Posts Tagged ‘learner-centered’
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?
December 5 - How Technology Can Improve Learner-Centered Teaching
By: Mary Bart in Instructional Design
For faculty looking to create a more learner-centered environment there are always a few bumps in the road. First they need to get used to no longer being the “sage on the stage” and then there’s the adjustment period for students who aren’t used to being active participants in their learning. In many ways, technology
July 15 - A Learner-Centered Approach Affects Student Motivation
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Most of the time research evidence grows by bits and pieces—not all at once, and the evidence documenting the effectiveness of learner-centered approaches is no exception. It continues to accumulate, as illustrated by this study. It occurred in a third-year pharmacotherapy course in a doctor of pharmacy program. The students were randomly assigned to five- and six-member groups, with each group being assigned a patient case with multiple drug-related problems.
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.
September 30 - Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 2
By: Rob Kelly in Online Education
“One of the biggest barriers to online learning is our inability to respond in the moment, unless we happen to be on live chat or video, which is really rare in most of the online learning world,” says Rick Van Sant, associate professor of education at Ferris State University.
September 28 - Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 1
By: Rob Kelly in Online Education
Learning research indicates that people learn better in the presence of some emotional connection—to the content or to other people. Creating this emotional connection is particularly challenging in the online classroom, where most communication is asynchronous and lacks many of the emotional cues of the face-to-face environment. Nevertheless, it is possible to do, with a learner-centered approach to teaching and a mastery of the technology that supports it, says Rick Van Sant, associate professor of education at Ferris State University.
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?
August 6 - Assessing the Degree of Learner-Centeredness
By: Michael Harris, PhD, and Roxanne Cullen, PhD in Educational Assessment
Since Barr and Tagg introduced the concept of the instructional versus the learner-centered paradigms in 1995, higher education institutions across the country have adopted the concept in one form or another in an attempt to create learning environments that respond both to the changing profile of our students and recent research on learning with the ultimate goal of improving student success.
July 29 - Teaching Online vs. F2F: 15 Differences That Affect Learning
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Online instruction will continue to grow rapidly on college campuses nationwide. This seminar will show you the most effective teaching practices to help students succeed in the online classroom.
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)
