I
believe most primary school lesson have to be student-centred. But it does not
mean that every part of the lesson has to be student-centred. We, actually,
have to maintain some particular parts teacher-centred.
The key to
student-centred lesson is the student's expression. Whether or not students are
given a chance to speak or write down their own expression is where difference
between student-centred and teacher-centred lies.
In order to pull out
student's expression, teachers must have students deeply engaged and well
prepared. And to do so, teachers may have to explain a lot and clearly. That
part has to be absolutely teacher-centred. Teachers must confidently have
teacher-centred parts in the early stage of their lessons in order to clearly
direct students to forge their own expression. It is found in many classrooms
that teacher asks many questions to let students answer, then teachers believe
it is student-centred. But it is not. Students might be trying to make some
conversation with the teacher because they have to. That would end up with the
typical classroom conversation of "Is that clear? - Yes" or "You
understand? - Yes." or "Any questions? - No".
We must
emphasise that the Chalk-Talk style teaching has nothing wrong with
student-centred lessons. In fact, most teachers who are very good at performing
student-centred lessons happen to be extremely good at Chalk-talking. Simply,
because they know how they explain and lead students to the learning objectives.
In other words, they know exactly what they are teaching. I believe all
teachers should have strong Chalk-talking skills.