Learner-Centered Teaching Five Key Changes to Practice

1. Learner-Centered TeachingFive Key Changes to Practice Maryellen Weimer (2002)

2. Basic question What should teachers do in order to maximize learning outcomes for their students?

3. How is learner-centered teaching distinct? • Focuses on what students are doing, not what teacher is doing • What is the student learning? • How is the student learning? • What conditions promote student learning? • Is the student retaining / applying learning? • How does current learning facilitate future learning?

4. Authors motivation • Lack of confidence central component that prevented students from doing well (Introductory course - beginning communication) • How to develop learning confidence in students? • Her example: “boat building” • Closer to home: Office 2007??? • How to connect research on learning to practice in the classroom • 5 key changes

5. my motivation • Introduce the basic elements to Weimer’s learner-centered approach • Identify costs and benefits to each of the changes suggested • Discuss the variety of approaches currently used by McKendree faculty that are learner-centered • Different disciplines have different needs and/or issues associated with each type of change

6. 5 key changes Balance of power Function of content Role of teacher Responsibility for learning Evaluation purpose and processes Changes are not independent, but interact in a variety of ways

7. power • Faculty are in control • Content, pace, assignments, due dates, evaluation, communication • Syllabus language as evidence • Of course we are (or should be): • Students are not capable (lack maturity, do not have good study skills, not prepared, do not care about learning) • Faculty are capable • Big question: Can one design course activities and assignments that responsibly give students more control over learning?

8. Power sharing • Combination of faculty and student decision making • Benefits • Students gain confidence – initial resistance changes to increased motivation • Increases feeling of ownership of class • Practical examples: • Assignments selected from array of options • Fixed due dates – own scheduling decisions • Syllabus development • General course policies and evaluation methods (Developmental Biology) • Topics covered (Evolution)

9. Power sharing: issues • Can one design course activities and assignments that responsibly give students more control over learning? • How much power is enough? • How much freedom can they handle? • When do teachers compromise professional responsibilities? • Others??

10. content • Content plays major role in instructional decisions • Common assumption: More is better • How much content is enough? • Entry level vs. advanced courses • Memorization vs. understanding • Future uses of content: • Need to continue to learn new content (it’s impossible to teach everything about anything) • Old understandings replaced by newer understandings (need to relearn past content)

11. Content: function • Goal – develop learning skills (accessing, organizing, evaluating) that students will use later to understand new (or revised) content • Content is “used” not “covered” • Develop knowledge base (current use) • Develop more general learning skills • Create learner awareness • Big question: How to balance establishing a knowledge base with the development of learning skills

12. Content: Practice • Practical approaches: • Think developmentally – learning skills build on one another • How to interpret a textbook figure • Make short learning activities routine • Students spend 5 minutes at end of lecture summarizing • Take advantage of learning center professionals • Use supplementary materials • U101 “How to get good grades is college”

13. Content: Issues • How much content is enough? • Focusing on learning skills reduces amount of content covered • students require more time to access same amount of content – less efficient • As skills develop, efficiency improves • How do we change attitudes about role of content (among faculty) • What about students at different skill levels? • How do I tailor generic learning skills to specific content? • Others??

14. Role of teacher • Current approach remains largely teacher centered • Active area of change with increased awareness / implementation of active, collaborative, inquiry-based approaches • Learner-centered approach • Teacher as gardener, midwife, guide, and/or coach • Learners are required to do more of the actual work as teachers take a more advisory role

15. Role of teacher: practice • Do learning tasks less • Students summarize info • Less telling – more student discovery • In-class syllabus test • Do more modeling • Demonstrate how an “experienced” learner would approach a task (adopt-a-paper) • Get students to learn from (and with) each other

16. Role of teacher: issues • Do you intervene (if so – when)? • What do you do when you intervene? • Provide answers vs. fine-tuning questions • Others??

17. responsibility • Actions required of students – they need to accept responsibility for learning • Faculty contribution is to provide conditions that promote growth and movement toward autonomy • Show students value of learning • Make content relevant • Lead student to resources • Monitor progress and provide feedback • Consequences for student behavior

18. Responsibility: practice • Involve students in process of setting classroom climate • Have students identify climates where they have learned effectively in the past • Get feedback on classroom climate • Help students face poor exam performance • Accepting responsibility for assignment details • Empowering students to fix problems • Establishing guidelines for how students should address problems that arise during group work

19. Responsibility: issues • How do you move from a rule-based system to one that relies on individual responsibility • How do you establish consequences for students not taking responsibility for their actions (or inaction)? • Others??

20. evaluation • Evaluation used to generate grades AND promote learning • Grades do not equal learning • Faculty and students both perform evaluations • Students learn how to self-evaluate and participate in evaluating their peers • Grades strongly influence students beliefs about themselves • Evaluating everything decreases students motivation to develop independent learning skills (the only things worth learning are things that you get points for)

21. Evaluation: practice • Review periods • focus on integration of content, organization, identifying emphasis • Use the exam to promote learning • Provide additional short answer questions • Have students write a question that they expected, but did not show up • Debriefing the exam • Self-assessment activities • Increase sense of responsibility and confidence in assessing their own understanding • Peer reviewed activities

22. Evaluation: issues • Should students have any involvement in the actual grading process • Potential benefits • Students take self and peer assessment more seriously if they are actually real • Accurately assessing the quality of their own work and that of co-workers is an important skill in the work place

23. Implementation issues • Resistance: • From students • From other faculty • Developmental approach: • Students skills, background, and maturity change over time • Start up time is important since learner-centered approaches differ from most prior classroom experiences • Early development of basic skills facilitates more learner-centered approaches in the future