In Pursuit of Change: The Struggle to Transform Traditional EducationThis happened at the beginning of a new academic year, 2024-2025. My daughter came home from school and started talking about how one of her subject teachers arranged the classroom layout in a П style where the students could sit facing each other. You know, most of us like such a layout as it creates a nice space for the teacher to walk in, reach out to every student (easily), and put them in pairs when initiating discussions.
This simple tweak in how the same chairs and tables are traditionally arranged can dramatically transform the classroom. It shifts a highly teacher-centered setup, where the teacher is ‘a sage on the stage,’ into a student-centered environment that fosters collaboration between students and their teacher.
Hearing this, I was happy. It was, perhaps, only one teacher in the entire school who did that. I thought, well, one step at a time, Akmal, one step at a time. I hoped if she continued this way, perhaps slowly her other colleagues would follow her practice, and gradually the entire school of teachers would adopt working with their students using student-centered teaching methods.
Just the next day when my daughter came home ...
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