In this article, two teacher educators and three preservice teachers reflect on the critical role Moses’ Five-Step Approach (Moses & Cobb, 2001) played as a scaffolding pedagogical framework in preservice teacher and faculty learning. Using Moses’ approach to frame their presentations, preservice teachers work in their groups to teach abstract Educational Psychology concepts to actively engage classmates from diverse backgrounds. During this process, the presenters co-construct knowledge with their peers and instructor, applying the framework by putting common activities and everyday language first before teaching abstract concepts and academic language. The authors, including a preservice teacher who also teaches a university biology course, explicate the process of their experience, beginning with conceptualizing a theme, generating engaging activities that represent the concepts and tap into multimodalities of learning, and breaking down key vocabulary to connect to students’ prior knowledge in a socially constructed environment. The authors reflect on the power of this student-centered framework as well as its challenges. Ultimately, Moses’ approach serves as a liberating framework, allowing diverse learners a common entry point to experience and comprehend complex concepts and vocabulary. This pedagogical framework fosters a rich student-centered environment where students become active agents of their own learning.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jiyeong-i/21/
This article is published as Ahn, R., I, J., White, J. W., & Monroy, L. N. (2018). Student-centered pedagogy: Using Moses’ Five-Step Approach as a scaffolding framework to teach diverse learners. Transformative Dialogue, 11(2), 1-17. Posted with permission.