Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

✍ Scribed by Maryellen Weimer

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 305
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this second edition of the classic work Learner-Centered Teaching, Maryellen Weimer―one of the nation’s most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching―offers a comprehensive introduction to the topic of learner-centered teaching in the college and university classroom. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes the most current examples of practice in action from a variety of disciplines and contains new information on the research support for learner-centered approaches. Weimer also includes a more in-depth discussion of how students’ developmental issues influence the effectiveness of learner-centered teaching.

Learner-centered teaching focuses attention on what the student is learning, how the student is learning, the conditions under which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining and applying the learning, and how current learning positions the student for future learning. To help educators accomplish the goals of learner-centered teaching, this important book presents the meaning, practice, and ramifications of the learner-centered approach and how this approach transforms the college classroom environment. Learner-Centered Teaching shows how to tie teaching and curriculum to the process and objectives of learning rather than to the content delivery alone.

The book also offers well-researched advice for educators who want to transition to a learner-centered approach in their classrooms and identifies the steps to take to put into place learner-centered policies and practices. Learner-Centered Teaching provides a theoretical foundation for the learner-centered approach and outlines a positive way to improve teaching.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
The Author
Part One: Foundations of the Learner-Centered Approach
Chapter One: Learner-Centered Teaching: Roots and Origins
A Personal History
Events and Experiences: What Motivated the Change
Organizing What I Learned
And the Learning Continues
The Theories Behind Learner-Centered Teaching
Attribution Theory and Self-Efficacy
Radical and Critical Pedagogy
Feminist Pedagogy
Constructivism
Transformative Learning
Chapter Two: Research: Evidence That Learner-Centered Approaches Work
Research Updates
Deep and Surface Learning
Faculty Orientations to Teaching
Independent, Self-Directed, and Self-Regulated Learners
Noteworthy Reviews of Research
Review of Research on Motivation
Reviews of Research on Active Learning
Discipline-Based Research in Support of Learner-Centered Approaches
Problem-Based Learning
Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry
Peer-Led Team Learning
Studies of Individual Learner-Centered Courses
Six Studies of Biology Courses
Study of an Algebra Course
Studies in Physics Courses
What Do Students Say About Learner-Centered Approaches?
Conclusion
Part Two: The Five Key Changes to Practice
Chapter Three: The Role of the Teacher
What Needs to Change?
What Hasn’t Changed?
Evidence of Teacher-Centered Instruction Provided by Faculty
Evidence of Teacher-Centered Instruction Provided by Students
Classroom Observation Data
Analysis of an Artifact of Teaching for Evidence of Active Learning
Why Hasn’t Teaching Become More Learner-Centered?
Why Faculty Prefer More Teacher-Centered Roles
The Facilitative Role Is More Difficult
Facilitative Teaching: Principles That Guide Its Implementation
Principle 1: Teachers Let Students Do More Learning Tasks
Principle 2: Teachers Do Less Telling So That Students Can Do More Discovering
Principle 3: Teachers Do Instructional Design Work More Carefully
Principle 4: Faculty More Explicitly Model How Experts Learn
Principle 5: Faculty Encourage Students to Learn From and With Each Other
Principle 6: Faculty and Students Work to Create Climates for Learning
Principle 7: Faculty Use Evaluation to Promote Learning
Interesting Implementation Issues
Do You Intervene and, If So, When?
How Best to Intervene?
Chapter Four: The Balance of Power
What Needs to Change and Hasn’t: Teacher Control
Changing the Balance of Power
Redistributing Power: Examples
Activities and Assignments
Course Policy Decisions
Course Content Decisions
Evaluation Activities
Interesting Implementation Issues
How Much Power Is Enough to Motivate Students?
How Much Decision Making Are Students Ready to Handle?
How Do Teachers Know When They’ve Abrogated Legitimate Instructional Responsibility?
Chapter Five: The Function of Content
What Needs to Change?
Why It Needs to Change
Why It Isn’t Changing
How Does Content Function in a Learner-Centered Course?
Developing Learning Skills: Guidelines
Strategies That Develop Learning Skills
Implementation Issues
How Do We Change Attitudes About the Function of Content?
Making the Strategies Work for Me
Chapter Six: The Responsibility for Learning
What Needs to Change and Still Hasn’t
Classroom Climates That Promote Student Responsibility for Learning
Classroom Climate: Definitions and Descriptions
Classroom Climates That Motivate Students to Accept the Responsibility for Learning
Student Involvement in Classroom Climate
Involving Students in Creating the Classroom Climate
Involving Students in Maintaining the Classroom Climate
Involving Students in Enhancing the Classroom Climate
Implementation Issues
Chapter Seven: The Purpose and Processes of Evaluation
What Needs to Change and Hasn’t
How the Purpose and Processes of Evaluation Change
A Better Balance Between Grades and Learning
Using Evaluation to Promote Self- and Peer-Assessment Skills
Using Exams, Assignments, and Activities to Promote Learning
Maximizing the Learning Potential of Exams
Developing Self- and Peer-Assessment Skills
Self-Assessment: Discovering What I Do and How Well I Do It
Peer Assessment: Discovering That I Can Give and Get Useful Feedback
Implementation Issues
Part Three: Implementing the Learner-Centered Approach
Chapter Eight: Responding to Resistance
Why Do Students Resist?
Learner-Centered Approaches Require More Work
Learner-Centered Approaches Are Threatening
Learner-Centered Approaches Involve Losses
Some Students Are Not Ready for Some Learner-Centered Approaches
Recognizing Resistance
Passive, Nonverbal Resistance
Partial Compliance
Open Resistance
Overcoming Resistance
Communicate Frequently and Explicitly About the Rationale for Learner-Centered Approaches
Communicate Messages That Encourage and Positively Reinforce
Solicit Student Feedback on Their Learning Experiences Regularly
Resist Their Resistance
Faculty Resistance
Sources of Faculty Resistance
Dealing with Faculty Resistance
Chapter Nine: Taking a Developmental Approach
The Developmental Process: What We Know
Developmental Design for Assignments and Activities
Progressive Design
Targeted Learning Skill Development
Developmental Curricular Design
Good Places to Begin
The Developmental Issues for Faculty
Appendix One: Syllabus and Learning Log Entries for Speech Communications 100A
Text
Course Assignments
Exams
Presentations
Small-Group Experiences
Learning Log
Speech Critiques
Participation
Bonus Points
Grades
Learning Log Entries
Entry 1
Entry 2
Entry 3
Entry 4
Entry 5
Entry 6
Entry 7
Entry 8
Entry 9
Entry 10
Entry 11
Entry 12
Entry 13
Entry 14
Entry 15
Entry 16
Entry 17
Entry 18
Entry 19
Entry 20
Entry 21
Entry 22
Appendix Two: Resources That Develop Learning Skills
Successful Students: Guidelines and Thoughts for Academic Success
Ten Commandments for Effective Study Skills
Thou Shalt Be Responsible and Thou Shalt Be Active—For There Be No Other Passage to Academic Success!
Thou Shalt Know Where Thy “Hot Buttons” Are, and Thou Shalt Push Them Regularly!
If Thou Hath Questions, Asketh Them; If Thou Hath No Questions, Maketh Some!
Thou Shalt Learn That Thou and Thy Professor Maketh a Team—and Thou Shalt Be a Team Player!
Thou Shalt Not Parketh Thy Butt in the Back!
Thou Shalt Not Write in Thy Notes What Thou Faileth to Understand!
If Thine Interest in Class Be Gone, Faketh It!
Thou Shalt Know That if Silence Be Golden, Recitation Shalt Be Platinum!
Thou Shalt Not Procrastinate—and Thou Shalt Beginneth Not Doing It Right Now!
Discussion Guidelines for Students
Consider a Study Group
Group Members’ Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
References
Name Index
Subject Index