The Changing Role of

Students in a Learner
Centered Environment
Professor Terry Doyle
Faculty Center for Teaching and
Learning
Ferris State University
[email protected]
Not a single grad school or employment
recruiter has ever indicated that what they
are really looking for in a college graduate is:

‘A great note taker and someone who is

excellent at multiple choice tests!’
I share Zull’s view about
faculty development
“But revolution is not my goal. There is no
reason to abandon good practices that
cognitive science and education research
have given us. Rather , I hope to deepen and
enrich our understanding of these practices.”
James Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain
What is a representative definition of
learner-centered teaching?
From Maryellen Weimer’s book Learner-
Centered Teaching:
“

Being a learner-centered teacher means

focusing attention squarely on the learning
process:
1. What the student is learning
2. How the student is learning
3.The conditions under which the student is
learning
4. Whether the student is retaining and applying the
learning
5. How current learning positions the student for
future learning.”
What the student is learning

 What are our learning outcomes?

 What would make us happy( from all

that you taught—the skills, content and
behaviors) that students remembered
and could use six months after they left
our class?
What the student is learning
 Allfaculty teach all of the following:
 Skills
 Behaviors
 Content
 Thinking strategies

 What should the role of content be in a

learner centered classroom?
What the student is
learning
 Whatwe want the students to learn should
determine what teaching strategies to select

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What the student is
learning
 “Focusing on how people learn also will help
teachers move beyond either-or dichotomies
— it is not should facts be taught or should
we be teaching problem solving and critical
thinking, both are necessary—the learning of
facts and skills is enhanced when attached to
meaningful problem solving activities”( How
People Learn, 2000)
1. Content drives the total learning process

Skills

Content
Behaviors

Critical Thinking
How the
student is learning
1. What learning skills and strategies do
students need to develop to be successful
learners—long term and in your classes?
2. Are students aware of their own best
learning methods/styles?
3. Are the assignments, activities and
assessments designed to drive students’
learning?
Answer the following
Add 56 + 17 in your head.

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We don’t all Learn Alike
 A--In columns like on paper

 B—Added 10 to 56 and 7 to 66

 C—Added 20 to 56 and subtracted 3

 D—Rounded 56 to 60 added 17 and

subtracted 4
Remember the following

4915802979
Patterns aid learning

(491) 580-2979
or
4,915,802,979
Remember the following

LSDNBCTVFBIUSA
Patterns aid learning

LSD NBC TV FBI USA

The conditions under which
the student is learning
One of the most
important jobs
teachers have is to
maintain the
classroom learning
environment so that
it maximizes the
opportunity for
students to learn
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The conditions under which
the student is learning
 The norms established in classrooms have
strong effects on students’ achievement.

 Ifwe want risk taking, open discussion and

constructive criticism from our students the
norms of the classroom must support these
actions.( How People Learn p. 25)
Whether the student is
retaining and applying the learning

Using the kinds of

assessments that drive
long term learning is
one key to a learner
centered process

We must do more than

exercise our students’
working memories www.normanrockwellvt.com/ Plates/Cramming.JPG
How current learning positions
students for future learning

What set of
life long
learning skills
will our
graduates
possess?
www.goshen.edu/.cWtools/ download.php/mnF=life...
How current learning positions
students for future learning
 The first factor that influences successful
transfer is degree of mastery of original
subject. Without an adequate level of initial
learning, transfer cannot be expected (How
People Learn p.53)
Learner Centered Teaching

The question I ask all faculty is:

Given the context of your teaching
assignment, will the actions you take
(teaching methods, assignments, activities
or assessments) optimize students’
opportunities to learn?
Example of a Learner Centered
Decision
Setting our
office hours at
times that are
best for our
students

www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/ institut/lsmair...
The Definition of Learning

 Learning is a
change in the
neuro-patterns of
the brain
(Ratey, 2002)

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What do I mean by learning?

Learning is the ability to use information after

significant periods of disuse
and
it is the ability to use the information to solve
problems that arise in a context different (if only
slightly) from the context in which the information
was originally taught.

(Robert Bjork, Memories and Metamemories 1994)

Time for a Change

All of this new knowledge requires a change

from the traditional “stand-in-front-of-the-room
and-talk” education that higher education has
been using since the 14th century.

(Peter Smith, The Quiet Crises in Higher

Education)
How do Faculty Change Their
Role to help Students Learn in a
Learner Centered Classroom?
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
Step One
Ask: What do I need to control to effectively
teach this course and what can I give over
to the students?

 How can I create real community in the

classroom?
 How can I get students to take more responsibility
for their learning?
Step Two

Ask: “Why am I telling them this?”

(John Tagg, The Learning Paradigm College, 2003)

One definition of effective lecture is telling

students about things they can’t learn on
their own.
Step Two
 Books and lectures can be wonderfully
efficient modes of transmitting new
information for leaning, exciting the
imagination, and honing students critical
faculties—but one would chose other kinds of
activities to elicit from students their
preconceptions and level of understanding or
to help them see the power of metacognitive
strategies.( How People Learn p.22)
Step Three
More clearly define what it is that we want our
students to learn within the context of the
definition of learning.

Explain to students how a learner-centered

approach is in harmony with current research
about how people learn.
“The one who does the talking, does the
learning.” --Thomas Angelo
Step Four Explain WHY
Why is this important for future WHY solve a
learning
problem a certain way

WHY I am facilitating and not

lecturing WHY I am not giving
any more direction that I have
WHY to use this thinking
process WHY I want you
to do this in groups or on your
WHY to use this learning own
strategy

WHY think in a particular way WHY these skills are needed?

Step Five Get Students’
Feedback

Seeking ongoing
formative
feedback
from students is a
win-win activity
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SGID Questions
Ask around the fifth or sixth week of the
semester

 1. What do you like about the course?

 2. What would you change about the course?

 3. What would you delete from the course?

Get Students to use the
Feedback
 Require students to summarize written
comments on papers and explain how the
feedback will be used to improve the next
paper.
 Retest and rewrite—have students use
feedback on errors to correct them
Why must the learning roles of
students change?

 Research tells us that to really learn something

takes attention, time, practice, effort, reflection,
connection and application -- learning is not
short-term regurgitation. (James Ratey. Users
Guide to the Brain)

 Research tells us that unless the learner is

actively engaged in the learning process, no
change occurs in the neuro-networks of the
brain. (R. Sylwester, A Celebration of Neurons,
1995)
Why must students’ role
change?

Knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat

information to being able to find and use it—more than ever
the sheer magnitude of human knowledge renders its
coverage by education an impossibility (Nobel laureate
Herbert Simon)

In many areas what is taught is fluid and changing. (Jim Carroll )

Why must students’ role
change?

Students must come to realize the role of

content must be to drive the development of the
life long learning skills, thinking abilities and
communication skills that are crucial to success
in a fast-paced, changing world.

THIS IS A NEW VIEW FOR THEM!

Why must students’ role
change?

2. Professions, careers and jobs require

people that can (for example)

A. Effectively communicate in a wide variety of

ways with very diverse populations - this is
why students need to talk and listen to each
other.
Why must students’ role
change?
B. Use information to solve problems that will
occur in different contexts than the context
used by the teacher during instruction in
college

 C. Transference of information to solving new

problems (that have yet to even be
discovered) is the life-long skill learners need.

 D. Use reasoning skills that require addressing

multiple pieces of data at once.
Why must students’ role
change?

 E. Each patient, each client, and each

customer will be different.

These kinds of skills and abilities can only be

learned by active engagement in authentic,
often firsthand, learning experiences.

The professor cannot teach them to students

just using lecture.
How do faculty help students to
change?

Let the students do the work

 Firsthand learning, self-discovery, self-
assessment, performance, teams, and
groups all enhance the opportunity for deep
learning.

 Abide by the definition of lecture and

choose activities that present multi-sensory
engagement which improves the chances
for connections to background
How do faculty help students to
change?

 Let discussion occur between students - keep our

mouths shut!
How do faculty help students to
change?
1. Address students’ Self Theories
 Dispel the myth of the entity theorist - intelligence is
NOT fixed at birth. (C. Dweck, 2000)

 Help students to see that effort results in improved

intelligence and abilities - effort is not a sign of being
stupid.

 Help them to see failure as just one step in the path

to success. For example, Thomas Edison.
How do faculty help students to
change?

 Share more of the responsibility with them for

their learning.
 Make them teach each other, perform for each
other and critique each other.
 Explain the value of group work - the diverse
points of view that you as a lecturer cannot
provide them.
 Mutually set the rules for the class - attendance,
due dates, late policies.
How do faculty help students to
change?

Give them learning activities that are A-R-I-I

Authentic - academic service learning,

internships, clinical experience, field
trips, conferences, job shadowing,
client work and real world problems
How do faculty help students to
change?
B. Relevant
Guest Speakers from their fields of interest.

Former students that sat where they are sitting.

Map the connections between all of the courses

in their area of study

Map the connections between the skills they are

learning in one class and where these skills will
be used in future classes.

Tell them WHY

Creating Relevance for
Learning Activities
1. Place learning activities in the context of current
knowledge of how the human brain learns

2. Place learning activities in the context of how they

aid in the preparation for careers

3. Place learning activities in the context of life long

learning

4. Place learning in the context of immediate future

learning—the next course, next year etc.
How do faculty help students to
change?

A. Interesting
 Find out what interests them – students
are motivated - teachers need to
discover what is motivating them.

 When ever possible give them a choice

in what the learning activities will
be/how they can show what they have
learned.
How do faculty help students to
change?
A. Important
 No busy work.
 Explain the importance of the work.
 Value the work assigned.

Example: Class discussion-if you want

them involved they need to know you
value it by grading it.
How do faculty help students to
change?

 Don’t give in to the

students’ initial
whining, complaining
and unhappiness.

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How do faculty help students to
change?

Change is very difficult for students. Learner-

centered practice goes against 12 or more
years or beliefs that school is about teacher
control and student submission - it is not easy
for students to give up their motto:

“Tell me what to do.”

What are the students’ new
roles?
1. Students must become incremental
theorists.
a. Value Effort

c. Seek feedback

e. Study for learning, not tests

g. Use failure as a step towards success

What are the students’ new
roles?
1. Must learn to accept the new responsibility
given to them for their own learning.

a. Professor is not going to give you all the

answers.

c. Professor may not tell you exactly what to do.

What are the students’ new
roles?

1. They will have to work with others.

a. Learning is a social/emotional process.

c. Most learning occurs in community.

e. Professionals rarely operate solo.

What are the students’ new
roles?
3.
Build on their
strengths and
work to improve
their weaknesses.

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What are the students’ new
roles?

1. They will have to spend more time

learning on their own.

 Professors only have students in class 1.7%

of the time each week. (3 credit class)
What are the students’ new
roles?
1. They will share in many of the roles of the
professor.
a. Facilitator
b. Instructor
c. Organizer
d. Performer
e. Leader
f. Evaluator
What are the students’ new
roles?

2. They will have to be able to

demonstrate a more complete
understanding of what they have
learned.

The professor will not be the only judge of their

work - they will have “real” audiences to
convince.
Traditional Roles
 Roles
 Take lecture notes

 Listen in Class
 Read the textbook
 Read other assigned reading

 Take tests and quizzes

 Take part in recitation
 Do homework
 Take part in whole class Discussion
 Write papers on assigned topics
 Memorize
 Organize information
Traditional responsibilities
 Work mostly alone

 Seek out the teacher if

 You had questions

 Read independently

 Develop own study

habits

 Develop own time

management program
Learner Centered Student Roles Learner-Centered Student
Responsibilities
Self-teach Make choices about own learning
Collaborate with others
Work in teams/groups Take more control of own
Take part in discovery learning learning
Teach others
Evaluate own learning Give input to the evaluation/
Evaluate others’ learning assessment methods
Perform/present learning publicly
Learn new “how to learn skills Give input to course rules and
and strategies” guidelines
Solve authentic problems
Engage in reflection Give formative feedback on
Demonstrate use of teacher learning
feedback to improve performance
Take learning risks Spend more time outside of class
Practice more learning
Take class notes
Listen in Class Working with people not in your
Read the textbook class
Write papers
Take tests and quizzes
Take part in recitation
Do homework
References
 Angelo, T.A. & Cross, P.K. (1993). Classroom Assessment
Techniques, 2nd Edition. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass
 Bjork, R.A. (1994). Memory and Metamemory
Considerations in the Training of Human Beings. In J.
Metcalfe and A. Shimamura (Eds.) Metacognition: Knowing
About Knowing. (pp. 185-205). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
 Givens, Barbara, Teaching to the Brain’s Natural Learning
Systems, ASCD Publications, 2002.
 Ratey, John. A User’s Guide to the Brain.
Pantheon Books, New York, 2001.
 Sousa, David. How the Brain Learns, 2nd Edition.
Ed 2001 Corwin Press, INC, Thousand Oaks, CA
References
 Rethinking Teaching in Higher Education, Edited by Alenoush Saroyan,
Cheryl Amundsen, Stylus Pub.2004
 Sprenger, Marilee. How to Teach so Students Remember. ASCD
Publication, 2005.
 Sylwester, Robert. A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator’s Guise to the
Human Brain. ASCD Publication, 1995.
 Zull, James. (2002), The Art of Changing the Brain. Sterling, Cirginia:
Stylus Publishing.
 Tagg, John. The Learning Paradigm College. Anker Publishing , Bolton
MA 2003
 Covington, M. V. (2000) Goal , theory motivation and school
achievement: An Integrated review in Annual Review of Psychology ( pp
171-200)
 Dweck, Carol ( 2000) Self Theories: Their roles in motivation,
personality and development. Philadelphia, PA Psychology Press
References
 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 :A User’s Guide to the Brain, Sprenger, M.
Learning and Memory The Brain in Action by, ASCD, 1999
 Pantheon Books: New York, 2001
 Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason,
and the human brain. New York, NY, Grosset/Putnam
 Damasio AR: Fundamental Feelings. Nature 413:781,
2001.
 Damasio AR: The Feeling of What Happens: Body and
Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, Harcourt Brace,
New York, 1999, 2000.
References
 Weimer, Maryellen, 2002, Learner Centered Teaching, Jossey
Bass, San Francisco.
 Smith, Peter, 2004. The Quiet Crisis; How Higher Education is
Failing America, Anker Publishing, Bolton MA
 (Barbara L. Mcombs & Jo Sue Whistler, The Learner-Centered
Classroom & School, 1997)