Posts Tagged ‘learner-centered teaching’
June 1 - Changing the Way We Teach: Making the Case for Learner-Centered Teaching
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
“Why should we change the way we teach?” a marketing professor asked with an honest gaze and a smile that bespoke sincerity. It was early in a workshop session just after I’d introduced the idea of learner-centered teaching and explained why students should be doing more of the learning tasks themselves.
April 20 - Using Clickers to Engage Students and Maximize Learning
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
You know student engagement is important for learning, but it’s not always easy to activate, especially in large classrooms. Students may limit participation because they’re intimidated, unprepared, shy or scared. Worse yet, if they’re lost, you won’t know it. Find out how clickers can help you connect with students, even in the largest lecture hall.
April 8 - Standards and Pedagogies of Student Engagement
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
A colleague raised a very interesting point in response to the February 17 post on evidence-based teaching. That entry explored some of the reasons instructional practice is not better informed by research findings.
February 25 - Strategies for Teaching Unfamiliar Material
By: Rob Kelly in Effective Teaching Strategies
The prospect of teaching topics outside one’s area of expertise can be unsettling for even the most confident faculty member. Nevertheless, due to factors such as budget cuts and curricular changes, faculty are increasingly being asked to teach in unfamiliar territory.
September 30 - Simulations Deliver Real Benefits
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning, Teaching Professor Blog
Simulations can be powerful active learning experiences. In the social sciences and humanities they can provide a kind of “lab-like” experience, often not a part of these courses. Finding good simulation exercises is a challenge in some fields and integrating them into the content and objectives of the course requires careful planning and execution. However, this extra work is justified given what a good simulation can accomplish in class. Check out these benefits listed in an excellent article on simulations.
August 23 - The Benefits of Making the Shift to Student-Centered Teaching
By: Mary Bart in Effective Teaching Strategies
Would you let your students decide when you hold office hours?
How about whether projects are worth more points than exams, or vice versa?
Would you let your students decide some of the topics that will be covered in the course?
July 23 - Teaching for Transformative Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning, Teaching Professor Blog
Picking up where we left off on the previous post, so how do teachers intentionally teach for transformative learning? And how do they do that, given the fact that a teacher cannot make (as in require or force) students have a learning experience that changes what they believe, how they think, or how they act?
July 15 - Teaching—More than a Set of Skills
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Faculty Development, Teaching Professor Blog
Ronald J. Markert captures the “more” in a set of principles. The context is medical education, but the principles he proposes are broadly applicable. Here’s a sample. A good teacher wants to be a good teacher—“Teaching has to be its own reward.” (p. 809) Reward and recognition are fine, but they cannot provide the motivation
July 9 - Learning from Experience
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Learning Styles
In an editorial published in the Journal of Geoscience Education, a geography faculty member offers a testimonial in favor of learner-centered teaching. “Through my 15 years of teaching Earth System Science, I have explored various ways of teaching it and have become convinced that the Learner-Centered Environment, that builds upon constructivist theory principles and fosters teaching practices that recognize the active roles students must play in their learning, is particularly suitable for Earth system science education.” (p. 208)
June 8 - Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching in Large Classes
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Creating a learner-centered classroom involves more than just engaging students; it is a philosophical shift in how the instructor approaches the class. This 75-minute audio online seminar is a step-by-step guide to integrating learner-centered strategies into existing courses.
