Learning Centered Instruction

Despite the notion that students will learn through insightful lectures (if teaching centered approaches to education are done well), learning centered instruction challenges this philosophy through the differences in how students learn.  Brackenbury (2012) demonstrated that applied principles of learner centered teaching can be connected to significant learning experiences.  Even though there are no guarantees, Brackenbury states “that the learner-centered experiences that faculty provide will be later identified by their students as significant, educators can use the idea of creating significant learning experiences as a guiding principle within and across their courses (Brackenbury, 2012)”.  What are impressive are the cognitive underpinnings of learning centered teaching.  They suggest that learning centered teaching could result in knowledge that lasts for many years after the experience.

Learning centered instruction is a concept and framework for which students and professors alike learn from each other.  This is a stark paradigm shift away from the traditional instruction that almost all have experienced known as teacher centered.  In a teacher centered model, knowledge is transferred from the teacher to the student, and is presumably lecture based with testing and exams used to measure success.  Learning centered teaching isn’t about diminishing the significance of instruction or the classroom experience; rather it is amplified to involve additional activities that advance learning (Smart, Witt, and Scott, 2012).

Experiences outside of lectures provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their individual success in achieving core competencies from the subject matter.  This type of environment encourages reflection, student engagement, discussion, and overall measurement of content proficiency.  The learning centered framework evolves from strategic decisions in curriculum design and plans that that encourages interaction with the content, the learning process, and as a learning group (students along with the teacher).

Comparing Teacher Centered and Learning Centered Paradigms

According to Allen (2004), “Higher education professionals have moved from teaching- to learning-centered models for designing and assessing courses and curricula”.   Faculty must work together in order to identify all learning objectives and processes to assess strategies and goals to increase student learning. “Assessment is an integral component of this learner-centered approach, and it involves the use of empirical data to refine programs and improve student learning” (Allen, 2004).  The following concepts (Allen, 2004) have been compared between teaching and learning centered models.

Concept	Teaching-Centered	Learning-Centered
Teaching Goals	Ensure that the curriculum discipline is completely covered by the teacher.	The students learn how to use the discipline and how to integrate in order to solve complex real-world problems.  Core competencies and objectives are also learned.
Curriculum Organization	Courses outlined in a catalog and also grouped by program.	A cohesive program with built-in opportunities to synthesize, practices, and develop ideas, skills, and values in an increasingly complex way.
Course Structure	Teacher will cover each topic.	Students will master each learning objective or competency.
Student Learning	Students learn by listening, reading, and independent study.  Often time students are competing for grades.	Students take what they already know and construct new knowledge by integration in a cognitive way and through social activity.
Pedagogy	Delivery of information.	Engagement of students.
Delivery	Via lecture, assignments, and exams.	Via active learning: assignments, collaboration, community service, cooperation, online, self-directed, problem-based learning through asynchronous delivery and receiving.
Grading	Teacher acts as a gate keeper.	Grades are an indication of mastery of learning objectives and competencies.
Faculty	“Sage on the Stage”	“Guide on the Side”
Teaching Effectively	Teachers must present the information well and those that can learn this way will learn.	Teachers must engage students in their learning and help all students master the learning objectives and attain competencies before progressing.  Use assessments to improve the classroom and the program.

Student Engagement – Learning Centered Approach

Educators, regardless of teaching approach, should always employ methods to stay engaged with their students.  And with a shift to a learning centered approach, the active engaging of students is more important than ever before.  The University of Southern California’s Center for Excellence in Teaching (CET) provides innovative solutions for faculty by faculty, including ways to support student engagement (Anderson, Mayer, and Rajagopalan, 2005).

1. Recognize your students and empower their engagement to learn.
2. Embrace an interactive style of instruction by providing students the opportunity to teach their peers.
3. Make the course content relevant by relating the class to historical or societal issues along with students’ future goals.
4. Share the passion regarding the subject and make the course personal by offering anecdotes. Use eye contact, vary the voice in tone and volume, ask provocative questions, pause and wait for answers, and be active.
5. Devote time to students and be available.

The paradigm in education is shifting from teacher centered to a learning centered approach.  Traditional methods of teaching that depend on lectures promote passive learning.  The shift towards a different role for teachers, one of facilitator is based on research about how people learn.  Not everyone excels in a traditional model.  When the focus becomes student centered the needs of the teacher become secondary.

References

Anderson, L., Mayer, D., & Rajagopalan, N. (2005, September 1). CET: Teaching & Learning: Videos: Engaging Students in a Learner-Centered Classroom . USC Center for Excellence in Teaching. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/videos/engaging_students.html

Allen, M. J. (2004). Assessing academic programs in higher education. Bolton, Mass.: Anker Pub. Co..

Brackenbury, T. (2012). A qualitative examination of connections between learner-centered teaching and past significant learning experiences. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(4), 12-28.

Diamond, R. M. (2008). Designing and assessing courses and curricula: a practical guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Smart, K. L., Witt, C., & Scott, J. P. (2012). Toward Learner-Centered Teaching: An Inductive Approach. Business Communication Quarterly,75(4), 392-403.