Gaby Benthien

Shumei University / Chuo University

I have spent all of my working life in education. I started my teaching career at a secondary school in Australia (Japanese/PE), with a short stint as a primary school Japanese teacher. I have taught as an English conversation teacher, ALT, local adult group facilitator, and at universities. My research interests include international education, intercultural understanding, L2 motivation and L2 teacher development.


Sessions

Teaching Younger Learners Forum

Collaboration between students and teachers in the classroom is an important part of allowing younger learners to take control of their learning. The autonomy that we allow as teachers helps our students personalize their educational experience and frees up time for more one-on-one attention. This type of classroom also helps students with motivation and thereby eliminating much of the classroom control problems we face. With a student-centered classroom, teachers have more time to work individually with students in a more meaningful way. Good collaboration in the classroom also creates an environment that is surrounded by mutual achievements. In this presentation, the focus will be on teachers working together with students in a collaborative fashion to achieve a student-centered classroom. The presenters will provide useful ideas to help free the bonds of a teacher-centered classroom and provide a guide to a more student autonomous pedagogy. This will be done by giving examples and referencing research into student autonomy, intrinsic motivation, classroom control, and personalized student assessment.