Posts Tagged ‘Student-Centered Teaching’

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?


November 16 - The Five R’s of Engaging Millennial Students

By: Mary Bart in Teaching and Learning

The first indication that the Millennial Generation may be different from previous generations is to consider how many different names we have for the generation and the people who belong to it. They’re referred to as Generation Y, Nexters, Baby Boom Echo Generation, Echo Boomers, Digital Natives, Generation Next, Generation Me and, of course, Millennials.


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.


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.


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 16 - Nine Ways to Customize Learning Experiences

By: Mary Bart in Instructional Design

In every course there are certain core concepts and principles that are important for each student to learn, develop into useful knowledge, and apply appropriately. What’s not important is how they learn these core concepts.


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 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.


April 27 - Transforming Your Teaching Style: A Student-Centered Approach

By: Patty H. Phelps, EdD in Philosophy of Teaching

When I started teaching 27 years ago, like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz I believed that just having a brain would make me successful. And so each class session I would literally “take the stage” on a raised platform to deliver what was in my head and on my papers. Even though there were 60 students in the class, there could just as well have been none because I basically ignored the students. They were objects, sponges whose task was to absorb course content.