Posts Tagged ‘learner-centered instruction’
May 15 - Learner-Centered Teaching: Good Places to Begin
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
It’s probably the question I’m most asked in workshops on learner-centered teaching. “What are some good places to start? My students aren’t used to learner-centered approaches.” Sometimes the questioner is honest enough to add, “and I haven’t used many previously.” Before the specifics, here’s some general recommendations: start slowly (for example, don’t add 14 learner-centered strategies to a mostly lecture course); try simple, reasonably straightforward activities first; and define success before implementing the activity. As for those “good places” to begin infusing your teaching with learner-centered strategies, here are some approaches to try.
January 16 - Teacher-Centered, Learner-Centered or All of the Above
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
In November I had the great privilege of interviewing Parker Palmer. If you don’t know his book, The Courage to Teach, it’s one not to miss. If you haven’t read it in a while, it merits a reread. After reading it again, I found new ideas I missed the first time, old ones I have yet to understand completely and others I hadn’t thought about for far too long.
December 31 - The Flipped Approach to a Learner-Centered Class
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Moving from a lecture-based class to a flipped class requires a new set of skills. You can have the most creative assignments, the latest technology, and the most organized plan, but unless you have the skills to implement that plan, the flipped learning environment fails. This seminar will help you create a successful flipped experience for you and your students.
October 9 - How to Implement Brain-Based Learning Strategies in Your Courses
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
If you think brain science isn’t part of your teaching job description, think again. Teachers deal with the neurochemistry behind student learning processes whether they want to or not. In this interactive presentation participants will gain basic knowledge of brain function with respect to learning. They will see how current teaching strategies address some of the neuroanatomical processes and how fundamental knowledge of brain structure can improve teaching strategies.
August 8 - Five Characteristics of Learner-Centered Teaching
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies, Teaching Professor Blog
In May I finished a second edition of my Learner-Centered Teaching book. Revising it gave me the chance to revisit my thinking about the topic and look at work done since publication of the first edition ten years ago. It is a subject about which there is still considerable interest. The learner-centered label now gets attached to teaching strategies, teachers, classes, programs, departments and institutions. Like many trendy descriptors in higher education, with widespread use comes a certain definitional looseness. Active learning, student engagement and other strategies that involve students and mention learning are called learner-centered. And although learner-centered teaching and efforts to involve students have a kind of bread and butter relationship, they are not the same thing. In the interest of more definitional precision, I’d like to propose five characteristics of teaching that make it learner-centered.
August 2 - Are We Preaching to the Choir about Student-Centered Learning Practices?
By: Howard N. Shapiro, PhD in Teaching and Learning
I’d like to report on a nonscientific study I have been conducting, without human-subjects approval or even a clear research plan. This won’t make it into the research journals, but the results are still compelling.
My “study” has been continuous for over two years. During that time, I have made numerous trips, at random times, from my administrative office to a building on the opposite corner of campus. For nearly three months, I made the round trip twice a day or more. Every time, I have walked through the ground floor of our main general classroom building, which has about 14 classrooms, mostly 30- to 50-person rooms, but also with one 120-person tiered lecture hall. The classrooms are assigned to courses covering a wide range of disciplines, mostly first- or second-year classes.
June 18 - Students Share Their Thoughts on Active Learning
By: Mary Bart in Teaching and Learning
“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.”
– A. Chickering and Z.F. Gamson, “Seven principles for good practice,” AAHE Bulletin 39 (March 1987), 3-7.
February 29 - Questions about Active Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
What does it take for an activity to qualify as active learning? How we define active learning makes a difference. For example, if participation is a perpendicular exchange where the teacher asks a question and one student answers, we know that one student had an active learning experience. We have to guess whether that exchange engaged other students.
February 7 - Long-Term Benefits of Learner-Centered Instruction
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Often these questions are raised about courses using learner-centered approaches: What if this is the only learner-centered course taken by the student? Is one course enough to make a difference?
There is growing evidence that courses with learner-centered approaches—those approaches that use active learning strategies to engage students directly in learning processes—enhance academic achievement and promote the development of important learning skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to cooperatively work with others. But does the experience of being made responsible for learning transcend that individual course?
September 14 - Learner-Centered Technology: Aligning Tools with Learning Goals
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
The technological tools available for learner-centered instruction continue to advance, presenting faculty with opportunities and challenges. This seminar provides faculty with a roadmap for matching the best tools to course learning outcomes.
