Teaching Post 5-Elisabeth

5. Student-centered learning
I've discovered that there is a fine line between listening to students concerns, and listening to them complain. Because we were unfamiliar with the classroom setting, we did things that they did not feel comfortable with. I can think of 2 examples, one where I believe student input was valid, and another when it was not as applicable. We gave a time limit on their scenes that was 2 minutes longer than they were used to. The entire class got very stressed out. We could tell that this was real fear; that we were asking them to do something they were not prepared to do, especially in the time they were given. So we adjusted the time limit, after listening to student input. On the same day, we assigned them to groups to write in. Again, everyone got very upset when we wouldn't let them choose their own groups. They asked that they be allowed to choose. But we had noticed that there were students who were totally distracted when they were together, and a new student in the class who did not really know anyone. So in this case we kept the groups we had assigned, because it would in fact be better for their working environment. Both choices were made to benefit the students, and allow them to succeed in what we asked of them. But one took in student input for the value it had, and the other decided that in this case student learning would be better aided if we did not give in to them.