Learner-Centered Teaching

Lana Shamanaeva
American Studies Department

What is learner-centered teaching?

LCT

places a learner rather than the instructor in the drivers seat.

Why should we focus on learners?

They

must benefit most from the process of education.

What is the purpose of education?

Educations role is to challenge inequality and dominant myths rather than socialize students into the status quo. Learning is directed toward social change and transforming the world, and true learning empowers students to challenge oppression in their lives.
Stage, Muller, Kinzie, and Simmons (1998)

What I know best I have taught

the individuals learning the most in the teacher-centered classrooms are the teachers there. They have reserved for themselves the very conditions that promote learning:

actively seeking new information, integrating it with what is known, organizing it in a meaningful way, and explaining it to others.

Huba and Freed, Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses: Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning, 2000, p. 35.

Beliefs about learning

1. Students learn in ____________ ways. 2. Learning is an ____________ process. 3. Students respond well if they are ___________. 4. People learn with ______________ not prescriptions. 5. Knowledge is internal; _____________ build it.

Beliefs about learning

1. Students learn in _different_ ways. 2. Learning is an _active_ process. 3. Students respond well if they are _involved_. 4. People learn with _guidance_ not prescriptions. 5. Knowledge is internal; _learners_ build it.

Father of the idea

Now the change which is coming into our education is the shifting of the center of gravity... the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are organized.

John Dewey 1859-1952

Do you apply learner-centered techniques or approach in your classes? What changes can make our courses more learner-centered?

Who does what in your class?

Who

chooses the topic? Who chooses the activities? Who prepares the material for the activities? Who do the students speak to mostly? Who chooses group members? Who gives the instructions and explanations?

Who does what in your class?

Who

asks questions, responds, and gives feedback? Who writes on the board? Who uses equipment? Who answers questions asked by the students?

Learner-Centered Teaching
Five Key Changes to Practice Maryellen Weimer

5 key changes to practice

Balance of power Function of content Role of teacher Responsibility for learning Evaluation purpose and process

Balance of power
Content

Calendar
Assignments Policies Grading

How far down the pyramid will you go?

Student involvement

The task The unit The book The course book & other activities

The syllabus
The curriculum

Arising questions
How

much power is enough for motivating one student vs. motivating the whole class? How much freedom can students handle? Can we give decision-making differentially?

Function of content
Dichotomous

thinking Priority of skills Dual function

Use content as a vehicle to develop learning skills.

D. L. Finkel, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, 2000.

Arising questions
How

much content is enough? What to do with students at different skill levels? How to adapt generic learning activities to fit the content I teach?

Role of teacher
Knowledge

transmission

Learning

facilitation

Principles of a learning facilitation

1. 2. 3. 4.

5.
6. 7.

Ts Ts Ts Ts Ts Ts Ts

do learning tasks less do < telling; Ss do > discovering do > design work do > modeling involve Ss in collaborative work > create climates for learning provide > formative feedback

Arising questions
Should

you intervene, and if so, when? What do you do when you intervene?

Responsibility for learning

1.
2. 3. 4.

5.

Autonomous, self-regulated, selfmonitored learners Extrinsic motivators Logical consequences, not discipline Rationale behind the assignment Resistance

Arising questions
How

many consequences should students be allowed to experience? How do these consequences influence students of different types? Is there any legitimate place for teacherimposed structure or sanctions when the environment is truly learner-centered?

Purpose and process of evaluation

Focus on learning processes 2. Reduce the stress and anxiety of evaluation 3. Incorporate > formative feedback mechanisms 4. Incorporate selfassessment and peerassessment
1.

Arising questions
Should

students have any involvement in the actual grading process?

Implementing LCT
Changes

in one dimension will lead to changes in another dimension You can start anywhere

The successful teacher is the teacher who becomes progressively redundant.

You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

It is the teachers job to put salt in the oats so that once the horse got to water, it was damn thirsty.

Thank you for attention.