The elements of a traditional teacher-centered classroom refers to the seating arrangement of the class. In this setting, the tables are organised in columns of approximately three rows, directly facing the front of the classroom where the teacher will be.
One of the fundamental strengths of such a setting is that there is an expected decrease in class disruption. This is because the setting encourages the attention to remain on the teacher as opposed to each other and allows teachers to sustain their observation of the class (Cinar, 2010). Pedagogically, the benefit of this setting is the content focus. Thus, as the teacher is the centre of the setting, his/her ongoing activeness throughout the lesson, will iterate to the students the importance of what's being taught (Cinar, 2010). On the contrary, some weaknesses of this learning space include minimal student-student communication and interaction (Cinar, 2010). This forces the teacher to make a discerning judgment that all students can learn independently. It’s also inevitable that this setting will cause students seated in the front rows to pay more attention that those sitting towards the back rows. Other issues such as material distribution may also be encountered, as resources can’t be placed around the classroom in a convenient, mobile manner. Pedagogically, the overall learning space deprives students from peer collaboration and sufficient individual teacher attention (Cinar, 2010). |
Figure 3
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