Towards Student Centerd Teaching : A New Paradigm

21st-century students are demanding an educational system that works for and with them. They are very curious, creative, eager to learn, and willing to try advance and new technologies. Therefore it is necessary to shift from teacher-centred teaching where teacher focused on what they are teaching, to student centered teaching where teacher focused on what students are learning.As a teacher we must act as facilitators who empower and learn from the students. The students should take more active roles as learners and that our roles change, too. This paper discusses Student centric teaching which provides an environment that engages the students allowing the construction of knowledge in a meaningful way by incorporating various interactive methods such as active learning, group learning, collaborative learning, experiential learning, etc. This paper provides more information about student centered teaching and offers some insights into how it is implemented for IT Technology Lab course at our Department of Information Technology, K. E Society's Rajarambapu Institute of Technology.


Introduction
Traditionally instructors focused on what they are teaching, and not on what the students are learning.Student-centred teachings shift the focus from teachers to the students.In higher education studentcentred teaching approach is increasingly being encouraged.In this approach teachers do not employ a single teaching method.However, a variety of different types of methods that shifts the role of the instructors from givers of information to the facilitator are employed.The instructor creates learning environments that motivate students for learning.
The major concern of traditional teaching approach is: We are teaching.Traditional teaching methods measure declarative knowledge.They neither address depth of understanding nor the skills that the students have acquired.In order to clarify the concept of Student-centred Learning, I shall compare it with more traditional way of teaching, usually called as 'Teacher-centered Learning' based on certain parameters.This may help you to clarify the notions of 'Student-centered teaching' and 'teacher-centered teaching.Table 1 shows this comparison.The major concern of student centered teaching approach is: Are they Learning?In student-centered teaching student should be at the heart of our educational efforts.Students and teachers interact equally, instead of listening to the teacher exclusively.Since, group work is encouraged, students learn to collaborate, help and communicate with one another.

A. Overview
Figure 2 shows the student-centered teaching approach.
It implies two main shifts: 1.From thinking about what we teach to how and why we teach something to the students.2. From thinking about teacher's performance to thinking about the student learning and learning processes.

B. Principles of Student Centered Learning
"student-centered" teaching gives students choice in content and voice in product.It uses an actual person as an audience and designs learning experiences.
There  As an engineer it is our social responsibility to utilise the knowledge acquired to benefit the people around us.This activity gives great opportunity to students to help the community The following are the guidelines given to the students: 1. Visit to various colleges/school/Nagarparishad and create awareness about IT OR Develop software and donate it to open source community.

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A r r a n g e a visit of school students t o RIT.Follo w i n g t a b l e Table 3 shows t h e S a m p l e C o m m u n i t y S e r v i c e s students have undertaken.The following are the guidelines given to the students: 1. Identify the industries and get the permission letter.2. Visit the industry and observe their working culture.3. Make a report of it and submit to in-charge faculty.
Assessment: The teacher becomes a participant and co-learner in discussion, asking questions about working culture of industry.
The Student-centered teaching approach benefited the students to improve and deepen their understanding about the facts.But it has some drawbacks as well.In this section we will discuss the pros and cons of the methodology which is used to implement student centred teaching.

Advantages of using Student-Centered Teaching
Students effectively learn communicative and collaborative skills through group work.Students learned to complete tasks independently.Students interact with one another and participate actively.Learning skills of the student are developed.The roles of instructor became facilitative rather than didactic.The responsibility for learning shifts from the instructor to the students.Student-centered teaching method uses assessment as a part of the learning process.Learning becomes interesting and enjoyable.students retained more of the concepts that they chose to address Disadvantages of using Student-Centered Teaching Sometimes group work can become problematic as students prefer to work alone.When students are working on different stages of the same project then it becomes difficult for teacher to manage all students .Some students may miss important facts because the teacher doesn't deliver instruction to all students at once.

Table 3 :
Sample Community Services student have Assessment: The teacher becomes a participant and co-learner in discussion, asking questions and