Skip to main content

20% Project Failure: Student Centered Learning

Over the past five years, I have spent a great deal of time shifting 20% of my class from being teacher-centered to student-centered. That was a fail.

I've written a fair amount about the 20% Project and why I believed that it was important to have class time when the teacher is off center stage while shifting emphasis on the students. This model energized and liberated many of my students, while it confused and terrified others. Either way, I was committed to establishing a project where students can take on challenges and solve problems any way they saw fit. As a result, my students are currently wrapping up some amazing projects.

The problem, though, is that a 20% Project should NOT be a student-centered project. It should be a human-centered project. OK, I don't really like the term human-centered either. Last I checked, most students and teachers at least resemble humans. I mean, what else would it be, pistachio-centered? I'm reminded of when writers begin a sentence with In life, or Throughout history, or In society. These modifiers are meaningless.

However human-centered is a specific term that comes from the design-thinking framework that Molly Wilson introduced to our entire school last week. For a solution to be human-centered, it must come from deliberate research on the individuals who will experience the solution. It involves building empathy on the user. I much prefer the term user-centered or audience-centered, but whatever you call it, I prefer the idea better than student-centered when applied to independent product-based learning assignments like the 20% Project.

A student-centered project is one that focuses on the creator's needs and desires, where an audience-centered or user-centered project focuses on the actual person who would use the project. Many of my students naturally intuited that their project should be audience-centered. Consider my students who decided to teach technology to senior citizens. Before they began solving all of the seniors' problems, the students took the time to see where individuals were in their expertise and assessed their goals for using technology. These students adapted beautifully while creating their session.

Next year during the 20% Project, I would like to see empathy be a more structured component of the project. After they identify what type of project they want to pursue, students will need to identify the audience or user base of the project. Then they must interview potential users and empathize with them to better understand how to solve the problem. According to Molly, this component of the design-thinking process is not only essential, it's also a ton of fun.

There is still a place for student-centered learning, just as there is still a place for teacher-centered learning. Perhaps the closer the learning goals are toward the bottom of Bloom's Taxonomy, the more the work should be teacher-centered. As activities work their way up, they should be student-centered, but the top should go beyond the student and center on a real authentic audience.

Many language prescriptivists object to the term centered around claiming that objects and ideas can be centered on something but not around something. I've made such obnoxious objections in the past, but perhaps classes should be centered around teachers, students, and humans.

Comments

  1. Great job! I would like to say that this is a well-written article as we are seen here. This article is very useful and I got so much information about student. Thanks for sharing this article here. custom quickbooks mobile app

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job for publishing such a nice article. Your article isn’t only useful but it is additionally really informative. Thank you because you have been willing to share information with us. Phone Size Comparison

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment #1: Introduce Yourself

As I mentioned in my previous post, the first thing I do in class is have my students write and deliver two minute introductions. Obviously it gives me a sense of their writing and presentation skills, but more importantly it allows me to know who they are. Here's the prompt I give them: Your first formal assignment is to compose and present a short introduction so I may better get to know you. I'm only looking for a two minute introduction. I would like you to type it out and then read it to the class. Make sure you save your work somewhere because I'm going to ask you to post it in your portfolio (more on that later). I'd like to get a sense of who you are and what your voice is. Not sure what to write? No problem ... here are some ideas to help get you started: What are you passionate about? What are some of your goals for the year? For your life? What is the most important physical object in your life? (take a photo of it and bring it to class) What is y

Back the book: The 20 Time Project

Later this month I plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign for a book I will finish this summer. The working title is The 20 Time Project: How educators and parents can follow Google's formula for supercharged innovation . Before I actually launch the campaign, I'm looking for pre-backers so when I do go live, the Kickstarter page isn't sad and lonely. For a $15 pledge, you will get a copy of the book (signed or unsigned depending on whether you want my ink on it). For more, you will get more. Here are my commitments: May 1 launch Kickstarter Campaign June 1 close Kickstarter Campaign with at least $3,000 raised July 1  draft finished September 1 send book to publisher (I plan to distribute the book on my own, through the Kindle store, and through Amazon) October 1 ship books and rewards to backers  Some of you can expect to hear from me directly, so beware. If you're willing to be a pre-backer, please let me know in the comments, through email (brookhous

Anyone can make an Android App

Android App Inventor android.kevinbrookhouser.com 1. Go to and bookmark       ai2.appinventor.mit.edu 2. Start a new project     "grumpyapp" (no spaces or symbols) 3. Drag a button into your screen 4. Make the button this image. 5. Download these MP3 files.   meow  and  hiss . upload it as a new sound in App Inventor. 6. If you have an Android device, get the  A12 Companion App for Android  and c onnect your Android to the computer. 7. If you don't have an Android device, get this  chrome app  and install  this apk .  8. Go to "Blocks" and create this. MITs Android App Inventor Get the App! Connect Android Device to Computer over WIFI Get the Moto E Animal Dashboard Video bit.ly/ARC_Welder_Chrome You need this cat. Right click [save image as]. And you need the meow at the bottom of this page. Hello Purr Instructions Magic 8 Ball Instructions The App Inventor YouTube Channel Publ