Teach English in BaiguAn Zhen - Zhuzhou Shi

I believe that all classroom activities should not be directed by the teacher. Classroom activities being too directed by teacher can take away the willingness to learn from the students that is what I experienced in my teaching experience throughout all these years of teaching different children with different learning abilities. I think that students not having any level of authority in the activities can make the children very bored out and lack interest in performance, interactions and collaborations inside the classroom. In this essay, I will discuss the three reasons behind why all classroom activities should not be directed by the teacher because these three reasons are what teacher-directed activities lack. According to my experience, I noticed that if there is no student agency in classroom activities then children are not able to form the meaning of what they have learnt. Activities being so directed by the teacher will not be able to convey whether students have learnt anything or not. Student agency in the activities give children voice, choice and ownership in how they learn and how they choose to construct the knowledge. Student agency gives opportunities to the students to build their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Through this, students are able to actively engage in the activities and build deeper understanding of the knowledge they received earlier. Students agency in the classroom activities give students a chance to voice out their opinions, likings, dislikings, problems or solutions. Moreover, it gives them a chance to choose what they like to do instead of being told what to choose. Also, they have the ownership over the activities. These three components make their self-esteem and self-confidence heave. Students get to self-explore and discover what abilities they have and how they can learn to use them. Thus, all classroom activities should not be directed by the teacher all the time. There should be some freedom for the students to do it by themselves and teacher can always act as a facilitator at the time being. There should always be student centeredness in the activities, but teacher-directed activities lack student centeredness. So, students become passive learners in that situation. Activities not being directed by the teachers all the time will produce active learners. It is because in a student-centered classroom, students tend to create their own knowledge. Whereas, in a teacher-directed classroom, students are passive. The activities should be student-centered, rather than being teacher-directed as in student-centered activities, teachers listen efficiently and support children’s choices. This does not make the teachers take control or take over the activities or experience they are ought to have in the classroom activities. When I compared a teacher directed classroom activity to a student centered classroom activity, I realised that in a teacher directed activity there is not much for the students to do and be an active learner. They are just given the instructions by the teacher and take the knowledge as it is. However, they do not have any opportunity to contribute to knowledge that they have learnt. I also believe that If the classroom activities are always completely directed by the teacher, then there is always a high chance of students starting to Lack interest and motivation in the participation of the classroom activities. Students should be able to move around and have a first-hand experience in the activities. This makes the students feel independent and valued. Furthermore, less direction makes the students curious and attracted to the activities because they are interested to know how to do the activities where they also learn through mistakes that makes them remember what not to do next time. They do show a willingness to learn. Usually, all teacher-directed activities have all the explanation and demonstration done by the teacher and there is more teacher talking time than student-talking time. Teachers should take up the role as a facilitator. Sometimes, a lot of direction can involve dictatorship in the activities and there is really nothing for the student to do. Classroom activities should have more student talking time where the teacher can assess if the students are able to achieve the lesson objectives and goals or not. More teacher talking time can take away the chance of student to student interactions. Moreover, giving authority to students to lead the activities is where students take interest as this is something new for them to do and learn. In conclusion, I believe that not all classroom activities should be directed by the teacher with the three main reasons above supporting my essay.