Meeting Diverse Needs of Learners Through Learner-Centered Strategies and Equitable Access
Everyone in this world is different and so are their learning styles. The technology in classroom's today allow for all learners to be successful. Learner-centered strategies allow for all students to have the chance to learn the best way they know how. In the book, Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, it explains that learning-centered teaching needs to focus on the child's needs and what allows them to learn best. As teachers we need to make sure that we are teaching for all of our students and not just some of them. This means giving all of our students equitable access to the tools and strategies they need to learn best. This includes what we are having students access through technology. For example if you're teaching a lesson on science and you have a visual learner then it would be best to include a resource that supports visual learners; as well as your other students. What it all comes down to is equity. We need to support all of our students and give them the resources they need.
When I have my own classroom I plan on implementing this in many way. First I will make sure that when I teach a lesson I teach to all the learning strategies. I will make sure that students have access to the tools they need to do their best learning. I also think it would be a good idea to have technology centers. Each center can be geared towards a learning strategy. This will give all of my students the chance to work on improving their learning strategies in the weaker areas. Above is an example of what my classroom might look like. As we can see there are multiple sources of technology being used for all of the different learners.
