A Student- Centered Pedagogy: A Teacher’s Perspective
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Date
2015-05
Authors
Bosire, M. M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This paper draws from a larger study conducted in Kenyan classroom, a narrative inquiry into a teacher and children learning about HIV and AIDS curriculum using a student-centered approach. The two major research questions of this study were: 1) What are the experiences of a teacher teaching the HIV and AIDS curriculum using a student-centered approach? 2) What are the experiences of children learning the HIV and AIDS curriculum using a student-centered approach?
In this research, I adopted a narrative inquiry methodology to help me understand and represent the stories of a teacher’s and children’s experiences. Narrative inquiry as a method of studying educational experience is a focus of study by Clandinin and Connelly (2000). In narrative inquiry, experience is central to the inquiry. The participants in this study were a teacher and 8 children recruited from children in standard 4 aged between 10 and 11 years. While the classroom work was with all children in standard 4, the main focus of this study was with the teacher’s and the 8 children’s experiences.
The findings from this suggest that a teacher who adopt a student-centered approach in teaching HIV and AIDS experienced a transformed classroom learning environment characterized by: sharing authority with children; constructing a democratic classroom; learning to listen to children; affirming children’s voices and ownership in learning; creating a partnership with parents; interrupting gendered classroom; and developing children’s advocacy in community matters.
The study concludes with recommendations for equipping teachers with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to build a student-centered classroom environment.
Description
This paper was presented at the International Conference on
‘Re-Engineering Education for Sustainable Development’ held on
18th – 20th May 2015 at Kenyatta University Conference Centre (KUCC) Nairobi, Kenya
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Citation
International Conference on ‘Re-Engineering Education for Sustainable Development’ 18th – 20th May 2015