As classroom teachers of adolescents and young adults, we strive to create engaging and effective learning environments for our students. Yet, despite our best efforts, we sometimes face challenges like disengaged students, disruptive behavior, or disappointing academic outcomes. Many of these issues are often attributed to students themselves—“They’re just not motivated,” or “They don’t seem to care”—but what if some of these challenges are rooted in the very teaching practices we rely on daily?
Without realizing it, some traditional teaching methods that have long been considered the standard may actually contribute to these behavioral and academic problems. Let’s explore how common practices may unintentionally hinder student success and how moving toward a more student-led, self-directed learning environment could be the key to unlocking positive change in your classroom.
1. Teacher-Centered Instruction: The Silent Engagement Killer
In many classrooms, the teacher is the primary source of information. This “sage on the stage” approach places students in a passive role, where they are expected to absorb and retain information delivered to them. While this may feel efficient, it can also stifle student engagement.
Challenge: When students are not actively participating in the learning process, they often become bored or disengaged, inadvertently leading to disruptive behaviors or poor academic performance.
Solution: By shifting to a student-led approach, where students are coached to decide what, when, how, and why they are learning in your prescribed course, engagement can skyrocket. Encourage students to explore topics of interest within your course objectives, collaborate with peers, and ask questions that drive their curiosity. In this way, you become more of a guide on the side, helping students navigate their learning journey.
2. Fixed Curriculum Pacing: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
The traditional model often requires all students to move at the same pace through a fixed curriculum. This can create a classroom where some students are constantly playing catch-up, while others are bored because they’ve already mastered the material.
Challenge: When students feel they can’t keep up, frustration and low self-esteem set in. On the flip side, advanced students may become disengaged, as they’re forced to wait for their peers to catch up.
Solution: Flexible pacing allows students to progress through the curriculum at their own speed. This ensures that each student is working at the level that’s right for them, promoting mastery rather than simply moving on to the next topic (or grade-level content) for no other reason than the schedule says to do so regardless of their readiness. Efforts to tutor for mastery of past content while actively instructing new content is an ineffective learning process, leading to frustration and low self-esteem, further driving students to task compliance more than content mastery of course learning objectives.
3. Direct Instruction as the Primary Mode: Limiting Critical Thinking
In a traditional classroom, direct instruction—where the teacher lectures and students take notes—is often the go-to method. While there is certainly a place for direct instruction, relying on it too heavily can limit students’ opportunities to think critically and solve problems independently.
Challenge: When students are primarily passive recipients of information, they miss out on the chance to develop the skills necessary to process and challenge their learning and the learning of others through analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of knowledge and skills.
Solution: Incorporate inquiry-based learning into a project-based approach, where students take the lead in exploring concepts to accomplish a shared learning goal. By encouraging them to ask questions, investigate problems, and collaborate on solutions, you’re fostering critical thinking and creativity—skills they’ll need in the real world. This can also involve student-managed selection of topics related to course objectives, requiring teachers to coach developmentally appropriate time- and project-management skills necessary for success later in life.
4. Standardized Assessments: Missing the Full Picture
Standardized assessments are often used to measure student performance, but these one-size-fits-all tests rarely capture the full range of a student’s abilities or learning styles.
Challenge: Students who don’t perform well on traditional tests may feel discouraged, even if they have a strong grasp of the material in other ways. This can lead to a cycle of low confidence and poor performance.
Solution: Shift toward performance-based assessments, where students demonstrate their understanding through projects, presentations, or portfolios. This not only gives a more complete picture of their learning but also allows them to showcase their strengths. When performance-based assessments are aligned with course objective rubrics for mastery, grading and reporting become more transparent and accessible to students and parents alike. Additionally, state-mandated standardized assessments often provide standards-based guides that can help teachers with the planning of course objectives and their relationship to grading and reporting practices. However, the instruction and management of the course can still be focused on coaching students toward self-management skills related to inquiry- and project-based learning, benefiting their overall development of learning as a skill for success later in life.
5. Whole-Class Instruction: Not Every Student Is the Same
In a typical classroom, the teacher delivers the same lesson to the entire class. However, this doesn’t account for the varied learning styles, abilities, and interests of students.
Challenge: When instruction is delivered uniformly, some students are left behind, while others aren’t sufficiently challenged, leading to disengagement or behavioral issues.
Solution: Differentiate instruction by offering varied tasks and activities that cater to individual needs. For example, when studying the water cycle, some students might create a model or diagram, others might write an explanatory report, while others could make a short video presentation. Allow students to choose how they engage with the material, whether through hands-on projects, written work, or multimedia formats. This not only improves their understanding of the content by aligning with their strengths but also keeps them actively involved in the learning process, ensuring greater engagement and enthusiasm.
6. Teacher-Defined Learning Objectives: Missing Student Motivation
Traditional classrooms typically operate with teacher-defined learning goals, which students are expected to follow. While these goals may align with curriculum standards, they don’t always connect with what motivates students personally.
Challenge: When students don’t see the relevance of what they’re learning, they often become disengaged or frustrated.
Solution: Involve students in setting their own learning goals. For example, during a math unit on fractions, a student might set a personal goal to master solving word problems involving fractions, while another may aim to learn how to compare and order fractions on a number line. By allowing students to choose specific areas to focus on, they feel more ownership over their learning and are more motivated to succeed. This process also helps them develop important skills in self-regulation and goal-setting, such as tracking their progress and adjusting their approach—skills that are critical for lifelong learning. This approach can be successful within a structured framework of grading periods, allowing for a certain number of learning objectives to be mastered that reflect a relatively balanced rigor and complexity (based on each objective's associated Depth of Knowledge).
7. Behaviorist Classroom Management: Controlling, Not Empowering
Traditional behavior management relies on rules, rewards, and punishments to control student behavior. While this can maintain order, it may not foster the self-discipline students need to manage their own behavior.
Challenge: Over time, students may become reliant on external rewards rather than developing intrinsic motivation and self-regulation.
Solution: Involve students in setting classroom norms and rules from the beginning, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility. For example, during the first week of school, you might hold a class discussion where students collaboratively create guidelines for respectful communication and group work. Extend this approach with an Agile or iterative revisiting of these norms—perhaps at the end of each grading period. During these check-ins, allow students to reflect on what’s working, suggest adjustments, and adapt the rules within reason based on new classroom dynamics. By empowering students to continually shape and manage their own behavior, you help them build critical life skills such as adaptability, self-regulation, and accountability, while promoting a more collaborative and responsive classroom environment that evolves with their needs.
8. Textbook-Driven Lessons: Limiting Student Exploration
Many classrooms still rely heavily on textbooks to deliver content, leaving little room for students to explore topics that interest them or to engage with diverse learning materials.
Challenge: A textbook-first approach can limit creativity and restrict students from engaging with real-world, current resources.
Solution: Encourage the use of varied resources, including digital tools, multimedia, and real-world examples. For example, students working on a history project could choose to create a podcast, a video documentary, or an interactive timeline using different platforms and tools. Additionally, coach students on developing rubrics for their projects that align with course rubrics for mastery of specific objectives, ensuring that all projects meet the same standards of understanding and skill development. Incorporating peer-based feedback sessions allows students to evaluate each other’s work using the rubric, fostering collaboration and deeper engagement. This approach not only helps students connect the content to their own interests but also supports the teacher in their emphasis on coaching students in effective peer-based self-assessment as they refine their projects based on peer feedback and strive to meet the mastery criteria.
9. Lecture-Based Delivery of Content: Passive Learning
In traditional classrooms, lecture-based instruction is common, with students passively receiving information rather than actively engaging with it.
Challenge: When students are passive listeners, they are less likely to retain information or develop the skills needed to apply what they’ve learned.
Solution: Shift to a blended learning model by having students watch instructional videos on a new science concept when and where they are able to consume that information. For example, if the lesson is on the water cycle, students could watch a series of short videos explaining each stage of the cycle. During class time, students would then engage in group projects where they create detailed models of the water cycle, participate in discussions to explore real-world applications, and conduct experiments to observe the cycle in action. This approach allows class time to be used with an inquiry-based approach to project-based learning with a self-directed learning philosophy. This reinforces and promotes active, not passive, critical thinking by applying their knowledge in practical, interactive ways.
10. Uniform Homework and Classwork Assignments: Missing Personalization
Traditional classrooms often assign the same work to all students, regardless of their learning styles, interests, or abilities.
Challenge: This one-size-fits-all approach can lead to frustration for students who struggle with certain assignments or boredom for those who find them too easy.
Solution: Offer personalized or project-based learning tasks that cater to individual student needs and interests, while also addressing diverse learning objectives. For example, if a student is passionate about environmental science, allow them to research local conservation efforts or design a sustainability plan for the school (as it relates to a learning objective in your course). However, offer to the student that they incorporate other learning objectives, such as developing persuasive writing skills or creating a detailed report with data analysis - learning targets with which the student may not already be passionate or experienced. By integrating their interest with required skills and objectives, the student not only leverages their passion to deepen their understanding of environmental science but can be coached to approach competencies in areas they might not be as enthusiastic about (but are required as course objectives). Regularly check in to provide guidance and ensure that the project remains aligned with the curriculum, helping students achieve mastery across multiple objectives while staying engaged and motivated.
Why Shift to a Student-Led, Self-Directed Classroom?
Making these shifts toward a more student-led, self-directed classroom isn’t just about changing the way you teach—it’s about transforming your classroom into a place where students feel empowered to take charge of their own learning. By giving students more responsibility and autonomy, you foster a sense of ownership that motivates them to engage more deeply, develop critical thinking skills, and ultimately achieve more positive academic and behavioral outcomes.
It’s not always easy to move away from traditional practices, but with the right strategies and professional support, the transformation can lead to a classroom that’s more dynamic, engaging, and successful for both you and your students. So, ask yourself: Is it time to break free from tradition and start leading your classroom in a new direction? The potential benefits—for both you and your students—are worth it.
Greg Mullen
September 13, 2024