learner centered teaching fort sill 2012

7/31/2019 Learner Centered Teaching Fort Sill 2012

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/learner-centered-teaching-fort-sill-2012 1/43

Learner Centered Teaching

A Presentation for

Fort Sill.

Developed by Professor

Terry Doyle

Ferris State University



This can be




Definition of Learner Centered

Teaching

• A Question---

Given the context of the learning situation( # of students, time of day, place, difficulty of material)

will this teaching action optimize my students’

opportunity to learn?



What Does it Mean to Have Learned?



Learning is when Neurons Wire

• Learning is a change

in the neuron-

patterns of the

brain.(Ratey, 2002)

www.virtualgalen.com/.../ neurons-small.jpg



Use it or Lose it

• When new material is

not practiced the new

dendrite tissue is

reabsorbed by the brainto conserve resources.

(Dr. Janet Zadina)



Teachers’ Definition of Learning?

Learning is the ability to use information aftersignificant periods of disuse

andit is the ability to use the information to solveproblems that arise in a context different (if onlyslightly) from the context in which the information

was originally taught.

(Robert Bjork, Memories and Metamemories, 1994)



Learning Activates the Reward

Pathway

Real life, meaningful,

and authentic learning

activates the rewardpathway in the brain.

(Dr. Janet Zadina, 2010)



Basic Principle of Learner Centered

Instruction

It is the one who does

the work who does thelearning



Question--What do we want our students to

learn?

What would make us happy (from all that we

taught—the skills, content and behaviors) that our

students remembered and could use one year after

they finished our class?



Explaining Why Learner

Centered Teaching is inour Students’ Best

Interest



Students Need to Know WHY

We Want them to do the Work

A vital aspect of being a

learner centered

teacher is to remember

teaching is, in mostways, no different than

any other human to

human interaction –



If I don’t know WHY you want me to work on

a project or learn a concept or if I can’t see

how taking on a certain task has some benefit

to me I am hesitant to do it.



Key Rationales for Explaining the Change to LCT

1. The best answer to WHY we have changed

to a learner-centered practice is this is where

the research has led us.



Key Rationales for Explaining the Change to LCT

Readiness for Careers

The rationale for teaching the learning skills,behaviors, attitudes and critical thinking strategies thatare now part of learner centered college courses isthat our students will need these skills to be successfulin their careers.

As students understand this their buy in to LCT will begreater.



Rationales for Explaining the Change to LCT

Preparation for Life Long Learning(LLL)

One of the significant changes our

students need to accept is thatcollege is no longer their terminaleducational experience.



Preparation for Life Long

Learning(LLL)

• Our responsibility as

college educators is to

prepare our students to

be life long learners.

• Many of the LCT actions

we take are done to

develop LLL skills.



Rationales for Explaining the Change to LCT

For Example

One of the reasons

students are asked totake on moreresponsibility for theirown learning is because

they will be responsiblefor it the rest of theirlives.



Why do Students Resist LCT?

1.Old habits die hard

Students’ learning

expectations are based on

strongly formed habitslearned through twelve or

more years of teacher-

centered instruction.



High schools remain teacher-centered

institutions

• “Despite the efforts of many, the organization andstructure of mostcomprehensive high schoolslook very similar to those of high schools of generationsago. High schools havestood still amidst amaelstrom of educational

and economic changeswirling around them.”(The National Commission on the High

School Senior Year, p.20).



Learning is not a top reason students give for

attending college

Many first-year

college students are

sick to death of

school by ageeighteen and see

college as just the

last hurdle to becrossed. (Leamnson 1999,

p.35).



Students don’t like taking learning risks

• “as we grow older we

develop a great tendency

to hide from failure.” (Tagg,

2003 p. 54).



LCT doesn’t resemble what students’

think of as school

By age 18, ourstudents have spent

70% of their wakinglives in school (Leamnson,

p.35),

Each school yearlooks a great deallike the year before.



Students don’t want to give more

effort and LCT requires it.

“ in the competition of the classroom, studentsprefer to be seen byothers as succeedingthrough ability ratherthan through effort.”

OR

If I have to work at it Imust not be very smart

K. Patricia Cross in her 2001 talkMotivation Er… will that be on the test?



Students’ mindsets about learning make adapting to

LCT more difficult

Thousands of studentseach semester pay tuitionto take courses in subjectareas they believe theycannot learn.

This strange scenariooccurs because of thefixed mindset these

students have developedabout learning aparticular subject.

(Carol Dweck, 2006)



Many students follow the path of least resistance in

their learning.

Taking the path of leastresistance often resultsin minimalist learning.

Students adhere to thephilosophy:

“What is the least I haveto do to get the gradethat I need.”



Becoming a More Learner Centered

Teacher



1. LCT Means Sharing Power with Students

Having choices in what

and how to learn and

having some control

over the learningprocess are key

elements of LCT.(Weimer, 2002)



Having Some Say

Having some say in what

happens in the learning

process is intricatelytied to a willingness to

engage in the activity.(James Zull, Art of Changing the Brain, 2003)



LCT Means Sharing Power with

Students

Getting students to

accept the

responsibilities that

comes with choice andcontrol is an authentic

expression of how the

work place and the

home place operate.



Who Makes the Decision?

Teacher Students Together NA

• 1. Course Textbook• 2. Number of exams• 3. When in the course exams will be given• 4. Attendance policy• 5. Late work policy• 6. Late for class policy• 7. Course learning outcomes• 8. Office hours• 9. Due dates for major papers• 10. Teaching methods/approaches• 11. How groups are formed• 12. Topic of writing or research projects• 13. Grading scale• 14. Discussion guidelines for large or small group discussions• 15. Rubrics for evaluation of self or peers’ work • 16. If rewriting of papers will be allowed• 17. If retesting will be allowed



2. Assessing for Long Term learning

Using the kinds of

assessments that drive long

term learning is one key to a

learner centered process

Our jobs are not to exercise

our students’ working

memories

www.normanrockwellvt.com/ Plates/Cramming.JPG

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cccomm.info/aboutus/images/STOPcram.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.cccomm.info/aboutus/announc/cramming.htm&h=255&w=255&sz=5&tbnid=DMvLooG7oVXkhM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=106&hl=en&start=3&prev=/images?q=cramming&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=



Assessing for Long Term learning

Examples

1. Cumulative Exams

2. Expecting to see the

improvements that

were indicated onpreviously assessed

work



Assessing for Long Term learning

Examples

3. Rewriting

4. Retesting

5. Practice quizzing



3. Using Lecture Effectively

Definition of Lecture

Talking with students

about things they can’tlearn on their own.



4. Let Students do the Talking

The quickest way to

end a classroom

discussion is for theteacher to start talking.



5. Make Students Practice

If readings are assigned

insist on annotation and

a summary.



6. Classroom Presentations

Before assigning

students to do

presentations—teach

them how to do aprofessional

presentation.



References

Medina, John, Brain Rules, Pear Press, 2008

Sylwester, R. A Celebration of Neurons An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain, ASCD:1995

Sprenger, M. Learning and Memory The Brain in Action by, ASCD, 1999

.How People Learn by National Research Council editor John Bransford, National Research Council, 2000

Goldberg, E. The Executive Brain Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind ,Oxford University Press: 2001

Ratey, J. MD. Spark: The New Science of Exercise and the Brain, 2008, Little Brown

Ratey, J. MD :A User’s Guide to the Brain, Pantheon Books: New York, 2001

Zull, James. The Art of Changing the Brain.2002, Stylus: Virginia

Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching. Jossey-Bass, 2002

Sousa, David. How the Brain Learns(Corwin Press, Inc., 1998),

Long-Lasting Novelty-Induced Neuronal Reverberation during Slow-Wave Sleep in Multiple Forebrain AreasSidarta Ribeiro,Damien Gervasoni, Ernesto S.Soares, Yi Zhou, Shih-Chieh Lin, Janaina Pantoja, Michael Lavine, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis , 2004

(Foerde, K., Knowlton, Barbara J., and Poldrack, Russell A. 2006. Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 103: 11778-11783.)

3 Dux, P. E., Ivanoff, J., Asplund, C. LO., and Marois, R. 2007. Isolation of a Central Bottleneck of Information Processing with Time-Resolved fMRI. Neuron.

52 (6): 1109-1120Leamnson,R.(1999)Thinking about Teaching and learning: developing habits of learning with first year college and university students. Sterling , VA: Stylus

U.S. Department of Education. (2001)National Commission on the High School Senior Year www.ecs.org/html/Documents.asp?chouseid=2929



The End