Four Strategies for Student Centered Learning in Your High School Math Classroom

Shifting the responsibility of learning from the teacher to the student is the ultimate goal of student-centered learning. There are many ways that this has been done in years past. However, its success is entirely dependent on the teacher’s consistency and ability to adapt their strategies. Flipped classrooms are a prime example of student centered learning and, although it works for some students, it is not the right fit for everyone. As math teachers, it’s important to find a happy medium between a completely flipped classroom and a full period lecture. This blog post outlines a few of my favorite student-centered learning strategies that I’ve used in my classroom.

Classroom discussions

Communication between classmates can happen in a multitude of ways. My favorite discussion technique is a “turn-and-talk”. Although this buzzword makes me cringe a bit, I like the spontaneous and low stakes aspect of this process. During these “turn-and-talks”, the teacher will ask the students what they notice or wonder about a given problem. The students are given a minute or two to collect their thoughts, so that no one shouts the answer out quickly and wrecks the thinking process of others.

Once that minute is over, they will discuss their opinion with the person next to them. The class will then come back together and compare opinions and ideas. As a result, the students will have learned a bit about the topic before the lesson even begins.

Taking ownership

Taking ownership of an opinion or idea goes hand-in-hand with classroom communication. When a student states their opinion or answers a question, they need to own it and defend it. Even if they got the answer a different way than what they were taught, they still may be right. This is an incredibly important step in helping our students build their confidence and growth mindset!

Discovery based learning

Learning a math concept through discovery or application problems is a perfect example of student-centered learning. The students are tasked with a problem they haven’t been explicitly taught yet and need to use problem solving strategies and prior knowledge to figure out an answer. This is very challenging for many students at first because they need constant reassurance and validation. Working through the struggle of problem solving is a nightmare for these students, which is why I like to assign my students to groups for the first few discovery activities. 

One of my favorite discovery activities is this digital transformations bundle for Algebra 2. The students are able to change the values of each of the variables and see how it affects their graph. They will then answer follow up questions and reflect on the changes.

Building Autonomy with Routines

Group work plays a huge role in my student-centered learning strategy. I have my students work in random groups at least once a week to get them in the habit of working independently. During one of the centers (stations) I give the students a challenge problem that they need to work through with their group. They can work on the problem together and use their notes to figure out how to solve the problem. By consistently training my students to work independently, I have found that they are able to learn just as much (if not more) than when I am at the front of the room teaching them.

Not every learner is the same and student-centered learning is the solution to the “one size doesn’t fit all” problem that our education system has been facing. Student-centered learning allows for independent growth for all learners through supplemental videos, graphic organizers, or hands-on discovery activities. Implementing a variety of these teaching strategies will open up a whole new world for our learners and make such a big difference in their lives!