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It is generally known among educators (or they find out very quickly while in the classroom) not all students are the same, have the same learning-styles and/or come from similar education backgrounds.

Differentiation is a way of helping educators reach out and meet individual students where they are to provide effective learning that is specific for them.

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As an educator, what can you differentiate to make your classroom student-centered?

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As an educator, what can you differentiate to make your classroom student-centered?

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"Content is the foundation of learning and where skills are applied."
(Farnsworth & Anderson, 2018)

Since content is the foundation of learning, educators can help students by tweaking the content in their classroom to better meet the learner's specific needs.

Some examples:

Some students may be visual learners while others learn better through hearing. Teachers can tweak instructions by providing more visual aids or offer different types of visuals such as pictures, videos, articles, etc.

Teachers could also provide access to text digitally or by audio to provide more options when choosing for students (CAST, 2022).

Teachers may also give the class an assignment and devote extra time to helping a student falling behind.

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"Differentiation of the processes by which students learn is another traditional way that teachers provide different learning paths for students."
(Farnsworth & Anderson, 2018)

More traditionally the process teachers used to teach went along with the educational theory of behavioralism with the teacher supervising and accounting for students being conditioned to learn.

This way could work for some students, but not all. Mankind has advanced and there are options for how students are able to learn now.

Some examples:

Students can learn via the internet. Books are amazing and can teach a lot, but not all students can effectively learn that way (ADHD students for example). The internet has a vast amount of resources available to instruct students through articles, online books, videos, etc.

Also available modern day is software on computers, laptops, iPads, Chromebooks, etc. that specifically teach and work on subjects students have in school. This can give the teacher flexibility when deciding on how to instruct and when making assignments to give to students (CAST, 2022).

The teacher can also have the class choose whether to turn in an assignment on paper or through a document in Google Classroom for example.

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"Students need freedom of choice in how they demonstrate their understanding. We can provide creativity, choice, and freedom within boundaries."
(Farnsworth & Anderson, 2018)

Educators can give quizzes or tests to students for them to show their understanding. However, what if some have test anxiety or dyslexia, etc.? Educators can come up with new ways that allow students to show they have grasped a concept.

Some examples:

If the educator does have quizzes or tests, the educator can accommodate with extended quiz or test times.

A presentation on the concept can be given.

An individual or group-based project can also be given at the end of a concept to show understanding such as a letter, brochure, performance, video, etc. (Alternatives To Traditional Exams And Papers, n.d.).

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Differentiated Instruction: Why, How, and Examples

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Anonymous. (n.d.). Alternatives To Traditional Exams And Papers. Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/alternatives-traditional-exams-papers/index.html

CAST. (2022, March 3). Universal Design For Learning In The Classroom. Understood. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.understood.org/en/articles/5-examples-of-universal-design-for-learning-in-the-classroom

Farnsworth, S., & Anderson, S. (2018, August 15). 4 EdTech Ways To Differentiate In A Student-Centered Classroom. EdTech. Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://shaelynnfarnsworth.com/2018/02/05/4-edtech-ways-to-differentiate-in-a-student-centered-classroom/

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Like any good assessment, student-centered assessment articulates appropriately challenging and developmentally appropriate learning targets. It also provides feedback to students, teachers,  and districts about how to deepen learning. It is valid and reliable for the given context, and it is practicable and efficient (McMillan 2011).

A student-centered assessment has several additional defining qualities:

Individualized

It builds on the  individual students’ strengths, needs, and interests. Individualizing assessment involves differentiating learning targets, assignments, and tasks, providing focused feedback on students’ learning (whether they are working alone or in groups), and adjusting teaching and learning processes as needed.

Focused on learning and growth

Student-centered assessment promotes learning and growth by providing useful feedback to the students themselves, their teachers, and others about what the students need in order to progress toward the learning target. This quality of student-centered assessment echoes modern conceptions of formative assessment in that assessment is a moment of learning, not just grading, ranking, or sorting.

Motivating

Many people associate being evaluated with mild to moderate anxiety, not motivation, and research has shown that grades can be associated with decreased motivation and lower achievement . However, recent studies have shown that formative assessment—particularly detailed, task-specific comments on student work—can activate interest in a task and result in better performance.

Actively engaging students in the regulation of their own learning

Student-centered assessment involves the active engagement of students in setting goals for their learning and growth, monitoring their progress toward those goals, and determining how to address any gaps. Also called self-regulated learning,the ability to manage one’s own learning and growth.

Classroom assessment practices such as self-assessment, peer assessment, and portfolios have the potential to not only help students learn core content knowledge and skills, but also to develop important self-regulatory habits. (Allal 2010)

Informative and useful to a variety of audiences

Very often we have plenty of test scores, but we do not yet do a very good job of using assessment information to adapt curricula and instruction.

Student-centered assessment provides useful information that stakeholders at all levels— including students, teachers, administrators, parents, etc.—can be used to support learning. For an example of an assessment that is informative at the local level, consider public exhibitions of student work, which engage an audience from the community in discussions of the quality of student work and learning, and of the education students are getting.

Writing Intended Learning Outcomes. (2021, November 11). Centre for Teaching Excellence.

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Formative assessment vs. summative assessment

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Formative assessment vs. summative assessment

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Formative assessment is a measure of what students know and can do during the lesson or unit to guide instruction and reinforce learning.

We assess students to understand what they have acquired from our instruction.

The purpose of formative assessment is to adapt and accommodate our instruction based on student needs and readiness, to determine if we have achieved our goals and whether we can continue or should reteach the language.

Often, formative assessments are not graded. We focus on qualitative rather than quantitative feedback.

Formative assessment guides us in many ways. It helps us to appropriately scaffold and provides feedback to us and to the students.

Summative assessment takes place at the end of a unit of study to determine the level of student understanding or skill.

Examples: formal tests, final exams, final projects, term papers, etc. The information is often used in determining a grade, placement, or promotion.

How does formative assessment differ from summative (traditional) assessment?

We use formative assessment to alter our instruction and guide us toward discovering what students need more of, as compared to traditional quizzes that often serve to see what students don’t know. Formative assessment transforms thinking about grades or points to thinking about progress or acquisition of the language .

Often, summative assessment, which is used to summarize or assess the development of learners at a specific time, can be used to identify weaknesses that formative assessment can then build on.

Summative assessment= assessment of learning

Is measured more often at the end of a lesson or unit of study simply to assess what is known at the end (summative assessment).

It  is usually graded, and sometimes compared to a standard.

Formative assessment= assessment for learning

Students know at the beginning of a lesson or unit what they are expected to learn, work with the teacher to identify what she or he already knows about the topic and to see where any gaps or misconceptions exist.

Teachers can use rubrics and other assessment tools to let students know what these success skills look, sound, and feel like.

Together, the child and teacher work to determine learning needs, where and how improvement can take place and document the progress.

The intent of formative assessments is to feed forward in the instruction, and create learning activities that individual students need.

Assessment takes place throughout the learning process, is embedded in that, and provides us with just-in-time data to increase student engagement in a more student-centered classroom.

It is often used to assess students for their passions and interests. Assessing for passions and interests can push us to know our students more deeply and create a classroom designed for them.

Examples: one-on-one conversations, journals, and graphic organizers, learning profile cards, etc.

The assessment may be a learning experience at the same time, and has descriptive feedback but not typically a grade.

(Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

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The three most common student-centered formative assessment tools are: self-assessment, peer assessments, and portfolios.

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The three most common student-centered formative assessment tools are: self-assessment, peer assessments, and portfolios.

Self-assessment

The purpose of self-assessment is to identify areas of strength and weakness in one’s work in order to make improvements and promote learning, achievement, and self-regulation.

Research suggests that self-regulation and student achievement are closely related: Students who set goals, make flexible plans to meet them, and monitor their progress tend to learn more and do better in school than students who do not.

Self-assessment is a key element of self-regulation because it involves awareness of the goals of a task and checking one’s progress toward them. As a result of self-assessment, both self-regulation and achievement can increase.

Self-assessment is done on work in progress in order to inform revision and improvement; it is not a matter of having students determine their own grades.

By encouraging students to critique their own work and explicitly identify both strengths and areas that need improvement, self-assessment is individualized.

. It involves active student engagement by putting ownership of the assessment process in the students’ hands: They are in charge of monitoring progress toward goals by comparing their work to explicit criteria, identifying gaps, and making plans to close those gaps.

Effective self-assessment involves at least three steps:

1. Articulate performance targets

The teacher, the students, or, preferably, both clearly articulate the expectations for the task or performance.

Example: Co-creating a rubric is an effective way to make expectations clear and readily available to students. A rubric is usually a one- or two page document that lists criteria and describes varying levels of quality, from excellent to poor, for a specific assignment.

2. Checking progress toward the targets

They monitor their progress on their assignments by comparing their performances-in-progress to the expectations, noting areas of strength and weakness and making plans for improvement.

3. Revision

Students use feedback from their self-assessments to guide revision. This step is crucial.

Heidi Goodrich (1996) has generated a list of conditions that are necessary for effective self-assessment. Students need:

Awareness of the value of self-assessment

Access to clear criteria on which to base the assessment

A specific task or performance to assess

Models of self-assessment

Direct instruction in and assistance with self-assessment

Practice

Cues regarding when it is appropriate to self-assess

Opportunities to revise and improve the task or performance

(Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

Self-assessment is connected to the humanistic learning theory. The humanistic approach emphasizes the personal worth of the individual, the centrality of human values, and the creative, active nature of human beings. The approach is optimistic and focuses on the noble human capacity to overcome hardship, pain and despair. In this case, in manifests in providing students frameworks to describes themselves, their feelings, thoughts and performance ideally and realistically. (Western Governors University, 2020b)

Examples: Exit Tickets, SMART goal setting form, Ongoing Self-Assessment Documents, various reflection protocols, Take a Moment- visible thinking protocols, Mentimeter, Kahoot, and Poll Everywhere  etc.

Specific activity:
Creating an exit ticket to quickly gauge student understanding at the end of a lesson. It gives us a snapshot of how well students understood today’s lesson.
Exit tickets should be short.
Differentiation for ELL and Special Ed. students:
ELL students can answer the exit ticket question by having a visual representation of the question. They would also use Jamboard, where they can choose pictures to answer the question instead of writing.
Children with learning disabilities in reading can use the Cloze Procedure as a modified activity.

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Self-Assessment: Reflections from Students and Teachers

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The purpose of peer assessment is for learners to provide feedback to one another on the quality of a product or performance.

Students engaged in peer assessment help one another identify strengths, weaknesses, and target areas for improvement.

Peer assessment happens both inside and outside of school and across different times and contexts, leading to the development of valuable metacognitive, personal, and professional skills.

It is individualized, and it actively engages students in the assessment process as peers familiarize themselves with the assessment criteria, examine a particular piece of work, and identify its unique strengths, weaknesses, and need for improvement—all of which they then discuss with the creator of the work.

Peer feedback is informative and useful for all in a peer feedback group as they take turns giving and receiving feedback on works in progress.

Peer assessment can improve the quality and effectiveness of learning across grade levels, particularly in writing.

Topping (2010) suggests that effective peer assessment involves the following steps:

1. Students and teachers co-create assessment criteria

2. Peers are placed into pairs or small groups based on similar ability levels.

3. The teacher provides training by modeling how to assess a piece of work using

explicit criteria.

4. Students get a checklist with peer assessment guidelines.

5. The activity to be assessed and timeline are specified.

6. The teacher monitors the progress of the peer assessment groups.

7. The quality of the feedback is examined.

8. Reliability is checked by comparing teacher- and peer-generated feedback.

9. The teacher provides feedback to the students about the effectiveness of their

assessments.

(Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

Peer assessment can be connected to the social cognitive theory. The social-cognitive approach is a theoretical perspective in which learning by observing others is the focus of study. (Western Governors University, 2021) In this case, this main idea aligns with the features of the peer assessment.

Examples: Flipgrid, Jamboard, feedback protocols, etc.

Specific activity:
Feedback sandwich -Just like two stars and a wish, this method involves children identifying two things they thought their partner did well and one point for improvement. The improvement comment is sandwiched between the two positive comments! Student needing support are paired with students who will support them throughout this process.

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Peer Assessment: Reflections from Students and Teachers

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An academic portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that includes student involvement in its construction and student reflection on its contents. The purpose is to scaffold student reflection and self-regulated learning, as well as to provide information about a student’s

knowledge, dispositions, motivations, and needs, that can help teachers, students, and parents make informed decisions.

There are two general categories of portfolios: those that showcase a student’s best work; and those that demonstrate growth and learning over time often called process portfolios. The latter called process portfolio is a commonly used formative assessment tool. (Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

Process portfolios:

Individualized collections of student work that trace progress and highlight strengths via physical artifacts.

Students are actively engaged in their creation, especially by setting goals for the learning and achievement, selecting the pieces to include in the portfolio, and reflecting on what those pieces communicate about their own progress toward their goals. In this way, portfolios scaffold self-regulation.

(Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

Peers and caregivers can be invited into the process portfolio to follow protocols for offering feedback and supporting goal-setting.

They are systems friendly, meaningful, and useful assessment tools that invite conversation, feedback, and engagement on learning.

Process portfolios encourage a growth mindset; they are assessment tools that contribute to a culture of learning that invites risk-taking, reflection, and revision.

(Three Quick Wins: Student-Centered Assessment Strategies, n.d.)

Portfolios as an assessment tool and the constructivism learning theory go hand in hand. This theory is based on the idea that people actively construct or make their own knowledge, and that reality is determined by your experiences as a learner. Basically, learners use their previous knowledge as a foundation and build on it with new things that they learn. So everyone's individual experiences make their learning unique to them. (Western Governors University, 2020b)

Examples: Seesaw  and other digital portfolios, collaborative slide decks, physical portfolios, google site, etc.

Specific activity:
Students take pictures of their work and upload it to Seesaw. They also write a comment under their work about what part of the activity they enjoyed, and what was challenging. They also place their work in the subject folder.
ELL and Spec.ed. student can leave an audio comment instead of writing.

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Snapshot assessments are fast ways to keep both teachers and students informed on progress so that everyone can plan for personalized next steps.

Examples: automated quizzes, two-minute conferences, and structured learning reflections, etc.

(Three Quick Wins: Student-Centered Assessment Strategies, n.d.)

Specific activity:
The same activity can be used as for the self-reflection.
Creating an exit ticket to quickly gauge student understanding at the end of a lesson. It gives us a snapshot of how well students understood today’s lesson.
Exit tickets should be short.
Differentiation for ELL and Special Ed. students:
ELL students can answer the exit ticket question by having a visual representation of the question. They would also use Jamboard, where they can choose pictures to answer the question instead of writing.
Children with learning disabilities in reading can use the Cloze Procedure as a modified activity.

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Exhibitions are a rare example of a summative assessment process that exemplifies each of our characteristics of student-centered assessment.

Exhibitions are public demonstrations of mastery that occur at culminating moments, such as at the conclusion of a unit. Their purpose is to support sustained, personalized learning while ensuring commitment, engagement, and high-level intellectual achievement aligned

with established standards.

Exhibitions ensure continuity between formative classroom assessments and high-stakes summative assessments by employing teaching, learning, and assessment practices in classroom settings to rehearse, emphasize, and otherwise reinforce progress toward successful final exhibitions.

They are individualized to student interests. They involve personalized, ongoing feedback from a variety of sources before the official, summative exhibition.

They actively engage students in regulating learning by requiring them to set short-term and long term goals and to seek out feedback in order to achieve a successful outcome.

Because exhibitions are typically presented to an audience that includes practicing experts, they provide an authentic, real-world task that can increase student motivation.

According to Davidson (2009), successful exhibitions:

Provide multiple opportunities for revision based on frequent feedback

Are open to the public

Involve school-wide participation

Are high stakes (e.g., associated with graduation requirements)

Occur at culminating moments

Are demonstrations of mastery

This assessment type resonates with the experiential learning theory. Learning by doing is the basis for this approach. Experiential learning focuses on the idea that the best ways to learn things is by actually having experiences. Those experiences then stick out in your mind and help you retain information and remember facts.
For teachers, creating opportunities for students to have experiences based on the things they are learning about is key. Teachers can help create environments where students can learn and have experiences at the same time. (Western Governors University, 2020)

Example/specific activity:

A great example is how PYP Exhibition (PYPX) is done in the IB program. Schools have the flexibility to create their own procedure for supporting the students to exhibit their learning at the end of Grade 5. It can be an overarching unit over the year that culminates in the PYPX. Some school chooses to follow a project-based approach, where students are working on their PYP Exhibition for six weeks ( the length of one unit of inquiry.). This can be done in-person or virtually, and both options have pros and cons.

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Reyna Lazarou & Lydia van Berkhout

About the talk

Sometimes, the hardest part of doing something new is knowing how to get started. If you're part of a candidate school, a first timer to the exhibition process, or just starting to explore how the exhibition might look, this talk is for you! Join PYP coordinator Lydia van Berkhout and elementary school innovation coach, Reyna Lazarou, to explore how to move from ideas to action when planning the PYP Exhibition. Come away with strategies to keep the focus on what's most important for the students, school, and context, while planning the PYPx.

Key insights you don't want to miss

Find a balance between student autonomy and teacher assistance

Discover strategies and tools to equip yourself with a plan that can withstand setbacks

Learn strategies to engage your learning community and make the PYP exhibition meaningful for your school's context

Disclaimer - This event is organised independently of and not endorsed by the IB. Toddle's events and webinars are organised to enable an exchange of practices and ideas within the educator community and are not a replacement for official IB workshops. Views and opinions expressed by the speakers are their personal views and should not be construed as official guidance by the IB. Please seek assistance from your school's IB coordinator and/or refer to official IB documents before implementing shared ideas and strategies in your classroom.

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PYPx - A beginner's guide - Toddle Learn

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About the talk Sometimes, the hardest part of doing something new is knowing how to get started. If you're part of a candidate school, a first timer to the exhibition process, or just starting to explore how the exhibition might look, this talk is for you!

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5 suggestions to help you when planning a successful assessment

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5 suggestions to help you when planning a successful assessment

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Consider what we want our students to learn and tell them

Concrete verbs such as ‘define’, ‘argue’, ‘solve’, and ‘create’ are all helpful for course planning. Use them instead of vague verbs such as ‘know’ or ‘understand’ or passive verbs such as ‘be exposed to’.

Be as specific as possible and the students will be much more likely to reach the intended learning outcomes.

Remember to put these learning outcomes on the course outline and assignments.

Select assignments and tests that measure what you value most

Choose assessment methods that elicit from your students the kind of learning that you want to measure.

Example: If you teach math problems, you may want students to demonstrate their ability to solve problems and explain the process. Putting too much emphasis on getting the right answers can take away from the goals. So consider adding the following requirement to some of your assignments and exams: have students draw a vertical line down the center of their page, dividing it into two columns. In one column they solve the problem, and in the other, they write sentences for each step to explain what they did and why.

Choose assessment methods that are interesting and challenging to your students.Consider creative kinds of assignments without being carried away by something that doesn’t meet your needs.

Example: A history teacher can ask students to write diary entries for a hypothetical Nebraska farm woman in the 1890s. This assignment requires that students know about economics, social class, transportation, gender roles, technology, family relations, religion, diet, and so on, yet it also gives students a chance to exercise their imaginations.

Use peer collaboration.

The most important principle to remember is that successful group assignments are those that can be better done by a group than by an individual student. It is crucial that students understand why they are participating in a group project rather than completing the assignment on their own. If we do that, the group’s motivation to work together, solve group tensions, and deal effectively with non-participating members will be strong.

Don’t be hyper-corrective.

Instead, we should  focus on key content when evaluating work. If we want students to learn from their mistakes, we should guide them to identify one problem at a time.

Construct an assessment skeleton

Once we have chosen assessment methods and their general features, the next step is to combine all the tests and assignments into a bare-bones assessment "skeleton." This skeleton helps us see whether our assignments and tests fit both ours and our students' goals and whether they are manageable in terms of workload.

Collaborate with your students to set and achieve goals

It is very important to know the types of goals our students have in order to create assessment methods that will motivate them to learn. Student input can come in varying degrees.

Example: We can ask students to record their personal learning goals for the unit and some strategies by which they can accomplish those goals. Alternatively, we can ask them to recall the most successful unit they’ve had in the past. What assessment methods worked for them there? Can they use or adapt these strategies for our class?

Make assignment and test instructions clear to students

Once we have assignments and tests that assess what we most want our students to learn, we need to ensure that our instructions for the assignment are clear to our students.

Example: Tell the students what you are looking for by means of a rubric or by providing examples. Sometimes it is also useful to ask for pieces of the assignment along the way to ensure that students are on the right track.

(Learner-Centred Assessment, 2017)

Instructional goals vs. learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Each outcome focuses on the learner, specifically stating what each student should be able to know, do, and/or value by the end of a course/unit.

Articulate design considerations that reflect both individual and societal concerns

Formulate conjectures and discover proofs

Analyze the behavior of realistic nonlinear systems

Identify all major syntactical constructions of the Latin language

Critique a variety of methodological approaches to the study of literature

Instructional goals

In contrast, instructional aims or goals tend to focus on what we will do as instructors and the opportunities a course will provide to students.

Present various human resource challenges and explore the implications for business decisions

Offer students the opportunity to participate in open dialog about the impact of technology on society

Cover the following topics: Euler’s Formula, Complex Numbers, and Factoring Polynomials

Enhance students’ understanding of phase transitions and Landau Theory

Provide a broad introduction to microbiology to non-biologists

Rather than focus on what a teacher will do in the lessons, we should focus on what learners can achieve, and shift the focus of instructional design efforts to student learning, and help teachers to think through how best to assess that learning.

(Writing Intended Learning Outcomes, 2021)

A successful assessment flows from the institution's mission; has a conceptual framework; has faculty ownership/responsibility; has institution-wide support; uses multiple measures; provides feedback to students and the institution; is cost-effective; does not restrict or inhibit goals of access, equity, and diversity established by the institution; leads to improvement; includes a process for evaluating the assessment program. (Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016, n.d.)

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Learning Objectives vs. Learning Goals. Difference between Objectives and Goals Importance of Learning Objectives Writing quality Learning Objectives. Brandy Close, M. Ed. Office of Educational Development. Learning Objectives: what we already know.

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Student-Centered Assessment in Distance Learning

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Student-Centered Assessment in Distance Learning

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Student-Centered Assessment in Distance Learning

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Learner-Centred Assessment. (2017, June 27). Centre for Teaching Excellence. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/learner-centred-assessment

McMillan, James H (ed.), New Directions For Teaching and Learning: Assessing

Student's Learning, 34 (Summer, 1988).

Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision School Year 2015 - 2016. (n.d.). Student – Centered Classroom Assessment. https://www.moe.edu.kw/teacher/Documents/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9/learner%20centered%20teaching/5-Assessment%20in%20LCT%20.pdf

“Technology-aided Formative Assessment of Learning: New Developments

and Applications.” In H.L. Andrade & G.J. Cizek, eds. Handbook of Formative

Assessment. New York, NY: Routledge. Schneider, M.C. & Randel, B. 2010

Three Quick Wins: Student-Centered Assessment Strategies. (n.d.). GOA. Retrieved August 19, 2022, from https://globalonlineacademy.org/insights/articles/three-quick-wins-student-centered-assessment-strategies

Western Governors University. (2020, June 8). Experiential Learning Theory. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/experiential-learning-theory2006.html

Western Governors University. (2021, June 1). What Is Cognitive Learning? https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-is-cognitive-learning2003.html

Western Governors University. (2020b, October 21). What Is Constructivism? https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-constructivism2005.html#close

Western Governors University. (2020b, July 30). What Is Humanistic Learning Theory in Education? https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-humanistic-learning-theory-education2007.html

Writing Intended Learning Outcomes. (2021, November 11). Centre for Teaching Excellence. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/planning-courses/course-design/writing-learning-outcomes

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Student Centered Learning: Why, How, & What

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All learners are different and even the way they learn is different too on account of the different life experiences they all have had.

It would help a lot for current and future teachers to understand what the different ways of learning are.

Teachers that are familiar with a wide range of learning theories can apply different techniques in their classes to enhance/support learning and to set learners up for success.

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Incorporating physical movement as a central element

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Incorporating physical movement as a central element

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The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement | Michael Kuczala | TEDxAshburn

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An important part of student-centered learning is integrating movement into the lessons because many learners respond well and learn best with a kinaesthetic instructional method.

This ties in well with the Humanism learning theory where for a brief moment of time learners feel that (in the context of learning) their needs are met and in that context they are the best versions of themselves

If for example in Drama class there is no movement incorporated, has the learner or group of learners been satisfied in his/their expression/experience of learning? Has the experience of the Humanism learning theory been suficiently applied?

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Not only does it tie into Humanism it is quite literally learning kinesthetically. Neil D. Fleming in his VAK model of learning popularized kinaesthetic learning – this style of learning has learners processing information very successfully because there is physical engagement involved in the process of learning.

In essence, kinesthetic learners process information best when they are physically engaged during the learning process. This type of learning experience engages the learners’ brains and bodies and helps them to  make connections between them and the content through movement.

This is very apparent in Drama and Music classes. In order to put the lesson objective to memory, there needs to be physical exertion for them to learn it.

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This is a short list of strengths the Kinesthetic learners have that will help them to be successful in (traditional or online class.

1. Amazing hand-eye co-ordination

2. Quick reaction time

3. Great motor memory (able to duplicate something after doing it once)

4. Awesome experimenters

5. Talented/a natural at sports

6. Perform well in art and drama

7. High levels of energy

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Kinaesthetic learning strategies for learners

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Kinaesthetic learning strategies for learners

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1. Stand Up Instead of Sitting Down.  As a kinesthetic learner, standing up will improve your comprehension and retention because the body is more engaged and connected to the learning process. A book stand or standing desk can support you when you concentrate for a longer period of time. It will also help you to remember more of the material you have read

2. Intertwine exercise and study Do some burpees and/or jump squats in between your study time or play basketball with your family members or study mate, you could also do some skipping. Integrating movement this way keeps your energy levels high and it solidifies the study material into your brain. This form of outlet is key for kinaesthetic learners even during study sessions.

3. Take advantage of Small Movements. It' is not very practical to get on your feet and a ser of high knees in the middle of your study session – nonetheless you can still take advantage of kinaesthetic strategy by bouncing a tennis ball on the floor and catching it when you answer a question. You could, as an alternative either twist a rubber band around your wrist or wriggle a pencil while reading. Though these are small motions they are a way to keep focus and stay attentive.

4. Use a pencil a pen  and a highlighter. A great way to learn vocabulary etc. is to to  underline key information while reading while you reading. By color coding and highlighting interconnecting passages, using  a pencil for you to draw flow charts in your books to help break down the passage into small sections and adding sticky notes to show main ideas and your inferences you would be utilizing effective reading strategies together with movement the for kinesthetic learner.

5. Try the Tension and Relaxation technique  When your movements are more restricted because your room is not spacious  do the following, in intervals of five to ten seconds, tighten your muscle, like your bicep, thigh or abs  then relax them to relieve tension. Doing this can help the kinaesthetic learner in periods of extended idleness.

6. Be inspired and creative. Approach a challenging topic from a different angle and use supporting materials such as Lego blocks and/or figurines,. These may help you to visualize better or go in depth in Mathematical concepts. If  you prefer, either drawing pictures related to the subject area or designing a video/storyboard to explain concepts or ideas to someone can be done. Why? The kinaesthetic learner has excellent motor  memory so s/he is more than likely to recall something s/he did/made/built than something s/he read.

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Spice up your learning with these kinaesthetic activities for ALL

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Spice up your learning with these kinaesthetic activities for ALL

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Kinesthetic Learning Activities FOR EVERYONE!

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What is Multi-Modal Learning? | Meet GNOWBE

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Learners/students can benefit from learning through multi-modal learning because of the through line of kinaesthetics, as a music and drama teacher, I have seen all sorts of learners, the majority of which, in fact, ALL of them cannot wait to hop, run, skip, jump and play together in a task. They need to move their bodies, I have seen how restless they get when we have classes that have little to no movement.

Multi-modal learning is a phenomenal tool teachers can use since learners/students already have shared interests in socical media, sports, news, self care, culture and international awareness - can you imagine the bliss of being able to apply all the main five learning theories namely cognitive learning theory that has an effect on learners since their understanding of their thought process helps them to navigate around their life experiences, they have the chance to ask, to think out loud and to finally arrive at success. This opens the door for learners to understand the "how" of their thought processes and theeby using it to construct better learning opportunities.

Learners/students can also benefit from the behaviorism learning theory since learners can sustain learning and undersrtanding of concepts through positive reinforcements - adding some kinasthetics here is a sure path to success! The nice thing about the constructivism learning theory is seen where learners/students can create learning experiences inspired by past learning experiences - in this situation teachers can play the role of guides and help learners to create their learning experiences. Previously I talked about the Humansim learning theory - although it is closely linked to constructivsim, Humanism makes it possible for learners to realise their, "best selves" and here teachers can provide a soft place to land on by meeting the learners emotional and physical (kinaesthetic) needs.

Connectivism is a lovely way to form/reinforce soclal relationships - here teachers can incorporate sports and movement in pair or group work activites to excite and motivate learners to be interested in learning.

Additionally, there is also the experiential learning theory - here learners/students learn by doing (learning through physical experience) to support information retention.

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When the learning experience is fun, learners want to do more of the lesson. From learning how to cook, to feeding a pet to learning how to ride a tricycle, the list of beneifs is endless — it abilities improved, accomplishment and notice and praise from teachers and parents.

This melting pot of good emotions, relevant and age appropriate learning materlal and applied strategies motivates learners to want to keep exploring and moving and learning and making connections and creating their own learning experiences.

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Just how important is movement to learning? The vestibular (inner ear) and cerebellar (motor activity) system is the first sensory system to mature. In this system, the inner ear's semicircular canals and the vestibular nuclei are an information-gathering and feedback source for movements. Impulses travel through nerve tracts back and forth from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain, including the visual system and the sensory cortex.

The vestibular nuclei are closely modulated by the cerebellum and also activate the reticular activating system, near the top of the brain stem. This area is critical to our attentional system, because it regulates incoming sensory data. This interaction helps us keep our balance, turn thoughts into actions, and coordinate movements.

That's why there's value in playground activities that stimulate inner-ear motion, like swinging, rolling, and jumping. A complete routine might include spinning, crawling, rolling, rocking, tumbling, and pointing. As noted in Chapter 2, Lyelle Palmer of Winona State University has documented significant gains in attention and reading from these stimulating activities (Palmer, 2003)

(Jensen, 2022)

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Currently, the MEDLINE database shows more than 33,000 scientific articles on the topic of exercise, and the vast majority of them confirm its value. One study showed that people who exercise have far more cortical mass than those who don't (Anderson, Eckburg, &amp; Relucio, 2002). Simple biology supports an obvious link between movement and learning. Oxygen is essential for brain function, and enhanced blood flow increases the amount of oxygen transported to the brain. Physical activity is a reliable way to increase blood flow, and hence oxygen, to the brain.

In William Greenough's experiments at the University of Illinois, rats that exercised in enriched environments had a greater number of connections among neurons than those that didn't. They also had more capillaries around the brain's neurons than sedentary rats (Greenough &amp; Anderson, 1991). Solid evidence suggests that even going for brisk walks can elicit this state of arousal—meaning an increase in heart rate, EEG activity, and more excitatory active brain chemicals (Saklofske &amp; Kelly, 1992).

In fact, if you haven't yet taken a break from reading this riveting chapter, you might stand and stretch for a moment. Why? Standing can raise heart rate (hence, blood flow) by as much as 5 to 8 percent in just seconds (Krock &amp; Hartung, 1992). And finally, here's a powerful research finding: evidence from animal studies indicates that voluntary exercise influences gene expression to improve learning and memory (Tong, Shen, Perreau, Balazs, &amp; Cotman, 2001).

This improved pattern of gene expression enhances many factors that support the encoding and transfer of data, synaptic structure, and the activity and plasticity of neurons. All of these processes facilitate learning.

(Jensen, 2022)

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An astonishingly high 68 percent of high school students in the United States do not participate in a daily physical education program (Grunbaum et al., 2002). Why should we be concerned?

Because in the same way that exercise shapes up the muscles, heart, lungs, and bones, it also strengthens the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and corpus callosum—all key areas of the brain. We know exercise fuels the brain with oxygen, but it also feeds it neurotropins (high-nutrient chemical “packages”) to increase the number of connections between neurons. Most astonishingly, exercise is known to increase the baseline of new neuron growth.

Rats grow more brain cells when they exercise than when they don't exercise (Van Praag et al., 1999). In addition, studies link this increased neurogenesis to increased cognition, better memory, and reduced likelihood of depression (Kempermann, 2002).

Imagine that: Exercise may grow a better brain! It suggests both a huge opportunity and the liability suffered by students who don't get enough exercise. We may not be overstating the case to say that it's educational malpractice when only about a third of K–12 students take part in a daily physical education class.

(Jensen, 2022)

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Support for Recess, Play, and Physical Education 

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Support for Recess, Play, and Physical Education 

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Researcher Terrence Dwyer is one of many who have conducted multiple studies suggesting that exercise supports success in school. His research found that exercise improves classroom behavior and academic performance (Dwyer, Sallis, Blizzard, Lazarus, &amp; Dean, 2001) and that even when an experimental group got four times more exercise per week than a control group of their peers (375 minutes versus 90 minutes), their “loss” in studying time did not translate into lower academic scores (Dwyer, Blizzard, &amp; Dean, 1996).

His research further revealed that social skills improved in the groups who exercised more. Other research (Donevan &amp; Andrew, 1986) has found that students who are engaged in daily physical education programs consistently show not just superior motor fitness, but better academic performance and a better attitude toward school than their students who do not participate in daily P.E.

Exercise play (aerobics, running, chasing, dance routines).

Rough-and-tumble play (soccer, football, wrestling).

Solitary play (doing puzzles, object manipulation).

Outdoor learning activities (digging, observing insects).

Stand and stretch activities (tai chi, Simon Says).

Group or team competitive games and activities (relays, cheerleading).

Constructive play (building with blocks, model building).

Exploratory play (hide and seek, scavenger hunts, make-believe).

Functional play (purposeful play, such as practicing a new skill).

Group noncompetitive games (earth ball).

Individual competitive games (marbles, track and field, hopscotch).

Adventure or confidence play (ropes courses, trust walks).

Group noncompetitive activities (dance, drama).

Walking excursions (outdoors, indoors).

It allows learners to make mistakes without “lethal” consequences (with far less embarrassment and more fun than in a traditional classroom situation).

It enhances learning (Fordyce &amp; Wehner, 1993).

It improves the ability to handle stress by “training” the body to recover faster from the quick surges of adrenaline associated with demanding physical activity . . . and classroom environments.

It triggers the release of BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Kesslak, Patrick, So, Cotman, &amp; Gomez-Pinilla, 1998). This natural substance enhances cognition by boosting the neurons' ability to communicate with one another.

It can enhance social skills, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution ability.

Exercise may increase catecholamines (brain chemicals such as norepinephrine and dopamine), which typically serve to energize and elevate mood (Chaouloff, 1989).

The case for children doing something physical every day is growing. Jenny Seham of the National Dance Institute (NDI) in New York City says she has observed for years the measurable academic and social results of schoolchildren who study dance. She notes the positive changes in self-discipline, grades, and sense of purpose in life that her students demonstrate. She's now in the process of quantifying the results of more than 1,500 kids who dance weekly at NDI.

Although many educators know about the connection between learning and movement, nearly as many dismiss the connection once children get beyond 1st or 2nd grade. Yet the relationship between movement and learning is so strong that it pervades all of life—and emotions are intertwined into the mix as well. Educators generally consign movement, emotion, and thinking to separate “compartments.” Students may feel awkward if they want to express emotions or move around when teachers want them to be still and think. Teachers need to realize that what the students are experiencing is simply a healthy integration of mind and body

(see Figure 4.2) above the title

(Jensen, 2022)

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Additional benefits for special needs learners

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Additional benefits for special needs learners

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Many teachers have found that programs that include movement help learners with special needs. Several hypotheses may explain this phenomenon. Many special-needs learners are stuck in counterproductive mental states, and movement is a quick way to change them. Second, movements, such as those involved in playing active games, will activate the brain across a wide variety of areas.

It may be the stimulation of those neural networks that helps trigger some learning. For other students, it may be the rise in energy, the increased blood flow, and the amines that put them in a better mood to think and recall. Some routines that call for slower movement can do the reverse, calming down students who are overactive, hence supporting a state of concentration.

A study by Reynolds and colleagues (2003) found that children with dyslexia were helped by a movement program. Those in the intervention group showed significantly greater improvement in dexterity, reading, verbal fluency, and semantic fluency than did the control group. The exercising group also made substantial gains on national standardized tests of reading, writing, and comprehension in comparison with students in the previous year.

Practical Suggestions

Some of the smartest things teachers can do are the simplest. When we keep students active, we keep their energy levels up and provide their brains with the oxygen-rich blood needed for highest performance. Teachers who insist that students remain seated during the entire class period are not promoting optimal conditions for learning.

Educators should purposefully integrate movement activities into everyday learning: not just hands-on classroom activities, but also daily stretching, walks, dance, drama, seat-changing, energizers, and physical education.

The whole notion of using only logical thinking in, for example, a mathematics class flies in the face of current brain research. In fact, Larry Abraham in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Texas-Austin says, “Classroom teachers should have kids move for the same reason that P.E. teachers have had kids count” (personal communication, 1997).

Brain-compatible learning means that educators should weave math, geography, social skills, role-play, science, and physical education together, along with movement, drama, and the arts. Don't wait for a special event. Here are examples of easy-to-use strategies.

What are my goals for today and this year?

What do I need to do today and this week in this class to reach my goals?

Why is it important for me to reach my goals today?

Drama and role-plays. Get your class used to daily or at least weekly role-plays. Have students play charades to review main ideas. Students can do an extemporaneous pantomime to dramatize a key point. Do one-minute commercials adapted from television to advertise upcoming content or to review past content.

Energizers. Energizer activities can (1) raise blood pressure and epinephrine levels among drowsy learners, (2) reduce restlessness among antsy learners, and (3) reinforce content. Use the body to measure things around the room and report the results. For example, “This cabinet is 99 knuckles long.”

Play a Simon Says game with built-in content: “Simon says point to the south. Simon says point to five different sources of information in this room.” Do team jigsaw puzzles with huge, poster-sized mind maps.

Have young students get up and move around the room, touching seven colors on seven different objects in a particular order. Teach a move-around system using memory cue words. For example, “Stand in the place in the room where we first learned about . . .”

Quick games. Use ball-toss games for review, vocabulary building, storytelling, or self-disclosure. Have students rewrite lyrics to familiar songs in pairs or as a team. The new words to the song can provide a content review.

Then have the students perform the song with choreography. Get physical in other ways, too. Play a tug-of-war game in which everyone chooses a partner and a topic from a list of topics that every student has been learning about. Each person forms an opinion about his or her topic.

The goal is for each student to convince a partner in 30 seconds why his or her topic is more important. After the verbal debate, the pairs form two teams for a giant tug of war for a physical challenge. All partners are on opposite sides.

Cross-laterals. Learn and use arm and leg crossover activities that can force both brain hemispheres to “talk” to each other better. “Pat your head and rub your belly” is an example of a crossover activity.

Other examples include marching in place while patting opposite knees, patting yourself on the opposite shoulder, and touching opposite elbows or heels. Several books highlight these activities, including Sensorcises by Laurie Glazner and Smart Moves and The Dominance Factor by Carla Hannaford.

Stretching. To open class, or anytime that you and your students need more oxygen, get everyone up to do some slow stretching. Ask students to lead the whole group, or let teams do their own stretching. Allow learners more mobility in the classroom during specific times. Give them errands to do, make a jump rope available, or simply let them walk around the back of the classroom as long as they do not disturb other students.

Physical education and recess. Budget cuts often target physical education as “a frill.” That's a shame, because, as we have seen, good evidence indicates that these activities make school interesting to many students, and they can help boost academic performance. We're not talking about going overboard with exercises.

Thirty minutes a day, three to five days a week will do the job (Tomporowski, 2003). Any school that has problems at recess or with physical education should fix the problems, not throw out an important asset.

Teachers should also ensure that breaks include some movement—no standing around at recess time! Breaks can include fast walking, running, or high-energy play (McNaughten &amp; Gabbard, 1993). The breaks must last for 30 or 40 minutes to maximize the cognitive effects (Gabbard &amp; Shea, 1979).

For breaks of that length, it may make sense to alternate highly challenging activities with more relaxing ones. A short recess arouses students and may leave them “hyper” and less able to concentrate.

A longer break engages high energy, but it cannot be sustained. Thus, a more calm, restful state of relaxation should follow. This pattern allows the students to focus better on the task at hand.

Breaks at midday and early afternoon provide a greater benefit to the students than an early morning recess (McNaughten &amp; Gabbard, 1993). Because longer breaks are more valuable than shorter ones, timing may dictate that the midday break also be used for lunch.

Summary

Strong evidence supports the connection between movement and learning. Evidence from imaging sources, anatomical studies, and clinical data shows that moderate exercise enhances cognitive processing. It also increases the number of brain cells.

And as a bonus, it can reduce childhood obesity. Schools that do not implement a solid physical activity program are shortchanging student brains and their potential for academic performance.

Movement activities should become as important as so-called “book work.” We need to better allocate resources to harness the hidden power of movement, activities, and sports. This attitude has become more and more prevalent among scientists who study the brain. It's time for educators to catch on.

(Jensen, 2022)

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Differentiated instruction and the kinesthetic learner

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Differentiated instruction and the kinesthetic learner

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Strategies to Help Kinesthetic Learners Succeed:

In research from Hutton (2013):

Provide your child with hands-on learning tools, including:

An abacus (a manual math tool with horizontal rods and moveable beads)

Modeling clay

Number lines

Models

Sandpaper or carpet (Children can use their finger to trace letters and draw shapes on textured surfaces to help retain the information.)

Drawing materials

Puzzles

Wooden numbers and letters

Globes and maps

Blocks and cubes

Felt boards

Computers

A geoboard with rubber bands (a square board with pegs used to teach shapes and geometric concepts)

Provide your child with hands-on learning opportunities, including:

Experiments

Field trips

Role-playing

Projects

Games

Kinesthetic learners do things differently, but that doesn’t mean they do them worse.

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Considering all the data collected, it demistifies the lens that shows how important and relevant the incorporation of movement is.

Teachers would do well to familarize themselves with the strategies, accommodations, differentiation techniques etc that will make learning that much more of an adventure than a chore. Our communities of people with special  needs can experience a whole new revelation that will transform them not only cognitively but also emotinonally and physically too - these benefits can transform them completely - for this to occur we need all stakeholders to play their part in their various roles from the districts all the way into their homes.

In my personal experience, I have consistently seen the positive changes that kinaesthetic and multi-modal learning can bring into the class - the whole mood is lifted and learners hold on to the information easlity and with less resistance.

To teach lessons with student centered learning in mind is a risk well gambled - perhaps it is our biases as the teachers/lecturers & lack of exposure to kinaesthetic learning that informs our quality of classes and subsequently robs our learners of the richness of learning.

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Jensen, E., 2022. [online] Ascd.org. Available at: <https://www.ascd.org/books/teaching-with-the-brain-in-mind-2nd-edition?chapter=movement-and-learning> [Accessed 21 August 2022]

Kinesthetic Learning Activities FOR EVERYONE! (2020, February 17). YouTube. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXfuB6yleA

Lengel, T., & Kuczala, M. (2010). The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning Through Movement. Education Review.

Roell, K. (2018, September 11). Study Strategies for the Kinesthetic Learning Style. ThoughtCo. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-kinesthetic-learning-style-3212046

Student Centered Learning: Why, How, & What. (2018, September 19). YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvzVAQkuSqU

The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement | Michael Kuczala | TEDxAshburn. (2015, April 22). YouTube. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41gtxgDfY4s

What Is Multimodal Learning? 35 Strategies and Examples to Empower Your Teaching. (n.d.). Prodigy Education. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/multimodal-learning/

What is Multi-Modal Learning? (2020, September 2). YouTube. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApTpx6klxzA

Western Governors University. (2021, August 11). Five Educational Learning Theories. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.wgu.edu/blog/five-educational-learning-theories2005.html#close

Western Governors University. (2021b, August 11). Five Educational Learning Theories. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.wgu.edu/blog/five-educational-learning-theories2005.html

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Student engagement in their classroom community

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Student engagement in their classroom community

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Creating a learning environment where students collaborate fosters life-long learning.
“Classroom communities that provide stimulating, supportive, and safe environments in which students are not dissuaded from challenging themselves due to fear of failure and ridicule are the classrooms in which students become lifelong learners” (Bransford, Vye, & Bateman, 2002).

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Within connectivism, learning occurs when peers are connected and share opinions, viewpoints, and ideas through a collaborative process. Connectivism allows a community of people to legitimize what they're doing, so knowledge can be spread more quickly through multiple communities. It empowers students and teachers…such as we are doing now with this Padlet. (Western Governors University May 27,2021).

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Piaget’s theory (meaning through action and experience) is very similar yet Vygotsky’s theory is more closely related to social, collaborative interactions with others. This, theoretically, should significantly increase not only the quantity of information and the number of skills a child develops, it also affects the development of higher order mental functions such as formal reasoning. Vygotsky argued that higher mental abilities could only develop through the interaction with more advanced others.

A constructivist classroom is one in which students learn by doing, rather than by passively absorbing knowledge.  A classroom where students are collectively engaged in collaboration in hands-on activities or cooperative thinking will amplify their knowledge and meaning of the subject. (McLeod, S. (2022, August 18). Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development. Simplypsychology.Org. https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html)

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Driscoll (2000) defines learning as “a persisting change in human performance or performance

potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world” . This definition encompasses many of the attributes commonly associated with behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism – namely, learning as a lasting changed state (emotional,
mental, physiological, brought about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people.

Learning through activities, similar to how we are engaged with Moreland, is behind the theory of connectivsm.  People are considered « nodes » connecting with « links » of information such as with networks.

Students or learners (in the workplace) establish their roles in the project and all apply their understanding through digital tools.

Learning and work related activities (school and employment) are the same, connected, shared with others. There is a crossover with roles and interactions.  We learn about each other and each person’s understanding and perspective, their points of view, including diversity in the final application on a shared digital document.

The technology is rapidly adapted and the information is incorporated and often adjusted by the minute, connecting various fields of expertise and experience, or accessing the most current information.

For teachers to share and collaborate on learning activities will increase student connection and engagement and allow their class to flourish and professional development to climb a steep peak.

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

(Driscoll, M. (2000).Psychology of Learning for Instruction.

Needham Heights, MA, Allyn & Bacon).