by There are aspects of the “art of teaching” I have long taken for granted, but are apparently no longer taught in preservice education programs. Classroom centers is one such critical topic. Since I cannot find the seminal book(s) or papers on the importance or creation of centers, I created the following document for the school I work for.
Thoughts on Classroom Centers (v 1.0)
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.
April 2015
THE CENTER APPROACH
Centers are clearly delineated areas in the classroom where students may work independently or in small groups on purposeful activities without direct or persistent teacher involvement. Centers may be designed by the teacher or co-constructed with students. Deliberate materials are presented in a center to scaffold a child’s learning, or nurture creativity. Such materials may be utilized in both a predictable and serendipitous fashion. Centers afford students with the necessary time to take pride in one’s work, overcome a significant challenge, develop a new talent, or deepen a relationship (with a person or knowledge domain).
“Learning as a process of individual and group construction –
Each child, like each human being, is an active constructor of knowledge, competencies, and autonomies, by means of original learning processes that take shape with methods and times that are unique and subjective in the relationship with peers, adults, and the environment.
The learning process is fostered by strategies of research, comparison of ideas, and co-participation. It makes use of creativity, uncertainty, intuition, [and] curiosity. It is generated in play and in the aesthetic, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions, which it interweaves and nurtures. It is based on the centrality of motivation and the pleasures of learning.” (Reggio Children, 2010)
GOALS
- Minimize direct instruction (lecture)
- Recognize that students learn differently and at different rates
- Reduce coercion
- Honor student choice
- Increase student agency
- Make classrooms more democratic
- Enhance student creativity
- Build student competence and independence
- Employ more flexible uses of instructional time
- Inspire cross-curricular explorations
- Develop the classroom as the “3rd teacher”
- Encourage more student-centered classrooms
- Respect the centrality of the learner in learning
- Create more productive contexts for learning
- Supports the Hundred Languages of Children
- Match a child’s remarkable capacity for intensity
- Provide opportunities for teachers to sit alongside students
- Make learning visible
- Shift the teacher’s role from lecturer to research responsible for making private thinking public – invisible thinking visible
- Team teaching in the best collegial sense
BENEFITS
- Increased self-reliance, self-regulation and personal responsibility
- Shift in agency from teacher to student
- Development of project-management skill
- Supports project-based learning
- Opportunities for “flow” experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991)
- Intensify learning experiences
- Encourage focus
- Expand opportunities for:
- Creative play
- Informal collaboration
- Experimentation
- Appropriation of powerful ideas
- Acknowledges the curious, creative, social and active nature of children
- Matches the individual attention spans of students
- Reduces boredom
- Increases student engagement
- Teachers get to know each student (better)
- Recognition that quality work takes time
- Acknowledges the centrality of the learner in knowledge construction
- Thoughtful documentation of student learning by teachers
- Minimize misbehavior
CENTER EXAMPLES
Experimentation/laboratory center
A place for experimentation
Project center
An area where a long-term project may be undertaken and securely stored
Game center
A place where students play games that helps develop specific concepts, logic, or problem-solving skills
Studio center
An art center where children sculpt, paint, animate, draw, etc… with sufficient light and appropriate materials.
Creative play center
- Dress-up area
- Puppet theatre
- Blocks/LEGO/Construction with found materials
Classroom library
A comfortable well-lit area, stocked with a variety of high-interest reading material
Pet center
The class pet to observe, care for, and in some cases, play with
Plant center
Classroom garden to care for
Listening center
A setting where students can listen to recordings or watch a video with headphones
CAUTION
- Learning centers should neither be chores or Stations of the Cross. Flexibility, student choice, and actions that do not disturb classmates are hallmarks of the centers approach.
- Centers should not be managed with a stopwatch. “Fairness” is not a priority, except if there are scarce materials.
- Learning center use should not be used as a reward or punishment.
TIPS FOR PREPARING A CENTER
- Create clear and concise prompts, questions to ponder or project ideas. Place these prompts on index cards, a single sheet of paper, or in a binder.
- Less is more! Do not clutter up a center or overwhelm a learner with too many options.
- Keep prompts simple and not overly prescriptive. Allow for serendipity.
- Rotate out “stale” materials – things that students no longer show interest in
- Assign classroom roles for tidying-up centers
- Place louder centers away from quieter areas in the classroom.
- Provide safety materials and instruction when appropriate at centers
REFERENCES
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Reprint ed.). NY: Harper Perennial.
Reggio Children. (2010). Indications – Preschools and infant toddler centres of the municipality of Reggio Emilia (L. Morrow, Trans.). In Infant toddler centers and preschools of Instituzione of the municipality of Reggio Emilia (Ed.): Reggio Children.
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.