student-centred+learning

What is student-centred learning?
Student-centred learning is a central part of CSU's mission statement. Yet in our BFL symposiums, it has made some academics uncomfortable, as it sounds as if the teacher's needs aren't important anymore. But is that what it's really all about? This is how Maryellen Weimer, author of Learner Centred Teaching, has attempted to get around the 'definitional looseness' that exists around this term: > || || **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. > > **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. > > **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 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-centered teachers recognize, and research consistently confirms, that students can learn from and with each other. Certainly the teacher has the expertise and an obligation to share it, but teachers can learn from students as well. Learner-centered teachers work to develop structures that promote shared commitments to learning. They see learning individually and collectively as the most important goal of any educational experience. || ||

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 * === What's happening at CSU around student-centred learning? ===

Our 2011-2011 FLI Teaching Fellow, Brad Edlington from the School of Policing, has focused his Teaching Fellowship on student-centred learning. You can see his video case study here. Check with Brad about the resources he's been developing to help academics facilitate student-centred learning. ||