How to Give Feedback to in LCE Paradigm

Abstract

This study investigates learner-centered paradigm, particularly process-oriented assessment in the second language (L2) classroom. The analysis of different theses shows that learner-centered discourse provides opportunities for involving evaluation and assessment as an inseparable part of the learning process. It definitely should not be missing when we talk about learner-centered principles. Moreover, teacher-centered paradigm shift can be facilitated by constructive feedback. Placing the analysis within the context of the role of discourse in the mediation of cognitive development, this study demonstrates that when teachers give students correct feedback, paradigm shift process can be effective proceed .The analysis presented here attempts to show how various and significant feedbacks are deployed to achieve these functions.

Keywords: feedback, error, learner-centeredness, paradigm shift

1. Introduction 1.1 Learner-centered paradigm 1.1.1 Definition of “Learner-centeredness”

With the development of technology and civilization, the creativity was valued. It has promoted the idea of the learner-centered education that emphasize students’ responsibility in the learning process after research on cognitive learning processes and the development of performance tests and learning materials.(Luo, 2006)

1.1.2 Role of teachers and students

Learner-centered education is a promising model that relies on two complementary components: placing more responsibility in the hands of the students and requiring the instructor to serve as the “presenter or facilitator of knowledge,” rather than the traditional “source of all knowledge.” (Ding,2008,P5)

1.1.3 Brief history of “Learner-centeredness definition”

The notion of learner-centeredness originally, concerned with the cognitive process performed in learning, was first advocated by J.Piaet in his On Children’s Centeredness. The ineffectiveness of the traditional lecture and test approach has become ever more apparent in our rapidly changing world. Even in the traditional classroom, but particularly online, student-centered approaches to instruction are finding widespread adoption today. This paradigm seems to be inherently more suited to producing deep understanding because it is based on the principle that learning must be personally constructed. (McVay Lynch, 2004)

1.1.4 Characteristics of “Learner-centeredness”

English Curriculum Criterion for basic education (revised in 2017) manifested that learner-centered education places the students at the center of education. It begins with understanding the educational contexts from students needs. It continues with the instructor evaluating the students’ progress towards five learning objectives: Affective attitude, Culture awareness, learning strategy,language skill, language knowledge. By assisting the students acquire the basic skills to learn, it ultimately provides a platform for learning throughout life. It therefore shift the responsibility for learning from teachers to the students, while the teacher assumes responsibility for facilitating the students’ education. This approach strives to be humanistic, flexible, competency-based, varied in methodology and not always restricted by time or place.( English Curriculum Criterion, 2017) Learner-centered education advocates a student-focused teaching and learning environment. Educators attempt to maximize students’ productivity, knowledge acquisition, skills augmentation and development of personal and professional abilities. Such educators may use a variety of instructional tools and strategies, as well as flexible arrangements of time and place. Student-centered educators urge students to join them in the learning process. Learners assume primary responsibility for their choices and have opportunities to exercise control over their learning. ( English Curriculum Criterion, 2017) Learner-centered education also creates an environment that guide the individual as a whole person. It attempts to meet the individual needs of a broad range of learners who have different ways of knowing, skills and cultural backgrounds. Different learning styles may be cultivated by a variety of means, such as music, art, performance, visual representations and auditory input.( English Curriculum Criterion, 2017)

2. Theoretical Basis 2.1 Constructivism

Constructivism says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Constructivism, in all of its various incarnations, is now a major educational philosophy and pedagogy. What the various interpretations of constructivism have in common is the proposition that the child is an active participant in constructing reality and not just a passive recorder of it. (Elkind,2008,P306) When we encounter something new, we have to accommodate it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe inserting the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active constructors of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we acquired. In constructivism, the central notion is that understanding and learning are active, constructive, generative processes such as assimilation, augmentation, and self-reorganization.

2.2 Socioculturism

Socioculturism, the central notion is that learning is enculturation, the process by which learners become collaborative meaning-makers among a group defined by common practices, language, use of tools, values, beliefs, and so on. The goal is to enable practices and meaning making that are appropriate in the professional culture of the domain under study. For example, scientists understand science as those ideas are embodied in their everyday practices. Contrast this way of knowing with traditional science classrooms where, from the students’ perspective, concepts come from textbooks and lectures, and lab experiments are tightly-controlled exercises that fit into the requisite 50 minute period(Curtis Jay Bonk & Donald J,2000).

2.3 Humanistic theories

With understanding for learners’ inner conditions and feelings, constructivist beliefs that students have to build on the knowledge they already possess as well as social constructivist need of interconnection of learning with social contexts will be closely discussed and analyzed in the third chapter.

2.4 Progressivism

Progressivism claims that learning takes place progressively through the active search of knowledge by the learners. The teacher will facilitate learning by helping students formulate meaningful questions and devise strategies to answer those questions. Progressivism is the educational application of a philosophy called Pragmatism, which lays utmost importance on the practical value of an idea.

2.5 Existentialism

Existentialism places the highest degree of importance on student perceptions, decisions and actions. Individuals are responsible for determining for themselves what is true or false, necessary or unnecessary. It is up to the student to make all relevant educational decisions, and to evaluate those decisions.

2.6 Self-Determination Theory

Self-Determination Theory also focuses on the degree to which an individual‟s behavior is self- motivated and self-determined. Therefore, when students are given the opportunity to fashion their learning, learning becomes an incentive. As learning is seen as a form of personal growth, students are encouraged to utilize self-regulation practices in order to reflect on his or her work.

3 Huddles of Learner-centeredness
3.1 Huddles form teacher

As Elkind mentioned in his The Problem with Constructivism, those who have tried to implement a learner-centeredness pedagogy often argue that their efforts are blocked by unsupportive teachers. They claim that some teachers are yoked to an objectivist view that knowledge is an independent existence and needs only to be transmitted. Others have difficulty understanding how to integrate the learner’s in- tuitive conceptions into the learning process. Still others are good at getting children actively involved in projects but are not able to translate them effectively into learning objectives. These problems are aggravated by an increasingly test-driven curriculum with little opportunity for creativity and innovation. (Elkind, 2008)

3.2 Huddles form paradigm shifting

It is found that teachers have a certain understanding of the “student-centered. Teaching paradigm. They recognize the development of the curriculum objectives that reflect the learner-centered methodology and the adoption of teaching content, but fail to fully realize the transformation of the teaching paradigm, teachers and students should assume their respective responsibilities, make up for the cognitive gap between teachers and students, and eliminate the factors that hinder the paradigm shift.

3.3 Huddles form learning assessment

Within the current national debate on what methods should be used to assess student progress toward national educational goals, another huddles of the learner-centered classroom is the focus on student processes versus the focus on student products. Although it is certainly necessary to have samples of student products in order to assess mastery of language, the students’ learning goal is mainly to get a high score in the examination. They rarely do self-assessment to improve themselves self-appraisal skills and enhance motivation and self-directed learning. In the learner-centered classroom, the emphasis shifts from right or wrong to how students work through a task. Think alouds are a useful technique in which students verbalize their thought processes while working on a language task.

3.4 Huddles form adapting students in the LCE paradigm

In fact, learner-centered classroom setup does not only depend on preset formulas or fixed paradigm, but requires involving students in the teaching process. Ding Baixue discovered that success meant slowly implementing new techniques and thereby adapting students so they would understand lesson goals and objectives, value communicative tasks and activities, generate topics and choose materials, work cooperatively, and identify their own learning strategies and styles. (Ding,2008,P37) What should be emphasized is that learner-centered methods should proceed in a moderate, adaptive pace. We should help students who are accustomed to a teacher-fronted classroom to accept a change in classroom organization so they may gain the benefits of being at the center of the learning process. In the process of constructing a learner-centered environment requires frequent student feedback.

4. Problem solution
4.1 Feedback

Learner-centeredness in education has been approached at many different levels and from a variety of perspectives (Elkind,2008;Ding,2008). some scholars have noticed that educational reform that will succeed only when readiness are in place(Elkind,2008). Except the macroscopic preparation, The inability to give feedback to students efficiently is particularly instructive with regard to the failures of educational reforms in general. In this essay, I will limit the discussion to learner’s common errors in this paradigm and the optimal feedback by teachers.

4.2 Why is feedback crucial?

In learner-centered paradigm, students work to solve these problems, often in groups. Teachers carefully structure the correction so that the students naturally pass through and acquire all knowledge of relevance. The students might not even notice that they are undergoing correction, for the correction takes the form of feedback naturally in the course of activity. To adapt students in learner-centered paradigm in a moderate, adaptive pace, teacher should analysis students needs in affective, metacognitive, cognitive dimensions.

4.2.1 Affective needs

Respect for the learner is based upon the teacher’s recognition of the dignity of the learner. Teachers’ responds concerning their perception of evaluation were mostly connected with assessment by the teacher, usually marking oral or written performance, evaluating students’ activity during lesson or oral praise done by the teacher. Whereby errors are corrected without judgment, but with guidance and guidelines. It requires searching for ways how to support self confidence and the sense of successful learning. Keeping learner-centeredness principle in mind, feedback is a leverage to motivate students, even to keep their curiosity.

4.2.2 Metacognitive needs

We may achieve learner-centered paradigm shift successfully by personalized learning, focused on learners’ needs, recognizing the aims of learning, developing the ability of self-criticism. These skills may help pupils to form their self- awareness and many metacognitive instruments, which are needed for independent and life long learning. (Fisher 2004:154, own translation)

4.2.3 Cognitive needs

According to Martina Chudobova “How do we bring ‘doing’ to the classroom? If the student is doing well, examining the student’s processes can give insight into the successful strategies the student uses.” (Chudobova, 2006)This information can help the student command his or her cognitive strategies and may encourage students to transfer these strategies to other tasks. In learner-centered paradigm, sharing these strategies with other students can help them to expand their strategies use. In order to meet this needs, teachers should focus on processes in the classroom by asking students how they got their answers. If the answer or product is not correct, looking at the process by which the student came up with the response can help identify where thinking may have gone wrong. Teachers are then supposed to encourage students to identify additional strategies that may help them be more accomplished in the given situation. As Confucius once said, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.”

4.3 How to give feed back?

Teacher in LCE should assumes the role of Educational assessor: evaluating student outcomes and using this assessment information as feedback to improve the learning process. It is the ultimate goal for teacher to help students to develop self- correction skills. The feedback teacher give is to monitor and correct student errors from a distance, which is called constructive feedback.

4.3.1 Train students perfomance

First of all, LCE is permissive, that is the students feel free to behave in their own way. A permissive atmosphere is a background feedback which contribute to students’ perfomance. It also requires emotional security and self-acceptance on part of the teacher. The teacher will be tolerant of the differing of the individual students. As Pine and Boy (1977) identifies the following characteristics of LCE: In LCE, the teacher accepts the student as he/she is. Accepting the student gives him/her the opportunity to express his/her meanings without ridicules.

4.3.2 Train students competence

In the learner-centered classroom, the emphasis shifts from right or wrong to how students work through a task. Likewise, the evaluation of learning shifts from performance to competence. Think aloud are a useful technique in which students verbalize their thought processes while working on a language task. Eventually, we creating classroom settings that encourage students accomplish their specific tasks with distinctive perspective. Meanwhile, the tolerance of diversity, which is the premises of learner-centered education, can be fostered along the improvement of other language competence.

4.3.3 Adapt students into paradigm shift

To match the subject matter to the child’s level of developing mental abilities, you have to understand the logical demands it makes upon the child’s reasoning powers. In his research with Inhelder (1964), Piaget demonstrated ：Only when we successfully match children’s ability levels with the demands of the task can we expect them to reconstruct the knowledge we would like them to acquire. Whether errors are corrected or ignored is in contingency upon the setting and teachers’ pedagogical focus and the pace of learners’ acclimatization. (e.g., grammar-based vs. communication-based). That is to say the more grammar is highlighted, the more frequent the error correction. What should be emphasized is that learner-centered methods should proceed in a moderate, adaptive pace. At the beginning of LCT paradigm，teacher should give frequent feedback. After a period of acclimatization, varity of feedbacks are recommended, ranging from explicit correction, recasts, clarification requests, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, repetition, combinations to translation. We should help students who are accustomed to a teacher-fronted classroom to accept a change in classroom organization so they may gain the benefits of being at the center of the learning process.（Sheen,2004,P271）

5. Conclusion

Current pedagogical trends in L2 and foreign language teaching call for a learner-centered orientation in language classrooms. This is usually interpreted by language teaching executants as a call to frequently give constructive feedback in their classroom. It is believed that constructive feedback foster a great amount of passion for students to adapt themselves into the paradigm of learner-centered education, thus providing language practice and opportunities to exert their competence and perfect their perfomance, which has been claimed to be beneficial for language learning. This study looks at learner-centeredness from a different angle. The learner-centered perspective considers the learner’s thoughts and feelings about learning and schooling. It emphasizes that students learn because something is meaningful to them, not to perform on some task. Learning and performance are not the same thing and need to be distinguished in the design of new assessment systems. The students will learn and perform better if schools are seen as relevant places to spend time in and if students have choice in pursuing their goals and selecting the types of products they produce to demonstrate their development and achievement.From a pedagogical standpoint, this study provides language teachers and supervisors with a better understanding of the importance of feedback that effectively involve learners in classroom activities and successfully transfer responsibility from the teacher to the learner.

Bibliographies

Luo Yihong. Applied Study of Learner-centeredness on the Reading Instruction in Senior Middle Schools [D].Anhui Normal University,2006. Ding Baixue. An Investigation of Learner-centered English Classroom Teaching in Junior Middle Schools [D].Liaoning Normal University,2008. Piaget,J.The psychology of intelligence.London:Routledge and paul,1950. McVay Lynch, Maggie. 2004 Learning online, UK, Routledge, updated 9 August 2005 [viewed 16 December 2005] Fan Nengwei & Wang Aiqing. National Criteria of Teaching Quality for Undergraduate English Majors [J]. Foreign Language World,2017,(01):7-14. David Elkind. The Problem with Constructivism,The Educational Forum, 68:4, 306-312, DOI: 10.1080/00131720408984646,2004. Curtis Jay Bonk & Donald J. Cunningham, Searching for Learner-Centered, Constructivist, and Sociocultural Components of Collaborative Educational Learning Tools Indiana University,2000. Fisher, B. Thinking and Learning Together: Curriculum and Community in a Primary Classroom, Heinemann, Portsmouth,1995. Martina Chudobova,Promoting Learner- centredness in ELT [D].University of Pardubice,2006. Pine G. J., & Boy, A. V. Learner Centered Teaching: A Humanistic View. Denver, Colorado: Love Pulishing Company,1977. Younghee Sheen,Corrective feedback and learner uptake in communicative classrooms across instructional settings, Language teaching research, ISSN 1362-1688, Vol. 8, Nº. 3, 2004, page. 263-300,2004.