LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING
Chapters Four-Six:
Learning Objectives:
After this tutorial, you should be able to:
- Identify the 4-step plan for facilitation
- Express the difference between fixed and growth
mindset
- Implement the 5 suggestions for building relationships with students
- Identify why sharing power is optimal for students'
learning
- Identify the 4-step plan for facilitation
- Express the difference between fixed and growth
mindset
- Implement the 5 suggestions for building relationships with students
- Identify why sharing power is optimal for students'
learning
Chapter Four: From Lecturer to Facilitator
Planning
Doyle (2011) gives an example of a teacher who lectures for 2 1/2 hrs. about material that has the potential to be dry and boring. The question is, what could he have done to engage the students and get their neuron networks firing? Good planning. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, planning takes time, effort, and energy. The importance of planning when being a facilitator is evident when planning learning activities.
In some professions like business and industry, the term facilitator refers to someone who oversees committees, helps others complete a task, reach a goal, or run meetings. In education, the term often means supporting students in learning course material by providing an engaging environment; materials to engage with; and using assessments that provide the learner with meaningful feedback. Either way, facilitation is a learned skill and effective facilitation requires thorough knowledge about the particular topic/content that the group is addressing.
Doyle (2011) outlines a four-step plan for facilitation: Writing Daily Learning Outcomes, Action Plan, Additional Practice, and Giving Feedback. The key to improved learning is frequent feedback which will register with the students and show in their application of it.
In some professions like business and industry, the term facilitator refers to someone who oversees committees, helps others complete a task, reach a goal, or run meetings. In education, the term often means supporting students in learning course material by providing an engaging environment; materials to engage with; and using assessments that provide the learner with meaningful feedback. Either way, facilitation is a learned skill and effective facilitation requires thorough knowledge about the particular topic/content that the group is addressing.
Doyle (2011) outlines a four-step plan for facilitation: Writing Daily Learning Outcomes, Action Plan, Additional Practice, and Giving Feedback. The key to improved learning is frequent feedback which will register with the students and show in their application of it.
Chapter Five: Who Are Our Learners And How Do We Get To Know Them Better?
Students and Their Mindsets
In order to create an engaging and exciting learning environment we need to understand our students and their mindsets, attitudes, agendas, and goals. Doyle (2011) mentions Carol Dweck, a leading researcher in the field of motivation, discussed her findings about students' mindset of intelligence. Students have deep-seated views of their intelligence, which Dweck says falls into two categories, fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. Students with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is a fixed trait---either you have it or you don't---and their intelligence is reflected in their academic performance. Growth mindset is one in which students value hard work, learning and challenges while viewing failure as something to learn from. These students also feel that only time will tell how smart they become.
Doyle (2011) offers five suggestions in building relationships with students which he learned since beginning teaching in 1972:
Doyle (2011) offers five suggestions in building relationships with students which he learned since beginning teaching in 1972:
- Treat students like they were your son or daughter
- Give students some choice in the learning process
- Talk with students one to one whenever possible
- Care about them personally and educationally
- "Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to ignorance"
Chapter Six: Sharing Control And Giving Choices
Offering Choices
A great example of learner-centered teaching is when teachers give learners choices in how they engage with the material and control over how they demonstrate what they have learned. According to Doyle (2011), sharing this power happens by giving students more control over what and how they learn, how they demonstrate it, and by providing choices in the policies and procedures of the class.
Doyle (2011) discusses new research that suggests that having some authority over how a person takes in new information enhances one's ability to remember it. The bottom line is that we should embrace the sharing process because it's about the students' learning, not ours.
Doyle (2011) discusses new research that suggests that having some authority over how a person takes in new information enhances one's ability to remember it. The bottom line is that we should embrace the sharing process because it's about the students' learning, not ours.
What are the benefits of sharing?
Sharing works with due dates, how grades are determined, paper topics, and even how groups are formed. Keep in mind that some students may resist sharing power because they are usually taught using a teacher-centered method and don't feel it is their place to give input.
Sharing can:
Sharing can:
- Build community among the students
- Creates ownership
- Shifts the learning responsibility to the student
Connections
Chapters 4-6 offer sound reasoning for being a facilitator of learning, creating relationships with students, and sharing the power in the classroom. I always made it a point to build positive relationships with my students because it built up trust, respect, and cooperation.
Implementation
Implementing relationships and plans for sharing control can be done by:
- Understanding your students' mindsets and help change them
- Teach students strategies to help themselves using self-talk
- Make yourself available to the students, give them choices, and establish a safe and caring classroom
- Offer choices on how the learning is facilitated
Reference:
Doyle, Terry, (2011). Learner-Centered Teaching: Putting the Research on Learning Into Practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus
Publishing.
Publishing.