Disadvantages of The Learning Center Approach
Despite its success in many schools across the country, the effectiveness of learning centers is called in to question. Because children are expected to primarily learn through autonomous exploration and discovery, some people feel that teachers' jobs are minimized.
Furthermore, the learning center approach is much more informal than the traditional lecture-and-worksheet format of most American classrooms. Walking into a learning center classroom, many would interpret the hustle and bustle of independent learning as chaotic and uncontrollable. Many teachers are overwhelmed by the size of their classroom and feel that they could not accurately assess or monitor their students’ independent work in centers. Also, many people do not believe that children learn best when at play, and instead subscribe to the view that children should be disciplined, quiet, and attentive at all times.
Some teachers simply cannot find the time or materials needed for a learning center environment. Constructing learning centers is much more time consuming than traditional approaches because the teacher must create the materials for the many activities in each center. Centers must also be changed out at least every two weeks. Finally, centers require a lot of space, which is not always available to public school teachers.
Read more about this topic: Learning Centers In American Elementary Schools
Famous quotes containing the words disadvantages of, learning, center and/or approach:
“Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.... This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“While learning the language in France a young man’s morals, health and fortune are more irresistibly endangered than in any country of the universe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Actually being married seemed so crowded with unspoken rules and odd secrets and unfathomable responsibilities that it had no more occurred to her to imagine being married herself than it had to imagine driving a motorcycle or having a job. She had, however, thought about being a bride, which had more to do with being the center of attention and looking inexplicably, temporarily beautiful than it did with sharing a double bed with someone with hairy legs and a drawer full of boxer shorts.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Girls tend to attribute their failures to factors such as lack of ability, while boys tend to attribute failure to specific factors, including teachers’ attitudes. Moreover, girls avoid situations in which failure is likely, whereas boys approach such situations as a challenge, indicating that failure differentially affects self-esteem.”
—Michael Lewis (late–20th-century)