Student-Centered Learning Approach in Malaysian Universities Essay

This essay delves into the debate between student-centered and teacher-centered approaches to learning, arguing in favor of the former as being better suited for modern educational contexts, particularly in Malaysian universities. The essay highlights the benefits of a student-centered approach, including the development of crucial collaborative and communicative skills through group work, the fostering of critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, and the facilitation of skill transfer to real-world scenarios. It also emphasizes the creation of learners who can thrive in diverse and multicultural environments. The essay supports its arguments with evidence from various studies and literature, contrasting the student-centered approach with the traditional teacher-centered method. The essay emphasizes the importance of equipping students with skills to adapt to a changing world and the need for educators to understand and implement student-centered learning effectively. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of student engagement and the development of persuasive and coaching skills in the student-centered approach.

Running head: STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Essay outline:
Introduction
The aim of the essay is to provide arguments the topic whether student-centered approach
to learning is better or teacher-centered learning.
Thesis statement
The essay will argue in favor of the student-centered learning approach because this
approach is most suited for the present generation.
Topic sentence 1
Student-centered learning helps the students to learn crucial collaborative and
communicative skills by engaging in group work.
Supporting detail
As Laguador (2014) also states, one of the most successful ways to enhance
communicating skills is to organize the students in groups that are given particular projects or
tasks.
Topic sentence 2
Student-centered learning develops thinking skills of the students. Within the context of
learning, problem solving is a skill that is hard to learn.
Supporting detail

2STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
In the process, as Lee and Hannafin (2016) note, students make use of their prior
knowledge and out in efforts to solve a problem.
Example
For example, while working in a group, the students are given complex analytical
problem to solve. Every student in the group might posses separate skills and all these skills
could be utilized to solve the problem.
Topic sentence 3
Student-centered learning assists students in transferring their skills to the actual world.
Supporting detail
According to the views of Morze, Spivak and Smyrnova-Trybulska (2014), the
application of the skills learned in the class stays with the student throughout life and provides
assistance in situations where it is needed the most.
Topic sentence 4
Student-centered learning approach helps create learners who could work in diverse and
multicultural environments.
Supporting detail
Frame et al. (2015) reveal that students mostly prefer team-based learning, which is an
integral part of the student-centered approach.
Topic sentence 5

3STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
In student-centered learning, children are given the opportunity to teach others as well
hence enhance their persuading and coaching skills.
Supporting evidence
As Soisangwarn and Wongwanich (2014) have observed, the learner-centered approach
has been able to promote peer coaching this improving the teaching skills of the students.
Example
Suppose a student works at a multinational company where she or he has to compete with
her or his colleague to win clients.

4STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
Introduction
The aim of the essay is to provide arguments the topic whether student-centered approach
to learning is better or teacher-centered learning. While student-centered learning focuses on
allowing students to interact with the teachers frequently, teacher-centered learning means
teachers dictate the proceedings in the class. The student-centered approach to learning has
recently developed to become a widely accepted and applied approach in schools and colleges.
Teacher-centered education on the other hand, is the traditional learning method that is still
followed in many schools and colleges. For a teacher, it is important to consider the way one
wants to approach her or his means of teaching or instruction. The teacher must choose carefully
the means of instruction that would be beneficial for the students. The process of choosing the
instruction approach is difficult but most crucial.
The essay will argue in favor of the student-centered learning approach because this
approach is most suited for the present generation. However, it is also important to note that the
teacher must have the ability to apply student-centered learning in the classrooms because many
times it has been seen that this approach fails to yield effective results. The essay will justify the
thesis statement with supporting evidence from the literature.
Discussion
Student-centered learning helps the students to learn crucial collaborative and
communicative skills by engaging in group work. In this approach, the students are provided the
opportunity to work in groups and develop their skills of communication and collaboration. As
Laguador (2014) also states, one of the most successful ways to enhance communicating skills is
to organize the students in groups that are given particular projects or tasks. Domalewska (2014)

5STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
further notes that allowing the students to work in groups prepares them for their higher
education and professional life where they might face similar situation. When working in groups,
students have the opportunity to learn about each other. Teacher-centered learning on the other
hand, does not provide this opportunity to the students to work in groups and enhance their
collaborative and communicative skills. However, it is important to note that the learner-centered
approach could not eliminate the teacher altogether. Collaborative and communicative skills
could be learnt only when the teacher is willing to provide that platform to the students.
Keengwe, Onchwari and Agamba (2014) found in their study that group work within the student-
centered learning provides them with the opportunity to be involved in the class. Collaboration
through group work has the capacity to influence the students in understanding their academic
work and to be involved in the class. The learner-centered approach made the students more
interested in learning as they were seen asking questions to the teacher and class mates after
group discussion. Communication skills are enhanced through learner-centered approach for the
reason that it encourages the students to communicate with their peers while working in groups.
The learner-centered approach raises questions on the method of teaching where it is
presupposed that the teacher knows everything about the learner. It has been found that many
teachers in the modern era are not aware about student-centered learning or learning that
involves communicative language teaching (CLT). Student-centered approach provides
opportunity to the students to explore the various techniques of communicating with people.
Within a multicultural setting in particular, student-centered approach works the best in letting
the students communicate with others from different backgrounds.
Student-centered learning develops thinking skills of the students. Within the context of
learning, problem solving is a skill that is hard to learn. The student-centered approach makes it

6STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
easier for the students to understand the complication of problem solving. With this, students are
able to develop flexibility in reasoning and thinking skills. In the process, as Lee and Hannafin
(2016) note, students make use of their prior knowledge and out in efforts to solve a problem.
They continue to integrate novel learning into existing learning hence presenting a context and
forming a personal room of resources that would be available to them for future problem solving.
For example, while working in a group, the students are given complex analytical problem to
solve. Every student in the group might posses separate skills and all these skills could be
utilized to solve the problem. Through the learner-centered approach, students also have the
opportunity to develop associations and connections through linking their own life experience
with the subject matter. Park and Choi (2014) further focus on the present day classrooms
equipped with technologies such as SCALE-UP and TEAL that have been designed primarily to
engage students actively. The technology-rich classrooms following the student-centered
approach of learning enhance the interest of the students further. The authors however, have
found that the student-centered approach works best with student-centered pedagogy and
ineffective when used with teacher-centered pedagogies. While the student-centered pedagogies
emphasize on the critical role of the learner in constructing or creating meaning from new
knowledge and experience, teacher-centered pedagogy place the student as the listener and the
teacher as the expert. A study in 2014 revealed that the children considered undeserving thrive
within the student-centered learning environment (Lumpkin, Achen & Dodd, 2015). In addition
to that, the student-centered learning environment was largely responsible for improving the
student-teacher relationships along with improving the academic performance of the students.
Student-centered learning assists students in transferring their skills to the actual world.
The students make learning accustomed to the real world and gain problem-solving skills to

7STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
critically analyze any situation. Such skills help the student to become used to the ever-changing
environment of the real world. According to the views of Morze, Spivak and Smyrnova-
Trybulska (2014), the application of the skills learned in the class stays with the student
throughout life and provides assistance in situations where it is needed the most. Student-
centered learning allows the students to improve their behavior as well. They are faced with the
challenge to communicate and collaborate with people who are different from their culture, race,
and ethnicity and so on. While working in groups, they are bound to communicate with them.
Although there might be differences and conflict initially, the students learn to accept the
differences. With this experience gained, they become prepared for the real world. Pirker,
Riffnaller-Schiefer and Gütl (2014) however argue that the student-centered approach to learning
could not be effective without considering and integrating the elements of the traditional way of
teaching and learning. They state that while many teachers might feel that they are applying the
student-centered approach within their classrooms, they are not actually doing it.
Student-centered learning approach helps create learners who could work in diverse and
multicultural environments. In the learner-centered approach, the students have the opportunity
to interact with the members of their teams who might come from different cultural backgrounds.
Team work is vital when leading groups of people coming from various cultural backgrounds to
work towards a common goal. Frame et al. (2015) reveal that students mostly prefer team-based
learning, which is an integral part of the student-centered approach. The authors studied the
perceptions of the students regarding team-based learning and traditional learning and found that
after experiencing team-based learning, the students preferred the latter. The reason for such
team-based learning within the student-centered approach being popular amongst students is that
it provides the opportunity to students to become well-acquainted with the nuances of interacting

8STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
with diverse people. Hwang, Hung and Chen (2014) on the other hand, state that student-
centered learning not only improves students’ interaction capability in multicultural contexts, it
also betters their academic performance. In their study, the authors found that the use of student-
centered approach along with student-centered pedagogies largely improved the attitudes of the
students regarding academic performance.
In student-centered learning, children are given the opportunity to teach others as well
hence enhance their persuading and coaching skills. As Soisangwarn and Wongwanich (2014)
have observed, the learner-centered approach has been able to promote peer coaching this
improving the teaching skills of the students. The authors further add that the learner-centered
approach helps the teachers as well where they could reflect upon their own teaching skills by
observing the students coach their peers. Herloa (2015) however claims that a blended learning
approach is needed to improve efficiency of the learning within the classrooms. According to the
author, the use of student-centered interactive methods provides the opportunity to students to
increase their persuasive skills. Persuasion is an important skill to learn because in the real world
where students will have to face tough competition, student will need persuasive skills to claim
advantage. For instance, suppose a student works at a multinational company where she or he
has to compete with her or his colleague to win clients. The student with better persuasive skill
will win the client. As Unin and Bearing (2016) have noticed, brainstorming as a part of the
student-centered learning approach is an important aspect of the classroom. Brainstorming also
helps in enhancing the persuasive skills of the students. As opposed to teacher-centered learning,
learner-centered approach provides additional ways to engage in productive activities. Teacher-
centered learning is focused on the way the teacher or instructor instructs the class. It pays least
attention to the multicultural background, the different learning needs and abilities of the

9STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
students. Tondeur et al. (2016) explain this in a clearer way stating that teacher-centered learning
infuses the new technology to enhance the skills and capabilities of the teachers to teach in a
better way. It does not focus on the students who are the most important aspect of the learning
process. In teacher-centered learning, it is the teacher who is at the center of the entire learning
process and the charge of learning is in her or his hands. Students, in this approach are just
passive learners who receive information and they are conceived as “empty vessels” that need to
be filled by the knowledge that the teacher provides (Bada & Olusegun, 2015). While teachers in
the teacher-centered approach also provide opportunities for the students to engage in activities
that produce good results, it is mostly controlled by the teacher. Nonetheless, in the student-
centered approach, the teacher only observes the students from a distance while allowing them to
explore their potential in any activity. The approach also enables the students to identify, realize
and acknowledge the knowledge and skills they possess. According to the learner-centered
approach, each student possesses unique qualities and the job of the teacher is to identify that
quality and help the student explore it. By engaging the student in productive activities such as
allowing students to participate in an open debate with their peers, the teacher helps the student
to explore her or his potential.
In the learner-centered approach, teachers are clear about the way to promote, assess and
celebrate the understanding of the students. In the views of Goodyear and Dudley (2015), as
opposed to the popular thinking that student-centered approach to learning does not give enough
importance to teachers, the approach actually makes the role of the teacher vital. However, it is
also true that the teachers have to be very clear about the ways to incorporate the aspects of
student-centered learning within the classroom. Apart from that, the teachers also have to make
sure that their students are able to think on their own and for that, it is important that the teachers

10STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
demonstrate it in the class. These kinds of activities also help the teachers to grow and learn even
from the students. as teachers observe the students putting in their efforts and skills in any
project or activity, the teachers have the opportunity to observe the students and learn from them.
Conclusion
In the end, it could be stated that the student-centered approach to learning is more
effective in comparison to the teacher-centered approach. It was proved using evidence and
examples in the discussion above. At first, the essay explained both teacher-centered learning
and student-centered learning approach. While student-centered learning focused on allowing
students to interact with the teachers frequently, teacher-centered learning meant teachers dictate
the proceedings in the class. The essay found that student-centered learning helps the students to
learn crucial collaborative and communicative skills by engaging in group work. it also revealed
that for a teacher, it is important to consider the way one wants to approach her or his means of
teaching or instruction. The teacher must choose carefully the means of instruction that would be
beneficial for the students. The process of choosing the instruction approach is difficult but most
crucial. Furthermore, the essay revealed that in student-centered approach too, there is scope for
the teacher to grow and develop. In fact, it has been revealed that the teacher plays an important
role within the learner-centered environment. It is the teacher who has to give the initial
demonstration to the students on the way to apply thinking. It is the teacher who encourages the
students to apply their own skills and ability to any given situation. However, the teachers have
to make sure that their students are able to think on their own and for that, it is important that the
teachers demonstrate it in the class. Thus, it is evident that the student-centered approach is
beneficial for both the students and the teachers.

11STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO LEARNING
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