CONCEPT NOTES PRESENTATION
A. Learner-centered teaching: A definition
Over the last decade, the principles of learner-centered
teaching have gained
widespread use throughout all levels and disciplines of
education. Unfortunately, as the
principles have gained popularity, the definition of
learner-centered teaching has become
a bit muddied and over simplified. Although strategies
like student engagement, active
learning and other practices that involve students in
their own learning are a necessary
component of learner-centered teaching; these
practices do not represent the entire
philosophy of what it means to be a learner-centered
teacher.
B. Characteristics of Learner-centered Teaching
According to Weimer (2012), there are five
characteristics of learner-centered teaching:
1. Learner-centered teaching engages students in
the hard, messy work of learning.
“I believe teachers are doing too many learning tasks
for students. We ask the
questions, we call on students, we add detail to their
answers. We offer the examples.
We organize the content. We do the preview and the
review. On any given day, in most
classes teachers are working much harder than
students. I’m not suggesting we never do
these tasks, but I don’t think students develop
sophisticated learning skills without the
chance to practice and in most classrooms the teacher
gets far more practice than the
students.”
2. Learner-centered teaching includes explicit skill
instruction
“Learner-centered teachers teach students how to
think, solve problems, evaluate evidence, analyze
arguments, generate hypotheses—all those learning
skills essential to mastering material in the discipline.
They do not assume that students pick up these skills
on their own, automatically. A few students do, but
they tend to be the students most like us and most
students aren’t that way. Research consistently
confirms that learning skills develop faster if they are
taught explicitly along with the content.” Students not
only need to develop an understanding of a discipline’s
knowledge base (content), but they also need to
understand how that knowledge is organized and
acquired (learning skills). By learning how to solve
problems, think critically, apply information, and
integrate knowledge, students can learn to think like
experts in a discipline. In other words, they not only
need to learn content, but they also need to know how
they can learn more, which is critical in today’s
environment where
information is easily accessible and exponentially
growing. Teachers already possess
these skills because they are experts within a
discipline, so they often overlook the
importance of teaching them to students. Research,
however, confirms that students do
not automatically learn these skills.
3. Learner-centered teaching encourages students
to reflect on what they are learning and how they
are learning it.
“Learner-centered teachers talk about
learning. In casual conversations, they ask students
what they are learning. In
class they may talk about their own learning. They
challenge student assumptions about
learning and encourage them to accept responsibility
for decisions they make about
learning; like how they study for exams, when they do
assigned reading, whether they
revise their writing or check their answers. Learner-
centered teachers include assignment
components in which students reflect, analyze and
critique what they are learning and
how they are learning it. The goal is to make students
aware of themselves as learners
and to make learning skills something students want to
develop.”
Many of the guidelines for instructing students on how
to acquire better learning
skills are also applicable for helping them reflect on
how to take responsibility for
changing their learning strategies according to their
needs.
4. Learner-centered teaching motivates students
by giving them some control over learning
processes.
“I believe that teachers make too many of the
decisions about learning for
students. Teachers decide what students should learn,
how they learn it, the pace at
which they learn, the conditions under which they learn
and then teachers determine
whether students have learned. Students aren’t in a
position to decide what content
should be included 3 in the course or which textbook is
best, but when teachers make all
the decisions, the motivation to learn decreases and
learners become dependent.
Learner-centered teachers search out ethically
responsible ways to share power with
students. They might give students some choice about
which assignments they complete. They might make
classroom policies something students can discuss.
They might let students set assignment deadlines
within a given time window. They might ask students to
help create assessment criteria.”
5.Learner-centered teaching encourages
collaboration.
“It sees classrooms (online or face-to-face) as
communities of learners. Learner
