Goal 11: Give Students Reign

“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.”

Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man




Giving our students reign is another challenge that we face. Why? Times have changed and as we keep on saying, we cannot teach our students in the same way we were taught in the past because in that way, they will learn very little. Despite knowing this fact, many teachers continue lecturing on and on, and their students get bored to death. because they need to learn by doing things. In the past, we used to be recipients of knowledge and we learnt in that way, but not anymore. Our students need to get involved, to become active participants of their learning process. Does this mean that we teachers are no longer necessary? Definitely not, but our role now should be more of a facilitator though we may need to lecture at times.
Have I tried a more student-centred approach? Yes, I have. And it feels so good to make them do most of the talking, to sense that they are the main actors and that they are learning.