Adrian Moore (ProfClio)

Adrian Moore

Student Centered Learning - Case Study 

This case study is based upon a student whom I used to teach and some of the student centered learning strategies that were used to help him.

Rafiq (name changed), a Year 11 (10th Grade) student in my International School Humanities class, is an Arabic Egyptian and was 16 at the time described in this case study. His parents are both from self-made families and they were openly ambitious for Rafiq’s success, wanting him, eventually, to take over the family’s international trading business. His older sister was a keen student who did well academically but Rafiq was struggling. He seemed to find it difficult to concentrate in class and appeared to be overwhelmed by the academic tasks set. His assessments were poorly done and they were invariably handed in late. Moreover, he was often responsible for low-level disruption in class. He seemed bored. Rafiq’s parents were frustrated and couldn’t understand why he seemed to lack motivation. Rafiq was nonetheless a very pleasant boy who told me that he really wanted to do well and eventually to take the family firm position.

I scheduled extra time to meet with Rafiq and his parents at Parent’s Night and then I met with him separately a few days later. Based on my own observations of his performance in class, reports from other teachers, a new and more detailed analysis of Rafiq’s prior assessments, and my conversations with him and with his parents, I tried out various student centered learning strategies to try and focus Rafiq and to see how we could, together, have him better reach his potential. I discussed each strategy with him and explained how and why we were going to try it. Rafiq appreciated this appeal to his growing maturity and he was very open with me (and with himself) in his evaluation of what worked for him and what did not.

It was clear that one of Rafiq’s main problems was that he saw no link between what his father did (and what, therefore, he wanted to do) and what we were learning in class. So, I spoke at length with his father and was able to identify some of the skills he used in business and to relate them to the skills being developed in the classroom. When Rafiq realized that he was learning something relevant, his attitude quickly changed. So, for example, when we carried out research into incidents during the Cold War, I reminded Rafiq that his father had regularly to research the potential of new commodities and new markets. Similarly when Rafiq presented orally at the end of the unit, I asked him to practice with his father as the latter had regularly to make sales pitches and the like. When Rafiq saw the link between his father’s work and the skills we were learning in the classroom, he was immediately more motivated. This was the first step and was a key facilitator to what came next.

Rafiq’s previous detachment in class meant that he had not previously worked well in a team. He had always gravitated to a group of similarly demotivated boys and had frittered his collaboration time away. The Cold War research project was carried out in teams of two and was, in essence, a protracted Think-Pair-Share exercise. So for this, I teamed up Rafiq with one of the high performing students in the class, an English boy, James. He and Rafiq were friends and, with Rafiq’s agreement, we explained to James how we were trying to turn around Rafiq’s performance and his learning habits. Both boys understood that one of the key components of the final project grade was the extent of their research collaboration. Rafiq worked hard to keep up with James and James thought carefully about how to ensure their’s was a truly joint project. With James effectively modeling serious study, Rafiq learned quickly and used his newly found motivation to stay far more focused and on task.

Rafiq’s third big challenge was the organization of his ideas. Several years of detachment had meant that he had not sufficiently practiced this skill. It was partly why he found written assignments to be so daunting. Here then was another area in which differentiated teaching was required. By now, a number of boys from Rafiq’s group of friends were becoming interested in his new motivation and effort levels and several came to me to ask how they too could benefit. They had similar issues to Rafiq’s and so we met after class to discuss how they could all better organize their written submissions for the upcoming assignment. We looked carefully at the question and then, with each student writing in a different color on the whiteboard, we brainstormed together how the writing task could be broken down. All the boys clearly responded positively to this session focused on their needs and frustrations – requested by them rather than imposed by me - and we soon decided that there were three very acceptable but quite different ways of writing the assignment. Using laptops each one made up his own graphic organizer based on the assignment structure he had chosen. They each used these organizers to structure and write their essays and the results were immediate. Each boy who had participated turned in work that showed a marked improvement, particularly in organization, and Rafiq’s confidence soared as he was given credit by his peers for having an initiated a process that improved their learning. Needless to say, we did this several times afterwards.

It was, in large part, a function of his own growing maturity but I am very proud that Rafiq’s transformation began in the Humanities classroom. It was soon built upon by other teachers and of course by Rafiq’s parents and it all took a lot more than is described so briefly here. But Rafiq continued to improve and now, better motivated and organized and with more serious study habits, he is successfully studying at a liberal arts college in the United States with plans to join, and run, the family business in due course.