Student Teacher-Centered Approach:


- This approach asks students, mentors and tutors to critically engage with issues that arise and find solutions through a process of exploration and critical reflection.
- In this way student teachers don’t just emulate existing practice but will take more personal responsibility to adapt, question, challenge and experiment with a range of different solutions and techniques.

- The negative aspects:
          a) Time: a questioning, critical approach takes a lot of discussion, research and time for experimentation. It requires a high level of skill from teacher-educators to accommodate the level of individualization that results.
          b) Amount of information – In order to adopt a critical approach student teachers need to draw on a range of opinions from mentors, tutors, their own practice and the literature. This can be overwhelming, although developing critical reflection can ensure experiences lead to learning.
          c) Proactive: Student teachers have to be proactive in taking charge of their own learning. This involves the student teacher being aware of their own learning process (metacognitive awareness) including their assumptions, values, and beliefs, which may impac on their reactions to situations.

- The arguments for:
          a) They take full account of individual needs.
         
b) Supports student teachers to be co-creators of their own knowledge
         
c) Finding solutions that work for them and developing the skills to be flexible and adaptable to different context and approaches.

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