Role of the Teacher in a Learner-Centered Classroom

01/31/2007 10:13 AM

Center for Teaching, Learning & Faculty Development The Role of the Teacher in a Learner-Centered Classroom
Only one of every forty minutes of class time is devoted to student participation (Nunn 1996). Faculty say students are more involved in class activities than students report they are (Fassinger 1996). The research on teaching has focused almost entirely on actions the teacher performs not on how to produce student learning. Metaphors for Teaching 1. 2. 3. Gardnerultimately the plants do the growing Mountaineer Guidelink the students together but they do the climbing Coachbut the players play the game

When the focus of a teacher is less on teaching and more on learning there is greater attention paid to measuring and monitoring the amount of learning taking place. What students learn and do not learn begins to drive the instructional decision making of the teacher. Its not what would I (the teacher) like to teach today but what will cause learning to take place today. Students dont learn to summarize by listening to the teachers summaries. If we are to guide our students experiences we need to put them in a position where they can experience the excitement of the learning for the first timefirst hand. Why is it difficult for teachers to move over and let student learning be the focus of the classroom? 1. Teachers like having the main stage. We like to show off and we like to tell our stories. 2. Standing along side of the learners is inherently less important than standing in front of them. 3. We dont like to admit that students completely control the most central and important part of the educational enterprise, that which centers on learning.
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Role of the Teacher in a Learner-Centered Classroom

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4. The teacher-students relationship can become entangled with issues that come from being dependent on one another for success and teachers like to have things nailed down. 5. Teachers believe that students cant handle the responsibility for their own learning. 6. Teachers dont know how to do the new role of being a facilitator. Learner-centered teaching is messier--teachers have to learn: What to clean up How to clean it up Or even if to clean it up All New Roles for Teachers--What to Do? Gradually begin doing less of the: organizing of the content generating of the examples asking of the questions answering of the questions summarizing of the discussion solving the problems 1. Reduce the tellingotherwise students expect teachers to tell them everything. 2. Use the let the students discover principleAsk yourself why are you telling them this. 3. Do more designing of activities and assignmentsbase them on the authentic and legitimate work of the discipline. 4. Teachers need to re-experience the learning process of being a student. 5. Model the thinking you use in your own problem solvingor how you edit and revise your own writingStudents need examples of how learning is messy work even for experienced learners. 6. Have students learn from one anotherpeer editing or teaching, group work or team workshared accomplishments and consequences. 7. Individual exam and group exam given after a series of group based learning activities. 8. Create a climate for learning in the classroom
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Role of the Teacher in a Learner-Centered Classroom

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a . Safe b. Conditions that allow for critical feedback c . Value of shared ideas Questions that Emerge if the Teacher Changes His/Her Role? 1. When do I intervene? 2. How do I intervene? 3. If I intervene, how do I do it so I am not telling them?

a . Ask questions that you hope will lead them to the needed insights or understanding? b. Ask them to describe their process and explain why they are doing what they are in hopes that they will have some logic to their methods? c . Let them continue and fail and then help them to understand why failure happened Question to Look at in Moving to a Learner-Centered Classroom 1. Have our classrooms become token economies where nobody does anything if there are not some points offered? 2. Have all choices been done away with except the choice to follow the rules and polices of the class or not? 3. Is there a danger in this rules based, extrinsic motivational system? 4. Do students fail to learn how to learn for themselves? 5. Is it true that the more we decide for students the more they want us to decide for them? 6. Is it true that the more motivation we provide the less they find within themselves? 7. Are we producing intellectually mature, responsible learners? 8. Do we need to use the logical consequences that exist in the real world rather than a set of rules and policies to impact students choices about their learning? 9. Is it true that often there are no consequences to the students choices about their learning? It is crucial that our behaviors as teachers be consistent with what we say and write about how the class will operate. Example if there is no late work then there is NO late work.

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Role of the Teacher in a Learner-Centered Classroom

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Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu

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