Student-Centered Instruction: Involving Students in Their Own Education

Learning by Doing Student-centered instruction is a form of active learning where students are engaged and involved in what they are studying. In the United States, this concept was first described around 1900 in the context of con structivism. As a teaching method, construc tivism goes back to at least the work of edu cation reformer John Dewey and Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky. According to one definition, constructivism states that students learn more by doing and experiencing rather than by observing.1 If, for example, one wants to learn about the saxophone, he or she will learn more by play ing the saxophone than by listening to and reading about the saxophone. Educators Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks describe the value of allowing student responses to steer lessons and create instruc tional strategies. They recommend asking questions and leading students to solutions rather than simply giving answers, with the goal of nurturing students' natural curiosity.2 Put simply, student-centered instruction is when the planning, teaching, and assessment revolve around the needs and abilities of the students. The teacher shares control of the classroom, and students are allowed to explore, experiment, and discover on their own. This does not mean that the students are in control of the classroom, but rather that they have some influence in the deci