Student-Centered Teaching and its Impact on Learning Outcomes Tyronnica Mingo Concordia University A Research Report Presented to The Graduate Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master’s in Education Concordia University - Portland Running head: STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING 1 2019 Student-centered Teaching and its Impact on Learning Outcomes Today’s teachers are presented instruction in different ways. Teachers want learning to be spontaneous. Teaching and learning are no longer traditional. Teachers are not handing out notes and students are following along taking notes. The days are long gone. Students have formative assessment throughout their lessons to check for understanding. Through research and professional developments, teachers have learned to measure their student’s success in a new way. In this new way of learning and teaching, the lessons are more student-centered. Teachers still write lesson plans, but in hopes that students will use strategies previously learned to keep all students engaged in the lesson. The question is how the instructional outcomes becomes successful when they are student-led when students are still in grade school. Students begin to learn this process at the beginning of school in hopes to get better each week. In most schools, holidays breaks come in towards the ends of the year. At this time, educators notice that students are not really engaged in the lesson. The middle years of schooling have been identified as a time when disengagement with education is likely (Chan, Baker, Slee, & Williamson, 2015). This is a problem for teachers because engagement is key when measuring the success of the lesson taught. Engagement is seen as important in promoting school completion (Chan et al., 2015). In rural areas, grades have been shifted around to meet budget cuts. Sixth grade is now considered still elementary in most of these areas. In the older days, sixth grade was the start of middle school. You would remain in middle school until eighth grade graduation. In order to cut the dropout rate, students must come to school and participate in their learning. This means that the lesson must be interested, and less teacher oriented. Research shows that engaging students is a challenging and often frustrating task for mathematics teachers (Madelinebevs, 2013). The planning of activities to go along with the curriculum is key. Students should use strategies that keeps everyone talking and thinking. Student-centered teaching can help alleviate this disengagement. It increases time spent in class on engaging activities (Gorzycki, n.d.). The literature review shows in research that lessons and curriculums that provides room for student-centered activities will have a positive impact on grade schools. The instructional outcomes are met using these strategies. Review of the Literature Cooperative Learning vs. Teacher Oriented Learning Research shows that an experime.

1. Student-Centered Teaching and its Impact on Learning
Outcomes
Tyronnica Mingo
Concordia University
A Research Report Presented to The Graduate Program in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master’s in Education
Concordia University - Portland
Running head: STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING 1
2019
Student-centered Teaching and its Impact on Learning
Outcomes Today’s teachers are presented instruction in
different ways. Teachers want learning to be spontaneous.
Teaching and learning are no longer traditional. Teachers are
not handing out notes and students are following along taking
notes. The days are long gone. Students have formative
assessment throughout their lessons to check for understanding.
Through research and professional developments, teachers have
learned to measure their student’s success in a new way. In this
new way of learning and teaching, the lessons are more student-

2. centered. Teachers still write lesson plans, but in hopes that
students will use strategies previously learned to keep all
students engaged in the lesson. The question is how the
instructional outcomes becomes successful when they are
student-led when students are still in grade school. Students
begin to learn this process at the beginning of school in hopes
to get better each week. In most schools, holidays breaks come
in towards the ends of the year. At this time, educators notice
that students are not really engaged in the lesson. The middle
years of schooling have been identified as a time when
disengagement with education is likely (Chan, Baker, Slee, &
Williamson, 2015). This is a problem for teachers because
engagement is key when measuring the success of the lesson
taught. Engagement is seen as important in promoting school
completion (Chan et al., 2015). In rural areas, grades have been
shifted around to meet budget cuts. Sixth grade is now
considered still elementary in most of these areas. In the older
days, sixth grade was the start of middle school. You would
remain in middle school until eighth grade graduation. In order
to cut the dropout rate, students must come to school and
participate in their learning. This means that the lesson must be
interested, and less teacher oriented. Research shows that
engaging students is a challenging and often frustrating task for
mathematics teachers (Madelinebevs, 2013). The planning of
activities to go along with the curriculum is key. Students
should use strategies that keeps everyone talking and thinking.
Student-centered teaching can help alleviate this
disengagement. It increases time spent in class on engaging
activities (Gorzycki, n.d.). The literature review shows in
research that lessons and curriculums that provides room for
student-centered activities will have a positive impact on grade
schools. The instructional outcomes are met using these
strategies.

3. Review of the Literature
Cooperative Learning vs. Teacher Oriented Learning
Research shows that an experiment was conducted by a
professor of an institution that involved a quantitative. The
subjects of the experiment were two students that were
freshmen to a business math course. In this research it shows
how the students compared learning cooperative and how they
learned when the lesson was teacher oriented. When the teacher
led, it was mostly lecturing. In a university with math teachers,
student-centered lessons show how the students were engaged in
both settings (Shumacher, & Kennedy, 2008). The research also
showed that the professor wanted two sets of questions
answered. He wanted to know could there be proof that one way
of learning was better than the other. The research study that
was viewed had 49 participants. The participants were split into
two classes. One of the classes was taught using cooperative
learning and the other was taught with teacher-oriented
learning. This meant that one class was able to use student-
centered activities and the other was more of a lecture by the
professor. The classes were equally monitored using quizzes

4. and exams.
The results of this study did not show a mass difference.
However, the research was on to something else. The fact that
one group consisted of college students may have made a big
difference on the results. These students are more mature, which
means that they were more invested in the outcome of their
learning. The college students would have paid attention rather
it was teacher oriented or student-centered. This was secondary
to their education and they were enrolled by choice. They
wanted to succeed. These students may not have been the best
subjects for this research. They were going to sit through
whatever to get a passing grade to be put towards their degree
credits. At this time, research was needed for a different group
in order to get attainable results. In six grades, students do not
feel like they own their learning. They are showed several
strategies on how to learn things, but they do not have to come
with their own in order to pass. These students are trying to get
to seventh-grade, not thinking about math in their future. In the
mind of a sixth grader, they may never use math that is being
taught now again. They are only trying to pass the test. It is not
heavily weighted as a career goal. Their education is completely
free, and they don’t have the burden of paying for it or their
parents having to pay their tuition. Education is important at
this time but it is more middle school friendly (Turner,
Christensen, Kackar-Cam, Trucano, & Fulmer, 2014).
This article gives off more details of learning in the classroom
of grade school students. It basically tells that student’s
engagement depends on how the lesson is perceived by the
student. If the student is interested, they are more engaged. This
goes back to the beginning of the year when students are taught
to be engaged through strategies and techniques presented by
their teacher. The learning should be cooperative where the
teacher and the student’s role is equal. The research explains
that students are more likely to be active in the lesson is they
are involved by their teacher. They will be passive when sitting
in their desk listening to a lecture taking notes. The study

5. involved approximately 32 teachers at a middle school. The
teachers were a part of this study for three years. Observations
of the teachers in the study were randomly selected by
administrators. The results showed upward and stable trends of
the teachers. Teachers were then selected randomly for
observation in their classrooms. Teachers were put into the two
categories based on observation findings. The teachers were
discussed in the article.
In the study a veteran teacher of English Language Arts was
studied. This teacher was a part on of the groups of the studies
previous mentioned. The group was the upward group. The
teacher promotes students in her class to produce well though
out work. In order to produce clear work, students may take one
class period. The teacher acted as a facilitator for her students.
She was able to offer guidance to her students but not give any
leading answers.
The other teacher in the study presented taught 8th grade. This
teacher was also considered a veteran teacher. Her classroom
was a part of the opposite study. The students in this call did
not interact as much as the students in the other classroom. The
class was more teacher led where the teacher talked most of the
time. The students had little to no input.
This article is creditable because it studied its subjects for three
years. The trends in the data was collected over this time. The
mishap with this article is that it’s not direct enough for ht
research question. The results do not specifically show student-
centered or teacher-oriented strategies. The study did not focus
on one area of study, but multiple subjects. The students were
not learning the same things in these classrooms. According to
McMillan (2015), “a characteristic of experiments is “control”
of irrelevant variables. In other words, the effect, which is
measured by differences in the dependent variable, should be
produced only by the intervention (p. 238).” Another question
that arises, were the reasons for the trends found in the
classrooms a result of some classrooms being more interested
than others? Secondary educators who are math experts are

6. more likely to use student-centered learning in the classroom,
the lessons were taught differently. One was taught with
student-centered strategies and the other was teacher-oriented
(Shumacher, & Kennedy, 2008). The research presented has
defended my hypothesis so far. However, it has not answered
my research question. The articles that were discussed were
each lacking information needed to answer my question. The
articles combined may answer the question. One article needs
information from the next to make valid points as far as the
question. All findings should be a result of the intervention.
There also much be a difference of the experimental group and
the control group. When using student-centered learning in the
classroom students are able to do all these things (Hanim, Mohd
Rasidi, & Zainol Abidin, 2012).
The purpose of the research in this article is to find the effects
of student-centered learning in math classrooms. This is related
to the research question. Pre-university students are the subjects
in the study provided in the article. Questionnaires were used to
collect data from participants. The results of the questionnaires
showed that pre-university students agreed that if math lessons
were student-centered, they can make real life connections with
the concepts that are being taught by their teachers. When
students are engaged with peers, the learning is easier to
understand. They can break the understanding down to their
peers. The learning process is activated through student-
centered learning, so students are engaged, and they feel better
sharing their ideas and answers with others.
Guidance during Student-Centered Learning
Student-centered learning gives students come control over
their learning. When compared to teacher-led, the teachers are
normally lecturing, and students are taking notes in preparation
for an exam to follow. Cooperative learning is activated when
students are involved. The teachers normally give off a prompt
or ask a question to activate learning. Through strategies and
techniques students are engaged with one another to solve the
problem or answer the question. The teacher is no longer in

7. charged at this point. This takes time, guidance, and motivation.
Strategies like accountable talk and all heads together are taught
to students at the beginning of the year. The teacher provides
guidance until he/she feels like the students can handle it on
their own. Student-centered learning explores teacher guidance
in student-centered classrooms when addressing learning
difficulties (Ding & Li, 2014). In this article, the study involved
three teachers. The first teacher, Jennifer gave guidance to her
students that was more conceptual. The other teachers, Rose and
Mary were big on teaching the procedures needed for the
learning to go smoothly. When thinking about conceptual,
Jennifer was prompted her students when problems became
difficult to solve. She reminded them of formulas that should be
used and strategies to solve. Contrary, Mary and Rose acted as
facilitators only. The lesson became student-centered and their
learning took place through discussion and collaboration. All
three of the teachers were teaching the same lesson, but one
used a different approach. Jennifer’s approach was more
teacher-oriented, while Rose and Mary used the student-
centered learning. Student-centered learning showed greater
results.
Motivation
It is important to motivate students in the classroom. Educators
should want students to be eager to learn material in all
subjects. Teachers should strive to touch on all needs of
students in the classroom, rather it’s independent, group, or
partnerships. The hypothesis used in the article showed poor
motivation may lead to poor achievement on standardized tests
or vice versa (Brown & Walberg, 1993). In this study,
researchers wanted to know the effect of teachers and
administrators expressing that the end of year test is important.
The teachers constantly reminded students that they should do
their best. The study included two classes that ranged from
grades 3-8. Fifth grade was not included in this study. In this
experiment study, one class was told how important the test was

8. and they should do their best and the other class was not told.
Intervention is tied in the results of the study because one was
told, and one was not. The results showed that the class where
teachers and administrators asked students to do their best had
better results on the test than the class that was not told.
Analysis
Research showed that student-centered learning provides
students with the opportunity to learn with others. Students are
engaged in this strategy and everyone has a say so in discussion
or the activity. Engagement is key in learning materials
presented by teachers. Collaborative activities are great
techniques that can be used to engage students. If students are
not engaged in the lesson, they are not learning. In any subject,
the technique must be learned.When utilizing student-centered
learning, students feel like they are a part of the lesson, and
they seem to try harder. In grade school, this is important to
students. No student wants to feel left out. Many students try to
sit back and not participate in learning, but when the lesson is
student-centered, they must play their part. This soon boost up
their confidence to participate. When student-learning was
viewed in the college student survey, it showed that it was not
that important. At this point in their education, they want a
passing grade. It does not matter if they participate in the
lesson, some much rather studying notes and taking test.
Student-centered learning gives students a sense of ownership
of what they have learned. It creates a sense of pride and keep
students engaged.
Conclusions
In a class where students have a say so in learning, they will try
harder to succeed. Student-centered learning promotes
engagement in the classroom. Teachers should begin the lesson
by letting students know what is expected of them using
instructional outcomes. The strategies learned for to promote
student-centered learning allows students to help others in their
group. All lesson should be under the guidance of the teachers,

9. but students should be able to come up with questions and
answers to their peers for better for a better understanding.
Teachers should always motivate students throughout the
learning process. The teachers should listen close to students’
discussions but let the students engaged in accountable talk to
come up with a good solution.
References
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