Before entering higher education, most students’ learning experiences have been traditional and teacher-centered. Their teachers have typically controlled their learning, with students having had little say about what and how to learn. For many students, encountering a learner-centered environment will be new, possibly unsettling, and may even engender resistance and hostility.Taking as his starting point students’ attitudes toward, and unfamiliarity with, learner-centered classrooms, Terry Doyle explains that motivating students to engage with this practice first of all requires explaining its underlying rationale, and then providing guidance on how to learn in this environment. This book is about how to help students acquire the new skills and knowledge they need to take on unfamiliar roles and responsibilities. It is informed by the author’s extensive experience in managing learner-centered classes, and by his consultation work with faculty.The first four chapters focus on the importance of imparting to students the evidence and underlying philosophy that is driving higher education to move from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered practice, and what this means for students in terms of having control over, and making important choices about, their learning. The final eight chapters focus on how to impart the skills that students need to learn or hone if they are to be effective learners in an environment that is new to them. The book covers such practices as learning on one’s own; creating meaningful learning when collaborating with others; peer teaching; making presentations; developing life long learning skills; self and peer evaluation; and give meaningful feedback.This book provides a rich and informative answer to the fundamental question: how do I help my students adjust to a learner-centered practice?

In this much needed resource, Maryellen Weimer-one of the nation's most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching-offers a comprehensive work on the topic of learner-centered teaching in the college and university classroom. As the author explains, learner-centered teaching focuses attention on what the student is learning, how the student is learning, the conditions under which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining and applying the learning, and how current learning positions the student for future learning. To help educators accomplish the goals of learner-centered teaching, this important book presents the meaning, practice, and ramifications of the learner-centered approach, and how this approach transforms the college classroom environment. Learner-Centered Teaching shows how to tie teaching and curriculum to the process and objectives of learning rather than to the content delivery alone.

Gain a clear understanding of what effective teachers do—and how successful students learn Over the past 20 years, a greater concentration on research aimed at both teaching and learning has revealed that “chalk and talk” teaching, copying notes, and “cookbook” practical lessons offer little challenge to students. Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches steers the learning process away from traditional modes of instruction to a more student-centered, activity-based curriculum that makes science relevant, engaging, and interesting. This innovative book helps educators bring out the best in their students—and themselves—by identifying and meeting students’ needs and providing environments that encourage active, strategic learning. Helpful tables and figures make complex information easy to access and understand. Rather than focusing on teaching methods that merely deal in the content of life science, Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches promotes a deep learning designed to develop critical and skilled learners. This collection of frank and thoughtful empirically based papers places greater emphasis on learning environments and social interaction patterns, assessment processes, and perceptions of students and teachers in a range of learning and teaching settings in the life sciences. The book presents strategies for mentoring and assessing students, assessments of learning outcomes, innovative approaches to curriculum design, constructivist approaches to teaching science, how to use technology to support learning, and practical examples of learner-centered teaching that mark important steps on a journey to transform the learning process. Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches examines: using broadband videoconferencing for distance learning in tertiary science assessing for learning in the crucial first year of university studies using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in molecular science applying ICT to provide student feedback teaching biostatistics in the environmental life sciences developing metacognition and problem-solving skills in students the evolution of metAHEAD, an online resource that supports strategy development and self-monitoring in problem solving the development of a problem-based learning approach (PBL) for students in environmental science and natural resource management and much more! While largely centered on the context of undergraduate science instruction, Teaching in the Sciences: Learner-Centered Approaches is filled with valuable lessons for all educators working with students in the pursuit of powerful, effective, and lasting learning.

This book reminds us teachers about all the little things we can do to be more student-centric. It shows teachers how to “walk the walk,” and shows teacher educators how to guide colleagues along a student-centered path. The book examines why we should and how we can promote student-student interaction to enable students to learn more and enjoy the process. It also offers simple but effective strategies for enhancing student motivation, a factor that many experts consider to be the most important determinant of success in educational endeavors. In addition, it examines diversity, particularly the many differences that exist among students, and explains simple, easy strategies for how this diversity can be not only taken into consideration, but actively celebrated.

Customize lesson plans, boost student engagement, and give elementary school kids a thirst for knowledge with this classroom-ready and teacher-friendly guide to student-centered learning. Student-centered learning, or the concept of giving students a more active role in their own learning, is taking the education world by storm. This resource book is filled with student-centered learning classroom activities to help you teach any subject in a fun and engaging way. Educators will learn to expand upon basic worksheets and lectures and shift the focus from teacher to student with small group discussions, experiments, case studies, presentations, and other interactive lessons. Inside you’ll find: An explanation of student-centered learning and its many benefits How best to engage and encourage elementary-aged students A variety of student-centered learning activities ready to be implemented in the classroom And much more! Whether searching for a way to make science class spectacular or reading time remarkable, Classroom-Ready Resources for Student-Centered Learning has everything you need to elevate your students' learning quickly and easily!

A supplementary text that provides a practical yet comprehensive explanation of learner-centered instruction.

Publisher description

What comes to mind when you hear student-centered learning? Do you immediately see a classroom without a teacher? Do you see students teaching other students? How do you know which pedagogies to use when designing the best learning environment? The question of determining what pedagogies to use within the classroom (on-ground or virtual) can often plague teachers given today’s student. This book will help you to identify the difference between teacher-centered and student-centered learning and the various pedagogies commonly associated with each. This book will draw upon the research and experience of three different educators and their pedagogical variations and uses within the classroom and online. Crumly’s synopsis of student-centered learning and suggested action is followed by a collaborative dialogue with Pamela Dietz and Sarah d’Angelo. Dietz and d’Angelo provide practical commentary regarding the successful implementation of Crumly’s proposed approaches. As a group, Crumly, Dietz, and d’Angelo create a text that extends pedagogical innovation in inspiring but practical ways.

Learner-centered teaching is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the roles of students as participants in and drivers of their own learning. Learner-centered teaching activities go beyond traditional lecturing by helping students construct their own understanding of information, develop skills via hands-on engagement, and encourage personal reflection through metacognitive tasks. In addition, learner-centered classroom approaches may challenge students’ preconceived notions and expand their thinking by confronting them with thought-provoking statements, tasks or scenarios that cause them to pay closer attention and cognitively “see” a topic from new perspectives. Many types of pedagogy fall under the umbrella of learner-centered teaching including laboratory work, group discussions, service and project-based learning, and student-led research, among others. Unfortunately, it is often not possible to use some of these valuable methods in all course situations given constraints of money, space, instructor expertise, class-meeting and instructor preparation time, and the availability of prepared lesson plans and material. Thus, a major challenge for many instructors is how to integrate learner-centered activities widely into their courses. The broad goal of this volume is to help advance environmental education practices that help increase students’ environmental literacy. Having a diverse collection of learner-centered teaching activities is especially useful for helping students develop their environmental literacy because such approaches can help them connect more personally with the material thus increasing the chances for altering the affective and behavioral dimensions of their environmental literacy. This volume differentiates itself from others by providing a unique and diverse collection of classroom activities that can help students develop their knowledge, skills and personal views about many contemporary environmental and sustainability issues. ​ ​ ​

The movement away from teacher-centered toward student-centered learning and teaching (SCLT) in higher education has intensified in recent decades. Yet in spite of its widespread use in literature and policy documents, SCLT remains somewhat poorly defined, under-researched and often misinterpreted. Against this backdrop, The Routledge International Handbook of Student-Centered Learning and Teaching in Higher Education offers an original, comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the fundamentals of SCLT and its discussion and applications in policy and practice. Bringing together 71 scholars from around the world, the volume offers a most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the fundamentals of SCLT and its applications in policy and practice; provides beacons of good practice that display how instructional expertise manifests itself in the quality of classroom learning and teaching and in the institutional environment; and critically discusses challenges, new directions and developments in pedagogy, course and study program design, classroom practice, assessment and institutional policy. An essential resource, this book uniquely offers researchers, educators and students in higher education new insights into the roots, latest thinking, practices and evidence surrounding SCLT in higher education.