its life and ask itself: what have you truly loved until now, what has drawn your soul, what has ruled it and at the same time made it happy? Set these things before you, and perhaps, by their nature and their order, they will reveal a law—the fundamental law of your true self.” (Prideaux, 2018)

6. Summary Student-Centred Education

During each planned learning period, you set aside part of the available time for students to work independently. Each student sets their own goals and decides how to approach their work. You give students the opportunity to choose topics that match their prior knowledge and preferred learning style, while asking them to devote sufficient attention to the core curriculum. Throughout this process, you ask questions, coach students and hold them accountable for their behaviour and commitment. During independent work, students decide for themselves whom they wish to work with.
Alternating this way of working with ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘ increases motivation and makes it more likely that students will continue working on their assignments at home on their own initiative (informal learning).

7. Credits

Nick Sorensen – Emeritus Professor of Education Bath Spa University

Nick contributes to the English translation of the Friendly and Fair Teaching method. See about us
In 2014, Nick sent Johan ‘t Hart an article on assessment: ARF_beyond_blackbox. Johan ‘t Hart put these ideas into practice. FFT subsequently developed the Assessment module, which has since been renamed by Nick in ‘Student-Centred Education‘

In 2023, Nick published the book The Improvising Teacher. His research into expert teachers showed that they are able to improvise effectively in their lessons.

Evert Bisschop-Boele – Prince Claus Conservatory of Music

Evert Bisschop-Boele explores how education can be made relevant to students. He argues that education should appeal to the identity of each individual student (idio-culture) and that this identity should guide the choices students make.

His theory uses the concepts of connecting and setting boundaries.

Kees van der Meer – Prince Claus Conservatory of Music

In 2017, at the invitation of Evert Bisschop-Boele, Kees van der Meer investigated Johan ‘t Hart’s music teaching practice.

The reason for this study was that, in 2015, Evert had published an article in the journal Kunstzone (Artzone) whose content largely coincided with Johan ‘t Hart’s own educational ideas. Johan responded to this article, after which Evert asked Kees van der Meer to study Johan’s teaching practice.

The questions that Kees and Evert asked Johan about his music teaching and his approach to ‘Student-Centred Education‘ provided fresh inspiration for the way he continued to teach.

Go to ‘Assessment’