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3.1 Teacher-Centred Education

On this page

  1.  Getting Started with Teacher-Centred Education
  2. Tasks for the Teacher
    2.1 Preparing for Teacher-Centred Education
    2.2 What Students See During Teacher-Centred Education
  3. Pitfalls of Teacher-Centred Education
    3.1 Too Much Direction
    3.2 Symbiosis in Education
    3.3 Assesment
    3.4 Avoiding Pitfalls
  4. Examples
  5. Summary
  6. Credits

In Teacher-Centred Education, the teacher temporarily takes charge of the learning process. The teacher introduces new knowledge, guides class discussions, and enables students to practise what they have just learned. In this way, a shared foundation is created for further development and independent learning.

I communicate knowledge in an expressive manner. I ask for attention, explain concepts to the whole group, and lead class discussions. I connect exercises and assignments to my explanations so that my students become familiar with what I have just covered. I invite all students to participate actively and hold them accountable for their effort.

Introduction video

In this video two qualities of an expert-teacher are mentioned: Inspiring students and resolving disruptions to the lesson.

For more information check out our other introductory videos here.

Current approach:

How do I currently communicate knowledge and inspire my students?

Future approach:

How will I communicate knowledge and inspire my students in the future?

Introduction

‘Teacher-Centred Education‘ is one of the three modules within the ‘Planning Lessons‘ perspective of Friendly and Fair Teaching (FFT)

Figure 32: Planning lessons (overview)

During ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘, you take responsibility for the entire group. For your students, you act as a tour guide (see ‘Planning Lessons: Introduction‘). You are a presenter who brings important topics to the forefront and introduces students to them. You inspire, provide a clear narrative, speak clearly, and communicate with enthusiasm.

During whole-class teaching, you use the Triangle as a visual signal for attention and participation. You ask your students to:

  • pay attention, listen and ask questions during your explanation;
  • participate in whole-class activities that follow your explanation.

Figure 121: Triangle visible during whole-class instruction (overview)

By allowing students to work together in varying groups during exercises, they get to know one another better (Socialisation). They put the subject matter into practice and thereby consolidate the knowledge they have just acquired (see the video on how the brain works in ‘Introduction: Planning Lessons‘).

‘Teacher-Centred Education‘ is particularly suitable for:

  • introducing new topics;
  • providing information and connecting students with culture. In this context, the school organises encounters with external organisations.
  • sharing personal stories (Johari Window). This increases mutual trust and improves cooperation.
  • getting to know classmates.

By alternating ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘ with ‘Student-Centred Education‘, you initiate a process that can be summarised by the following metaphor: From organised trip to a trekking journey. At first, you determine the route. Gradually, students learn to make their own choices and take responsibility for their learning process. (See ‘Introduction: Planning Lessons’)

1. Getting Started with Teacher-Centred Education

Under ‘Practice Period’, you will find a manual for introducing the five perspectives of VOH:

image: FFT fist with 5 perspectives

During this period:

  • you set a good example and expect your students to follow it;
  • you alternate between whole-class teaching and working independently;
  • you respond consistently to disruptions: non-verbally, verbally, and with a measure (see ‘Behaviour Management Strategies’).

For every teaching method, including Teacher-Centred Education, you consider in advance which limitations apply:

  • What is allowed and what is not?
  • How do you provide resistance to students’ impulsive tendencies?
  • How do you help your students cope with delayed gratification?

Quote from Meirieu on the duty to resist.
Pedagogues do not leave children to nature, imagining that these same children could then spontaneously build a democratic society – indeed, everything points to the opposite – but they create situations that are both approachable and challenging and in which children can at the same time both learn what has been imposed on them and explore their freedom.” Meirieu (2016).

Improving Your Teaching and Teaching Materials

After the Practice Period, ask (a number of) students to evaluate your teaching approach and teaching materials. Incorporate their suggestions, as well as the improvements you identify yourself, into subsequent lessons.

2. Tasks for the teacher

2.1 Preparing for Teacher-Centred Education

  1. During the first lesson, introduce the Framework and the Triangle (Practice Period).
  2. Select a topic and prepare at least one lesson.
  3. Find follow-up assignments that connect to what you teach.
  4. Connect with your students’ world while also broadening their horizons.

2.2 What Students See During Teacher-Centred Education

Students see that you act in the following ways:

  1. You set a good example and expect your students to follow it.
  2. When you give a compliment, you do so (without speaking) using a gesture (thumbs up). Read more: ‘Using Body Language: Advice for Teachers.
  3. You give students the opportunity to share personal stories (Johari Window).
  4. You guide the way students work together and vary group compositions so that everyone gets to know one another.
  5. You provide structure. Within that structure, students have a degree of freedom.
  6. You observe students, paying attention to whether they cooperate, avoid disturbing others, trust one another, and give one another space.
  7. Assessing students is part of your role. You assess outcomes: what have students understood and can they apply the relevant skills?
  8. You give students the opportunity to assess themselves.
  9. You ask students to evaluate your teaching. This helps you identify areas for improvement more quickly.
  10. Everyone benefits from this reciprocal assessment (the last three points). See Assessment.

3. Pitfalls of Teacher-Centred Education

In vocational education, the amount of material that must be covered is often manageable. In secondary education, however, students may spend seven consecutive hours being taught by different teachers, all using whole-class instruction and expecting students to pay attention and participate in exercises following each explanation.

3.1 Too Much Direction

If your lessons focus primarily on Teacher-Led Education, you are directing too much. Students can only focus their attention on a single activity for a limited period of time and also need autonomy and opportunities to make their own choices. If you spend a great deal of time transmitting information and directing activities, students must listen to you for extended periods and do as they are told. This increases the likelihood of classroom management problems.

Three Reasons Why You May Not Choose to Give Students Freedom
You believe students can only work efficiently with your guidance.
You suspect chaos will arise if students follow their own course.
You do not know how to design a learning environment that promotes student independence.
Discipline

Good results can be achieved through Teacher-Led Education and (external) discipline, but there is a downside:

What happens if a student fails to meet your expectations? Do you become even stricter?
How independent are your students?

When there is too much direction, the following problems arise:

Students have too little freedom.
You have insufficient time and attention for individual learning needs.
Students only encounter topics you have selected and do not experience the full breadth of the subject.
Not only are students under your control; you also keep yourself under control in this way. You continually work with the whole group and never truly let students go. This can feel restrictive for both students and yourself.
Teacher and Student Experience When There Is Too Much Direction

Suppose you succeed in keeping students fully engaged during Teacher-Led Education and classroom management issues are not a concern. Even then, you may gradually become less enthusiastic about constantly leading the entire group and repeatedly delivering successful lessons. At some point, something begins to bother you. Despite your success, you notice that students have little opportunity to explore your subject on their own initiative.

If you are constantly directing, your students are continually deciding whether or not they want to cooperate. If they choose not to cooperate, classroom management problems begin to play an increasingly important role.

3.2 Symbiosis in Education

Symbiosis is a concept in psychology. In education, symbiosis refers to an excessively strong involvement and dependency between you and your students.

You depend on students: without students, teaching is impossible.
Students depend on you: without you, they receive no teaching.

If you direct too much, students are given too little opportunity to work independently, resulting in a restrictive symbiotic relationship between you and your students.

3.3 Assessment

Within Teacher-Centred Education, report grades are usually based on the average of several tests. The more tests you give, the more fixed students’ grades become and the less influence they have over their final result. This may lead students who are performing well to put in only minimal effort. They use previously achieved marks as a buffer to avoid falling below a pass. Students who are performing poorly may work only hard enough to scrape a pass. In both cases, “just enough” becomes the standard.

Because you want everyone to be able to complete an assignment, you tend to focus on the average level. This limits your educational offer. Assessment then reveals differences in ability: one student finds the assignment too difficult, another finds it too easy.

What happens when you are forced to direct your teaching mainly at the middle group?

  1. High-achieving students receive too little challenge. They become bored and may begin to disrupt lessons.
  2. Struggling students become frustrated and may also disrupt lessons.
  3. Uniform results are boring for both you and your students to assess.
  4. Students are less inclined to help one another and do only what is strictly necessary.
  5. Students are exposed only to the part of the subject you consider achievable.
  6. You become occupied with teaching and marking, leaving too little time for individual guidance.
  7. When teaching whole-class lessons, it is difficult to break through the traditional teacher/student role division.
  8. Little time remains for students to help one another.

Particularly within Teacher-Centred Education, the whole group is often given the same assignment. The following image highlights why it is important, in addition to standard assignments, to provide a range of tasks so that every student can choose an assignment suited to their needs.

“To keep things fair, I’m giving you all the same assignment: Climb this tree.”

Figure 35: The Same Assignment

3.4 Avoiding Pitfalls

Effective education is not about choosing between ‘Teacher-Centred Education’ and ‘Student-Centred Education’. Both approaches complement one another. Explore on this site how to hold students accountable for responsibility, behaviour, and effort within ‘Student-Centred Education’.

Base assessment not only on tests but also on the number of successful contact moments a student achieves. Assessment through check marks motivates students. This type of assessment turns education into a challenge comparable to a computer game, where students continually reach the next level.

In the practical example below, you introduce students to a topic without requiring all of them to achieve a specific level in that topic. What students later do with your instruction (during independent work or at home—formally or informally) then depends on their motivation and commitment.

Hopefully, this description of the pitfall of too much ‘Teacher-Centred Education’ encourages you to design assignments that allow students to determine their own course in a meaningful way.

4. Examples

Full Instructions Prior to Teacher-Centred Education

If you set a complex assignment and allocate a substantial amount of time to it, not every student will complete the assignment at the same pace. Complete instructions for independent work consist of six elements. Read more under Expectation Management.

Giving Too Many Warnings

In advance, I offer my students three escape options if they find it difficult to pay attention: look out of the window, quietly do a puzzle, or sit and read in the reading corner.” Joek van Montfort, ICT Teacher at MLA

Examples of inspiring students

As a music teacher, I spent several lessons with first-year secondary students demonstrating different musical instruments. I showed them how each instrument was played. To introduce the bass guitar (of which I only had one), I made small boards showing the strings and their corresponding notes. Students who could play a pattern on the board were allowed to try it first on a guitar and, if successful, on the (only) bass guitar.
Sometimes students responded very strongly to such an introduction.
– One student saw me demonstrate the bass guitar, bought his own bass guitar within two weeks, and subsequently performed in every school production.
– During the same lesson in another class, a student asked if he could hold the bass guitar for a moment. He immediately adopted the classic “heavy metal stance” and thought to himself:

“I’m going to become the bassist in a heavy metal band!”

5. Summary

In ‘Teacher-Cemtred Education‘, you introduce your students to important topics. Following your explanation, you ask them to complete exercises and assignments that relate directly to what has been taught. Your role can be compared to that of a tour guide.
Using the blue image of the Triangle, you ask your students to pay attention. Using the ‘Framework‘, you ask your students to be friendly and clear. You hold every student accountable for their behaviour and effort.
When you alternate this way of working with ‘Student-Centred Education‘, you increase motivation and improve the likelihood that students will continue working on their assignments independently at home, in addition to their formal learning at school (informal learning).

6. Credits

Gert Biesta

Friendly and Fair Teaching (FFT) was made aware by Biesta that insufficient attention had been given to ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘. As a result, FFT now regards ‘Teacher-Centred Education‘ and ‘Student-Centred Education‘ as two equally valuable sides of the Educational Coin.

Go to ‘Student-Centred Education’