Many faculty scoff at the phrase above, often exclaiming, “Isn’t all teaching ’student-centered’ or ‘learner-centered’?” Well, not exactly. Here are some descriptors to help clarify the true intent of the term, learner-centered (or learning-centered) teaching:
- providing choices for students in relation to where, how, and when they study,
- fostering (focusing on) learning rather than teaching (incorporating active rather than passive learning),
- encouraging student responsibility (and accountability) and activity rather than teacher control and content delivery,
- developing mutuality and interdependence in the teacher-learner relationship, and
- emphasizing context-specific learning in which students build their own new understandings and skills through engagement with authentic problems based on ‘real world’ experiences (emphasizing deep learning and understanding as opposed to simple “coverage”).
Maryellen Weimer describes seven “Do” principles for teachers/faculty to begin their planning for learner-centered teaching:
- Teachers do learning tasks less (let the students do more)
- Teachers do less telling; students do more discovering
- Teachers do more (instructional) design work
- Faculty do more modeling (of the learning process — for student benefit)
- Faculty do more to get students learning from and with each other (collaborative)
- Faculty work to create climates for learning (conditions conducive to learning)
- Faculty do more with feedback (formative ‘along-the-way’ and summative assessments; grades and comments)
For more information on learner-centered teaching:
Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice
by Maryellen Weimer (2002). Jossey-Bass. (A summary by Bill Peirce; available for check-out from the Center’s Library)
Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
From The American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, March 1987
Mapping the Learning Space: Overview of the Territory
5 Learner-Centered Principles and Practices in Higher Ed: Design Implications, Learning Activities, Deeper Learning, Teaching Practices, and Technology Uses
International Institute on Student-centered Learning and Engagement
May 20-23, 2008 at Portland State University
Student-Centered Learning: What Does it Mean for Students and Lecturers?
O’Neill & McMahon, 2005
Briefly describe one of your “learner-centered teaching” activities or strategies . . . Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
October 29th, 2007
What is your opinion of the video? Do your students have similar concerns? How can you or the University help to change and encourage better student interaction? …Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
For another great video from this group check out
The Machine is Us/ing Us a short video about the Web 2.0 revolution.
October 15th, 2007
These discussion based programs feature faculty talking about their service-learning courses and experiences working with all aspects of service-learning and civic engagement. For more information, visit the Office of Service Learning website.
(NOTE: All presentations take place at the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology @ 201 University Hall)
September:
Thursday, 9/6/07, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm
Experiential, Transformational Learning Trips: Or two old (wise) guys take students on trips to places they might never go to on their own
Gordon Rickets, Director of Arts Village and School of Art,
Bill Thompson, Instructor, Continuing & Extended Education
These two presenters hold extensive knowledge and experience of incorporating experiential learning with undergraduate courses in both the arts and social work fields. [more...]
October:
Wednesday, 10/17/07, 9:45 am-10:45 am
Report on the 2007 National Gathering of Service-Learning: The CSUMB Workshop Experience
Khani Begum, Associate Professor, English Department,
Kate Collins, Instructor, Theatre & Film Department & Chapman Learning Community
Returning from the recent Service-Learning Conference in Monterey Bay, California, these presenters will share their experiences and discuss their developing ideas regarding connecting service-learning with curriculum design and pedagogy development for the engaged college course. [more...]
Friday, 10/26/07, 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Service-Learning for the Introductory Experience: Field Experience in EDHD 201
Sansanee Ohlson, Instructor, Teaching & Learning
Every year, nearly 900 students engage in community based learning as part of their EDHD 201 Introduction to Education Class. This team taught course is designed to not only help students decide whether or not to pursue the teaching profession, but also to help impact a community agency during the discovery process. [more...]
What kinds of service learning activities or experiences do you include in your course(s)? Click on the COMMENTS link below to share your thoughts or ask more questions.
August 28th, 2007
Corrie Bergeron, M.Ed., an Instructional Designer at Lakeland Community College in Ohio recently wrote an essay entitled Age of Wonders and shared it on one of the OLN (Ohio Learning Network) listserves. Below are some highlights, but the entire essay is a good, but short read for anyone concerned with being inundated by constant technological change in their life or classroom.
In the film “Master and Commander,” 19th-century British sea captain Jack Aubry is handed a wooden model of a new warship. He examines it carefully, noting its many innovative features. Finally he sets it down, saying, “What an age of wonders we live in.”
If he had only known what was just over the horizon.
…For those of us who teach (and who directly support the teachers), this is a huge challenge. Many of our students know far more than we do about the new tools and toys. Others struggle with basic skills most of us mastered years ago. Every semester faculty come to me and say, “Please get me set up with Blackboard. My students say I need to use it.”
But in truth, the technology doesn’t matter all that much. Regardless of the tools they use, people are still people. We all have the same basic human needs: for food and shelter, for security, for love and belonging, for esteem, for self-actualization. Under the iPod and Razr, behind the email or discussion board post, is a human being with the same fundamental needs as his or her great-great grandparents.
They just meet those needs in different ways, that’s all. iTunes is not so very different than the traveling minstrel of Chaucer’s time. It just has a larger repertoire.
A tool is merely a set of affordances and constraints – stuff it lets you do easily, and stuff it makes it hard to do. That applies to tools used for teaching, too. You can teach in the 3D simulated world of Second Life, where people can fly and a student may appear as an alien with an orange mohawk (ok, bad example – that can show up on campus, too). But you also can teach while sitting on a log and using your finger to draw in the dirt (hey – digital interactive multimedia!)
…Is that good? Is it bad? Neither. It’s just different.
…We often feel like hamsters on a wheel that’s spinning faster than we can run. But we keep up as best we can with what’s going on “out there.” We try new things. Sometimes they work better than we’d planned. Sometimes they crash and burn. We pick up the pieces, learn from the experience, and try, try again.
We have to, if we want to prepare our students for the next Age of Wonders. It’s just over the horizon.
This is distrubuted with the author’s permission and a Creative Commons license (non-commercial with attribution).
What are your thoughts or observations about this “age of wonders”? How does or will these realities change the way you teach… or change the way students learn — in 3-5 years, 10 years, 20 years? Any other comments regarding the essay?
August 8th, 2007
The beginning of the semester is an exciting and busy time for both faculty and students. The semester start is also the best time for you to take the opportunity to make students aware of your expectations for the entire semester.
Expectations help define a boundary for students in which they can focus on the required tasks, leading them to the desired learning outcomes, rather than being distracted by unclear or obscure objectives. Some areas you can define or clarify include:
- workload per week (2-3x the credit hours out of class time, usually),
- assignments (what will need to be accomplished – readings, papers, presentations, projects, research, etc.),
- assessment/evaluation (how will they be graded/assessed – quizzes, exams, homework, rubrics, informal feedback, etc.), and
- behaviors (also important to include in order to educate the “whole student” – participation, attendance, professional, during presentations and group work, etc.).
In concert with expections, here are some assignment ideas or discussion topics that allow students to claim ownership of their role in the learning process, :
- Have students list their expectations for the course before seeing the syllabus or learning outcomes; near the end of the course, return this list and have them revise it, including a list of suggestions for next semester’s students
- On the first day, have them write a letter to you about why they deserve an A in your class; return it to them just before the final exam for them to revise and resubmit, including a section about how they have changed as a result of your class
- After looking at the course outcomes in the syllabus, have students write their personal short and long term goals for the course
What are some other expectations, outcomes, or activities that help your students take ownership of their learning ? Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
July 31st, 2007
Dr. L. Dee Fink presented the keynote address, “The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well” to faculty, staff, students, and Regional Center Learning Community guests last Friday in Olscamp Hall. His visit was part of both the First Annual Teaching and Learning Fair and the Student Achievement Assessment Committee (SAAC) Awards, held the night before.
[NOTE: If you were unable to attend, WBGU taped the presentation and it can be viewed via the DVSS. After authentication with BGSU login, search for "The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well."]
Here are some brief highlights from Dr. Fink’s keynote:
- The iceberg metaphor for teaching: Above the surface – what and how we teach; Below (hidden) – how we gear up and who we are as professionals
- Focus not on “just teaching,” but on “teaching well”
- If we want to experience the deep joy and fulfill the responsibility to students and society at large, we are going to have to rethink what we do and how we are doing it
- Group tests on “readiness assurance” — after an introductory reading; used for feedback; small grade received by all; learning from each other in preparation for next phase(s) of learning (part of his “Creating Significant Learning Experiences” book)
- Jet Blue’s reservation specialists (many whom are housewives working from home) get 4 hours of professional development each month… “isn’t college teaching at least as important as airline reservations?”
- It’s an exciting, challenging journey, with lots of bumps, but it’s well worth it!
Look for our upcoming Communicating for Learners newsletter with more on Dr. Fink’s keynote.
For more information on Dr. Fink and his work:
What about your highlights from the keynote or your own thoughts/experiences on the “joy and responsibility of teaching well?” Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
March 23rd, 2007
