Sometimes happens that we as teachers are
very motivated about starting our classes and apply a learner-centered approach
but students usually don't show the same enthusiasm and are not very motivated
to accomplish the tasks. Students show resistance to this approach because they
got accustomed to be just sat in the chair and expect that the teacher speaks
most of the time. So now this approach seems to scare them because they have to
work more and sometimes they don't feel capable of doing that. Moreover, students
like traditional teaching methods
because some of them are not ready for learner-centered approaches being that
it represents more responsibility for them. In addition, a way to show resistance
is when students ask questions that are too obvious or when they comment that
they haven't done tasks
like that before. Additionally, there are three types of resistance passive
nonverbal resistance, partial compliance and open resistance.
Passive nonverbal resistance refers to the
students' actions that show objection to do something without saying any word.
For example, when the teacher asks to form groups and do an activity students
can show discourage, others might speak of another thing instead of doing the
task that was assigned, etc. Partial compliance is when students do something
but incompletely because they don't want to make too much effort. For example,
students do they homework but poorly, they know about something but they avoid
speaking too much. On the other hand, open resistance is when students express
freely their objection to something. For example, students can say that another
teacher doesn't work with them like that or they resist to give answers, etc.
On the other hand, faculty can present
resistance too it is because some teachers don't feel prepared or they don't
have the necessary skills
to have a learner-centered class being
that it involves a lot of teacher's preparation, organization, etc.
Finally, to overcome resistance and teach
a learner-centered class I would communicate with my students in an open way
and get them familiarized with the topics to be studied because according to Armstrong
(2011) it is good to engage and encourage students to do their best, give their own feedback and have the
opportunity to reflect
on their work. Additionally, according to Filax (1997) teachers have to resist
students' resistance because sometimes learners are trying to see if they can
discourage a teacher and make him change his methods but the teacher needs to
be sure about the approach
that is using and talk with students too.
Additional information about students' resistance:
References:
Armstrong, A. (2011). 4 Key strategies to
help educators to overcome resistance. Learningforward.com Retrieved from: https://learningforward.org/docs/tools-for-learning-schools/tools1-11.pdf
Filax, G. (2011). Resisting Resistors: Resistance in Critical Pedagogy
Classrooms on JSTOR . (2017). Jstor.org.
Retrieved 22 April 2017, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/23767343?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
