Students Acquiring Expertise through Student-Centered Learning in Mathematics Lessons

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study that investigated junior high school students' experiences with learning in mathematics lessons that were based on self-guidance, use of technology, and minimalist instruction. The study was part of a ClassPad project and data were obtained from reports written by the 23 students after the ClassPad project ended. A model describing the student's process of mastering doing and learning mathematics through acquiring expertise processes was constructed by using grounded theory method. The mastery of doing and/or learning was reached either with satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Two different learning profiles, one concluding with students feeling satisfied with their learning and the other concluding with students feeling unsatisfied illustrated the students' typical processes. The findings further revealed that when the teacher's role was minimized and the students had the opportunity to self-guide their learning in an environment with various materials and easy-to-use technology, student-centered learning occurred.

The multiple meanings of ‘student-centred’ or ‘learner-centred’ education, and the case for a more flexible approach to defining it

“…Numerous education systems around the world have introduced SCE/LCE into their curricula, for example in China (Wang, 2011), India (Brinkmann, 2019), Sub-Saharan Africa (Lattimer, 2015) the United States (Dunn & Rakes, 2010) and Europe (Sin, 2015). SCE/LCE is not subject-specific, and has been mentioned in a wide range of disciplines, for example in Maths (Eronen & Kärnä, 2017), Science (Tal & Tsaushu, 2018), Nursing (Oyelana et al, 2018), Languages (Kassem, 2019) and the Creative Arts (Costes-Onishi & Caleon, 2016). Schweisfurth (2013) suggests that there may be three overlapping 'justificatory narratives' for introducing SCE/LCE: 'cognition'the idea that SCE/LCE approaches are more likely to help students learn effectively; 'emancipation'the idea that SCE/LCE may lead to positive social change; and 'preparation'the idea that SCE/LCE is necessary in order to prepare learners for the skills they are likely to need in a rapidly changing world.…”

Implementation of the Student-Centered Team-Based Learning Teaching Method in a Medicinal Chemistry Curriculum

“…Despite the challenges, SCTBL principles should be integrated into medicinal chemistry instruction, as it is an innovative approach to advancing knowledge of medicinal chemistry concepts while also promoting the development of professional competence, including communication and teamwork skills. Student-centered classrooms would be the chief developmental direction of education reform now and in the future . SCTBL is an innovative teaching method that fully respects students’ central role in the learning process, allows them to discover their own value in the classroom, helps them to more thoroughly comprehend the key points of the course, and allows them to give full play to their strengths in the classroom. , However, there are still some unresolved issues with SCTBL, such as complicated teaching tasks, limited class hours, stringent requirements for students, and a narrow scope of application.…”

“…Student-centered classrooms would be the chief developmental direction of education reform now and in the future. 33 SCTBL is an innovative teaching method that fully respects students' central role in the learning process, allows them to discover their own value in the classroom, helps them to more thoroughly comprehend the key points of the course, and allows them to give full play to their strengths in the classroom. 26,34 However, there are still some unresolved issues with SCTBL, such as complicated teaching tasks, limited class hours, stringent requirements for students, and a narrow scope of application.…”

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF DoCtor WoRM’S MODULE IN IMPROVING MULTIPLICATION SKILLS AMONG YEAR FOUR LOW ACHIEVERS

“…Over practice and emphasis on drills in Chinese Mathematics curriculum might train these children to rely more on phonological codes for retrieval . Selfguided learning and teamwork with an appropriate tool and minimalist instruction increased pupils' intrinsic motivation towards learning Mathematics, whereas the traditional Mathematics lessons, in which the motivation is more extrinsic due to the teacher's active role, were less appealing to them (Eronen & Karna, 2017). According to which pupils recognize that they know less about multiplication and division than addition and subtraction, and therefore are less confident in their multiplication and division judgement (Lortie-Forgues & Siegler, 2016).…”