Based on my readings from article #1 and article #2, when trying to promote student centered approaches in your classroom you really need to think about your classroom set up as well as your role as a teacher and leader.
To start discard that old school classroom of rows on rows with the teacher lecturing in the font. Set your class up in a way that promotes student interaction and discussion. Take a step back as a leader and become a co-learner with your students. You can still guide your students in discussions by presenting questions along the way. Make sure those questions are open ended, this will help promote independent thinking and reflection. Although it may require a bit of research and flexibility it is important to use your students passions and interest to help engage them and promote learning.
Include your students in your assessment process. Sit down with each student individually and go over where they are at. You can even ask them first where they think they are at before you tell them where they really are. If where they think they are at is very far from where they are, it shows you as a teacher that they may not be fully understanding there personal goals or the course goals. By showing them how you are assessing them it gives them a direction to move in.
Get your students to document their personal goals. This way they feel successful as they move along reaching each goal. It also gives you a better understanding on what your outcomes and goals you should be in the class, and how you direct each individual. Its very important that students understand that everyone is different and has different goals. Some students goals might be out of reach for others so setting them up with similar goals automatically sets up a student for failure.
Robbyn R 
Very informative articles. My experiences as an Continuing Education Instructor the class is set up that the desks cannot be moved which causes a barrier to what is recommended. As an Educational Assistant Substitute – my observation is that that the teacher moves desks around on a regular basis so that students can interact with their classmates. In the elementary grades students at times sit on the floor at the beginning of the classroom where students interact with the Teacher. When the class size is large it would be difficult to sit down with each student to see if they understand what is being taught and if their goals are met.
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Thanks for your reply Richard!
Are the desks not able to be moved because they are attached to the floor or is it because admin prefers you don’t move them?
I like that you are seeing teachers move their desks around. It is good for students to shake things up a bit and experience some change. The elementary approach is also good but yes depending on the level of student and the class size it can be difficult to have everyone sitting on the ground together.
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Hi Robbyn, Since I teach Computer Classes for various institutions the classrooms are permanently set and cannot be moved. I have no problem since the students work on their individual computers or move their chairs to one Computer if they are creating for example a Powerpoint Presentation.
In the elementary grades the class size is normally small which is great for the interaction of the Teacher and Students.
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Ah yes! That definitely makes sense that some classes are physically not able to be moved around. If you check out my next post, I talk about a student centered learning method that allows “flipping the class” in a way that doesn’t relate to the furniture specifically.
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