PCK120 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching 1

Module1 Learner-Centered Teaching: Foundations and Characteristics

Learning Outcomes
1. Differentiate learner-centered teaching from other teaching approaches (e.g.
teacher centered approach) as applied in various teaching areas;
2. Discuss the need to shift from teacher-centered teaching to learner-centered teaching
based on philosophical foundations, teaching principles and current research; and
3. Discuss the varied roles of the teacher in learner-centered teaching and learning.

Lesson 1 Learner-Centered Teaching

Introduction

Facilitated learning is where the students are encouraged to take more control of their learning
process. The trainer's role becomes that of a facilitator and organizer providing resources and
support to learners. In turn the participants learn with and from each other as they identify and
implement solutions to challenges, problems or other developmental issues. They might also
set their own objectives and be responsible for learning assessment.

The technique is used most frequently in university education and more formal study. It is
probably not a methodology that trainers in the archive field will be able to use exclusively, but
it offers some techniques and approaches that can be incorporated into training courses that
run over several days. For example, having participants work independently to develop an
action plan, related to the course content but tailored to their needs.

In contrast to individual learning where the trainer becomes very involved and responsive to
each participant's individual needs, with facilitated learning the trainer supports and facilitates
the participants who develop and shape their own learning goals and achievements.

The most important goal of education is to teach students how to learn on their own. It is vital
that students acquire the skills of how to learn; and that these skills enable them to learn not
just while they are in school but for a lifetime. This entails a deeper awareness of how one
processes information, the ability to evaluate his own thinking and to think of ways to make his
own learning process more effective. All these involve metacognition.

Explore Answer the self-assessment in the separate file.

Lesson 1a Metacognition

What is Metacognition? This appears to be such a high-sounding word that some

people are confused about even before they actually spend time to find out what it really
means. It is not at all that complicated. In fact, we do metacognitive activities so often in our
daily lives. When you sense that you are experiencing some difficulty with a topic you are
studying, and you try out different strategies to learn better, you are practicing metacognition.
The word maybe long, seems to be so intangible but it is worth focusing on because it can
help you to be a more successful learner. When you become a teacher, it can also help your
students to learn more efficiently and effectively.

The term “metacognition” was coined by John Flavell in1979. The word is composed of
two important terms, “meta” meaning beyond and “cognition” meaning thinking. Etymologically,
the word would mean “knowing about your own knowing” or simply “thinking about your own
thinking”. Through introduces 1979, it was only in the 1980’s where the theory has gained
roots and become accepted in the field of teaching. This is due to the numerous researches
conducted on the learning process of learners in the early stages of their development
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Chick (2018) and the Cambridge International Education (2018) emphasized that more
than “thinking your own thinking”, metacognition is a process involving planning, monitoring
and assessing one’s understanding and performance. Basically, it requires one to be critically
aware of his own thinking and learning and himself being the thinker and learner.

Owen and Vista (2017) considered metacognition as a useful mechanism for students
to improve their learning classroom. This would include the immediate outcomes of learning
and also for them to understand the manner in which they learn. Thus, it points out to the
significance of both the process involved in learning and the product of learning itself. They
also pointed out that since it is both knowledge and thought process, it can be taught by
teachers. Learning metacognition has a lot of benefits to students since the skill is useful in
problem solving, critical thinking, practical decision making and reflective thinking which
according to them is a component of metacognition.

Lesson 1b Characteristics of Metacognition

Flavell (1985) pointed out that there are two major elements of metacognition:
knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition.

In terms of the first element, three types metacognition were identified:

Metacognitive Knowledge

Vega and Prieto (2012) explained that there are three types of metacognitive knowledge
namely; self-knowledge, knowledge of cognitive tasks and strategic knowledge. Cambridge
Assessment International Education (2017) identified them as:

1. Learner’s knowledge of their own cognitive abilities or declarative knowledge (e.g. after
studying the different capital cities of the world, I realized that I have difficulties of remembering
places)

2. Learner’s knowledge of particular tasks or tasks knowledge (e.g. After reviewing five journal
articles, I realized that Library Science is such a technical specialization)

3. Learner’s knowledge of different strategies or procedural knowledge (e.g. After grouping

students into their specific interests, then I realized that I can think more effective approach to
teach them)

Metacognitive Regulation

Since among the skills that this process develops in an individual is reflective thinking
one can regulate his manner of knowledge acquisition. This aspect should be regulated
because not all knowledge is useful in one’s field and that certain knowledge may be useful
only on certain skills. Also it develops a sense of responsibility on the part of the individual that
he should deal with his own learning and eventually its application in the real world. In short, it
gives the power to an individual to control his own learning.

Nelson and Narens (1990) presented a more simplified model of Metacognitive

Regulation, which has similar components with that of Woolfolk (2007). It included the process
of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating.
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One would notice that the process of monitoring is common to the two models. This is because
the monitoring phase is also the implementation phase of how students are progressing
towards their learning goals.

In Nelson and Narenss’s Model, learning operates in the Cognitive and Metacognitive
levels. The Cognitive level is also the Objective Level where the actual thinking occurs. An
example for this is when a student deals with problem in Algebra. As he reads or decodes the
problem, he slowly understands what the problem is all about, soon determines an appropriate
solution for it and eventually achieves his learning goals. The Metacognitive Level is where
“thinking about thinking’ takes place. It is considered a higher level of thinking that proceeds
after the student deals with learning materials. It is at this level where the teacher can
introduce or teach students strategies that could enhance their metacognitive skills.
Considering the previous example where a student deals with problem in Algebra, the
metacognitive level happens when a student starts to reflect how well did he deal with
problem, the manner of understanding material given and the strategies used to solve the
problem. In short he is dealing with how effective is the process of working with the problem. In
this case, he needs thorough reflection before he will be able to realize that he is headed
towards his goal of learning.

Essential to Nelson and Narens’s Model of Metacognitive Regulation are the two
processes of Monitoring and Control.

1. Monitoring happens when the learner checks how well he understands the material
provided. It is the process where he discovers that he is responsible for his own learning as he
checks the effectiveness of his approach.

2. Control happens when the learner consciously changes his behavior upon realizing the
effectiveness of the approach or manner of dealing with material provided. He may go back to
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the problem provided, read slowly for better understanding and explore other possible
approaches which may be more effective than the previous one.

In Woolfolk’s Model, Cambridge International Education (2018) pointed out three

essential elements of Metacognitive Regulation. These are the processes of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluating. Central to the three processes is reflection on the part of the
learner for it is where the “thinking about thinking” really happens.

1. Planning is the phase where the student directly deals with the learning material. In this
phase, the student devises a strategy on how he will handle the problem or the learning
material. To guide the student, he may ask himself reflective questions like:

“What is the task all about?”

“How will I deal with it?”
“What strategies will I use?”

2. Monitoring is the phase where the student implements what he plans to do with the problem
or the given material. It is also in this phase where he monitors his progress if he is really
headed towards the learning goals. If not, he may consider revising his strategy and look for
better options. To guide the students, he may consider the following reflective questions:

“Is my strategy effective?”

“Are there other ways to deal with this task?”
“Am I headed towards my learning goals?”

3. Evaluating is the phase where the student finds out the success of the strategy used in
dealing with the problem and determines if the learning goals were really achieved. To
encourage a student to evaluate his own metacognition, he may consider the following
reflective questions:

“How was my performance? Is it good?”

“What could be the problem?”
“If given a similar task in the future, what better strategy will I use?”

In the three phases mentioned, it is important that the teacher will constantly remind the
students to do effective thinking. It is said that reflection is fundamental for metacognition to
effectively work. This can be done through self-questioning. The questions being asked by the
students in each phase and the conscious effort to direct all actions towards the desired
learning goals are the essence Metacognitive Regulation.

Levels of Metacognitive Learners

Considering the diverse nature of our students in the class, determining their level of
metacognition poses a big challenge to the teacher. For one, most of the instruction teachers
give is a “one size fits all’ approach. Though teachers are asked to always consider individual
differences in instructional planning, it can never be denied that some point, some needs of the
students are not considered.

To guide the educators in determining the level of metacognitive skills of students,

Perkins (1992) presented the following:

1. Tacit Learners are students who are basically not aware of their own metacognitive
knowledge. They cannot point out a specific strategy for learning. They just accept the fact that
they either know something or not at all. An example for this is a student who directly deals
with a given problem in Geometry. He immediately deals with the tasks without developing a
strategy for it, or simply admit the fact that he does not know the answer.

2. Aware Learners are students who are familiar of several processes involved in processing
information like generating ideas, looking for evidences, and relating cause and effects, but
their metacognitive skills have not matured yet in such that they have not deliberately planned
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for the thinking process. For these learners, the thinking process may just come naturally
rather than consciously planned. An example for this is a student who is able to write essay
about Free Trade in 5 minutes. He wrote immediately because he is knowledgeable about the
topic, but he had no deliberate plan of dwelling with given task.

3. Strategic Learners are our students who consciously strategize to deal with a given task.
They are able to solve problems using a prescribed process. They can also categorize events,
look for evidences and make decisions. An example for this is when a student was prompted
with a problem of budgeting his allowance for the whole week. He devices a technique by
cooking his own meal and limiting his activities with friends. He was able to successfully make
ends meet after a week because the approach was effective. On the other hand, there was no
conscious effort to reflect upon the situation why there is a need for him to go through some
austerity measures.

4. Reflective Learners are our students who are taking an active role not only in devising a
strategy for dealing with task but consciously reflect on what is happening. While dealing with
a task, he reflects b looking into several options, checks on their reflectiveness after
implementing and looks into possible implications if a similar situation happens in real life.
They very elements of consciously reflecting while the thinking process is going on is the major
differences between strategic learners and reflective learners.

Lesson 1C Strategies and Examples on How to use Metacognition in the Classroom

Fostering Metacognition in the Classroom

Since one of the fundamental functions of the teacher in the classroom is to help
students think and to guide them to a more disciplined thought process, the questioning skill of
teachers then become absolutely necessary in creating a classroom environment that
enhances Metacognition even at the early stages of formal education.
Jacobson (2018) pointed out that the quality of questions we asked our students has a
great bearing in encouraging students to do Metacognition. According to him, questions that
we frame should be:
1. Open-ended questions that provide enough space for learners to think. The more open
ended questions we ask, the more that their mind explores the realm of possibilities. Also
called divergent questions, they provide enough flexibility on the thought process of the learner
and a sense of confidence since the answer is not only limited to one as opposed be close-
ended questions. In the event that the teacher really has to ask close-ended questions, it is
important to give follow-up questions like, “Why or Why not? Or “can you tell me more about
it?”
2. Non-blaming questions that focus on the act rather than on the personality of the learner will
help learners manage their behavior well and the actual thought process. These questions
encourage objectivity since the concern is the behavior and not the person. Question like, “why
do you think the strategy is not effective?”, “If given a chance in the future to do the same,
what could you have done? focus on the use of the strategy and not on the person employing
the solution.
3. Solution-focused questions that encourage students to look into the future use of learning
the skill of metacognition that is by looking outside the box by examining possibilities on how to
do things differently in the future. Metacognition is encouraged if the learners are asked,
“Given a similar problem in the future, how will you solve it considering differences in the
context?” or “If the solution you provide does not work well at the moment, what could be the
other solution.” These questions are focused on how to become more strategic in approach
and give the learner a sense of accomplishment and insight that there is no single solution to a
problem.
4. Process-oriented questions provide opportunities for the student to understand the thought
process further. For example, while students perform a task in visual arts, the teacher may
ask,
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“How do you know that your task is finished? What are some of the indicators?” or “Looking at
the extent of your accomplishment, how do you know that the criteria were considered? What
criteria have you emphasized and what are those that need further brushing up?” Questions
like these encourage students to evaluate their own performance and motivate them to work
further as they realized that they still have so much to do before the process is over.
Developing Metacognitive skills among our students does not only require one specific
strategy. Infact there is no best strategy for developing such skills. One thing for sure the
strategy that works well are those that considers the nature of the learners, the learning
environment, the availability of the instructional materials and the ability of the teacher to
implement well the said strategy without compromising the quality of teaching and learning
process.
Cambridge International Education (2018) suggests the following strategies that
facilitate the development of Metacognition among our students:
1. Mnemonics-these are words or expressions that help students to memorize important
terms. It would be better if students are allowed to develop their own mnemonics. To
encourage metacognition, the teacher may ask,
“Why do you use such mnemonics?”
“How do you find its effectiveness?”
‘If given a chance to improve it further, how will you do it?”

2. Thinking Journal- these are active learning tools that tacker may require students to
make so they keep track of their thinking activities. Students develop their abilities in planning,
monitoring and self-evaluating when asked with the following questions,

‘ “What ideas have you learned after our lecture-discussion? After watching the
short film? After listening to our resource speaker?” “After observing the behavior of gases,
what do you think will happen next?”

3.Reciprocal Teaching- this strategy is primarily aimed at developing the comprehension

skills of students by asking them to take the role of the teacher after they have read an article
or a literary piece. They perform questioning, clarifying, summarizing and predicting. After they
taught the strategies to their classmates, the teacher may ask,

‘what can you say about the teaching of your classmates?”

“are they effective? In what ways?
“Given the chance to perform a similar task in the future, how will you do it?”

4.Metacognitive Talk-this strategy that allows student to say aloud what they are
thinking during the process of performing the task. It may include reading a news article,
solving a problem or analyzing an environment or social issue. This strategy may be annoying
to some students but it helps them to understand further their own process of thinking. Some
of the questions that students may ask include,

“What is my prior knowledge about the topic?”

“Have I encountered similar one’s before?”
“if so, how did I approach it?
“can I try other strategies in solving the problem?”
“How well is my performance?”
“Are there aspects of the issue that I need to understand further?”

5. Exam Wrappers- this strategy that helps students to understand further their
performance in their long tests and examinations. It uses a worksheet with reflective questions
that may be used by the students before and/or after the long test examination. The questions
include,
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“How prepared am I for this long test?

“How is my performance?
“Did I use an appropriate strategy for preparation?”
“In future exams, what will I do to make y preparations better?”

6. KWL Chart- this is a common strategy used to activate prior knowledge, help
students se expectations for what they want to learn and facilitating the to do self-evaluation.
The “K” stands for “what do I know?” This is usually given before the lesson and help students
recall if they have encountered a similar topic before. The “W” stands for “what I want to
know?” this question helps students to clarify with their expectations before the lesson is
introduced. The “L’ stands for “What did I learn?” This is done by the students after the conduct
of the lesson.
Then the teacher may ask the following questions to help them understand further their
thought process:

“What approaches have I used?”

“What is effective and which is not?”
“What will I do next time?

7. Concept Map- this strategy allows students to put meaning on the list of important
terms by connecting them to each other. Three elements have to be present: the term, the
arrow pointing to the next term and the connecting words. The process of concept mapping
requires a lot of thinking on the part of the students as they make sense of the different
terminologies given to them. The teacher may ask them the following,

‘why did I connect this to that (referring to the arrow connecting the terms)?”
“Are the two terms related? In what ways?”
“Are the connecting words appropriate?”
“If given a chance to improve it, how will my concept map look like?”

LESSON 2 Paradigm shift: From teacher-centered to learner-centered

teaching Lesson 2a1. Philosophical Perspectives-Teacher-Centered
philosophies

Essentialism Key theorists: William Bagley, E.D. Hirsh Jr.

Essentialism adheres to a belief that a core set of essential skills must be taught to all
students. Essentialists tend to privilege traditional academic disciplines that will develop
prescribed skills and objectives in different content areas as well as develop a common
culture. Typically, essentialism argues for a back-to-basics approach on teaching intellectual
and moral standards. Schools should prepare all students to be productive members of
society. Essentialist curricula focuses on reading, writing, computing clearly and logically about
objective facts about the outside real world. Schools should be sites of rigor where students
learn to work hard and respect authority. Because of this stance, essentialism tends to
subscribe to tenets of Realism. Essentialist classrooms tend to be teacher-centered in
instructional delivery with an emphasis on lecture and teacher demonstrations.

Perennialism Key theorists: Robert Hutchins, Mortimer Adler

Perennialism advocates for seeking, teaching, and learning universal truths that span
across historical time periods. These truths, Perennialists argue, have everlasting importance
in helping humans solve problems regardless of time and place. While Perennialism
PCK120 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching 8
resembles
PCK120 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching 9

essentialism at first glance, perennialism focuses on the individual development of the student
rather than emphasizing skills. Perennialism supports liberal arts curricula that helps produces
well-rounded individuals with some knowledge across the arts and sciences. All students
should take classes in English Language Arts, foreign languages, mathematics, natural
sciences, fine arts, and philosophy. Like Essentialism, Perennialism may tend to favor teacher-
centered instruction; however, Perennialists do utilize student-centered instructional activities
like Socratic Seminar, which values and encourages students to think, rationalize, and develop
their own ideas on topics.

Lesson 2a2. Philosophical Perspectives-Learner-Centered philosophies

Progressivism Key theorists: John Dewey, Maria Montessori

Progressivism focuses its educational stance toward experiential learning with a focus on
developing the whole child. Students learn by doing rather than being lectured to by teachers.
Curriculum is usually integrated across contents instead of silted into different disciplines.
Progressivism’s stance is in stark contrast to both Essentialism and Perennialism in this
manner. Progressivism follows a clear pragmatic ontology where the learner focuses on
solving real-world problems through real experiences. Progressivist classrooms are student-
centered where students will work in cooperative/collaborative groups to do project-based,
expeditionary, problem-based, and/or service-learning activities. In progressivist classrooms,
students have opportunities to follow their interests and have shared authority in planning and
decision making with teachers.

Humanism Key theorists: Carl Rogers, Harold C. Lyon Jr.

Humanism views these as essential to being human: children are inherently good,
humans have free will, humans have a moral conscience, humans can reason, and humans
have aesthetic discernment. Learning and understanding are developed through sensual
experience, which is gradual and organic in human development. Humanists position students
to be in control of their own learning; therefore, students are given a lot of autonomy, choice,
and responsibility in the learning environment. Humanism positions students to become self-
reliant, life-long learners that are engaged through intrinsic motivation to learn new ideas.
Recent iterations of humanism focus on the social and emotional well-being of children in
addition to cognitive abilities of children.

Constructivism Key theorists: Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky

Constructivism or cognitivism positions students as active learners that construct their
own understandings through active engagement with outside interaction with people, objects,
places, and events with reflection on the experience. Learning occurs when a learner comes in
conflict with what one knows or believes, which causes an imbalance and a quest on the
learner to restore cognitive equilibrium. Learners organize their understandings into organized
structures or schemas. When new information is presented, learners must modify the
structures or schemas to accommodate and assimilate the new knowledge. Social
constructivists focus on the shared, social construction of knowledge by learning a skill or
concepts with more experienced learners until one can do the skill or apply the concepts
independently, which is referred to by educators as the Zone of Proximal Development
(Vygotsky, 1978).

Lesson 2a3. Supporting Research

Endang Darsih .Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,
Universitas Kuningan .E-mail: endangdarsih@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
PCK120 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching 10

Learner-centered teaching is an approach to teaching that is increasingly being

encouraged in education. Learner-centered teachers do not employ a single teaching method.
This approach emphasizes a variety of different types of methods that shifts the role of the
teachers from givers of information to facilitators in student learning. Traditionally, teachers
focused on what they did, and not on what the students are learning. This emphasis on what
teacher’s do often leads to students who are passive and who did not take responsibility for
their own learning. Educators call this traditional method, “teacher-centered teaching.” In
contrast, “learner-centered teaching” occurs when teachers focus on student learning.In
Indonesia, learner-centered teaching has been popular since the government decided to try
out the new designed curriculum, the 2013 curriculum. Thousands of schools, ranging from
elementary (SD), junior high (SMP), and senior high (SMA) have participated in this try out.
This curriculum was officially launched on July 15 starting with first, fourth, seventh and
tenth graders andthe very reason to justify such implementation of the new curriculum is
because the ministry wants to restore character education and improve students’ creative
thinking. In the 2013 curriculum, it is a must for every teacher to apply learner-centered
teaching. It should be able to give space for students to learn the material based on their
needs, interests, ability and their learning styles. Learner-centered teaching is a broad
educational concept that originated in fundamental changes in thinking about curriculum
planning and pedagogy in the 1970s and 1980s (Nunan, 1988 in Benson, 2003). These are
best summed up in terms of a shift in the focus of language education. research and practice
from language and linguistics to language learners and language learning that began in the
1960s with the development of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics’ and continued through
the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of “second language acquisition” as the key
research concept in the field (Ellis, 1994).
Learner-centered teaching is an approach in which students have control over the
learning process. With the learner-centered approach, teachers function as facilitators of
learning rather than lecturers. In this way, teachers do less telling; students do more
discovering. The roles of the teacher in the learner-centered approach are to design the course
such that it creates a climate for an optimal learning; model the appropriate expected behavior
for the students; encourage students to learn from and with each other; and provide more
feedback throughout the process. Learner-centered teaching forces students to play an active
role in their education, as opposed to the more passive role traditionally used. In other
disciplines, the learner-centered approach promoted more in-depth learning and facilitated
students’ development into independent learners.
In line with that, Brown (2001) stated that learner-centered teaching includes: 1)
techniques that focus on or account for learners’ needs, styles, and goals; 2) techniques that
give some control to the students; 3) curricula that include the consultation and input of
students and that do not presuppose objectives in advance; 4) techniques that allow for
students creativity and innovation, and 5) techniques that enhance a student’s sense of
competence and self-worth. However, in some pilot project schools of the 2013 curriculum in
Kuningan, West Java especially those located in remote areas and those with under-prepared
students, it is not working effectively. It is seen from several facts gotten from the interview
results with students. First is lack of teachers’ responsibility. Some teachers just come to the
class and give some topics to be discussed then leave the class shortly after that and come
back when it finished. It sounds painful since teachers still translate learner-centered teaching
as learning method without teacher. Though students are capable enough in doing that activity,
ideal teachers should be in class to help, guide and facilitate their students.
Second is lack of students’ motivation. Perhaps, this is the most important variable to be
paid attention in learner-centered teaching. Non-motivated students tend to be failed to be
engaged in classroom activity. It happened in one of junior high schools in a remote area in
Kuningan where the teacher is creative enough to create environment that fosters students
learning, yet it is not working; as the result, teacher is busy to prepare students to study which
is time consuming and still utilize the spoon-feed principle. Regarding the active participation in
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the class, the prepared and motivated students become more active and non-motivated
students were still passive and rely heavily on teachers.

Explore You can read more related research about learner-centered teaching

Lesson 2a4. Resistance to Change: Managing the Shift

A Look at the Differences Between Teacher-Centered and Learner-Centered Learning

Teacher-Centered Learner-Centered

Focus is on instructor Focus is on both students and instructor

Focus is on language forms and structures Focus is on language use in typical

(what the instructor knows about the situations (how students will use the
language) language)

Instructor models; students interact with

Instructor talks; students listen
instructor and one another

Students work in pairs, in groups, or alone

Students work alone
depending on the purpose of the activity

Students talk without constant instructor

Instructor monitors and corrects every
monitoring; instructor provides
student utterance
feedback/correction when questions arise

Instructor answers students’ questions about Students answer each other’s questions,
language using instructor as an information resource

Instructor chooses topics Students have some choice of topics

Students evaluate their own learning;

Instructor evaluates student learning
instructor also evaluates

Classroom is quiet Classroom is often noisy and busy

Source: The National Capitol Language Resource Center (a project of the George Washington
University)

Lesson 3. Dimensions of Learner-Centered Teaching

1. The Function of Content In addition to building a knowledge base, the content

facilitates students to:
• Build an appreciation for value of content
• Build discipline-specific learning methodologies
• Practice using inquiry or ways of thinking in the discipline
• Learn to solve real problems
• Students engage in most of the content to make it their own, students make meaning
out of the content
• Content can help students develop an organizing framework or way to learn in
this discipline
• Content is framed so that students see how it can be applied in the future
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2. The role of the instructor The instructor creates an environment that:

• Fosters students learning
• Accommodates different learning styles
• Explicitly aligns objectives, teaching methods and assessment consistently
• Utilizes multiple teaching techniques appropriate for student learning goals
• Designs activities in which students interact with the material, the teacher and each other
• Motives students to learn intrinsically

3. The Responsibility for Learning; Who should take responsibility for learning?
• The students should
• Often it is the faculty who does because we adapt our teaching to fit requests/ needs
of students through detailed notes, study guides
Consequence of faculty taking responsibility for learning
• Students remain passive
• Students do not gain confidence in their ability to learn on their own Yet a common goal
of higher education is for graduates to be self-directed learners who can continue to learn
the rest of their lives
Faculty need to teach students how to take responsibility for learning
• There are specific skills that can be taught, practiced and mastered

4. The Purpose and Processes of assessment;

Students? How does the manner in which you assess students have learning
implications or consequences for the students?
The purposes and processes of assessment
• Assessment is integrated within the learning process
• Instructors give formative feedback for the purposes of fostering improvement
• Students have multiple opportunities to assess themselves and their peers
• Students can learn from their mistakes and then demonstrate mastery
• Instructors encourage students to justify their answers when they do not agree with
those of instructor.
• Instructor and students: mutually agree on a timeframe for feedback and always
follows the timeframe for providing feedback
• Instructor uses authentic assessment throughout the course

5. The balance of power

• Learner-centered approaches empower students to take responsibility and to share
in some of the decisions about their courses
• Students can have some say over some policies, deadlines
• Allows students some grading options
• Once students begin to gain some control over the course, they will engage more in
the course and will learn more
Sample Activities
5a. Peer teaching activity (13 minutes)
Break into pairs for 3 minutes, each person studies a different dimension (a different
colored sheet for each dimension) to prepare to explain it to the other person, I will answer
any questions or help you understand the dimension, then explain both dimensions
spending about 5 minutes on each dimension and especially focusing on the examples
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5b.Beginning to teach so students will learn more changes in 1 dimension will lead to
changes in another dimension you can start anywhere.

5c.Making changes in your teaching -select one component of one dimension to focus on
for the duration of the workshop ,We will form small groups of people working on the same
dimension , I have prepared questions to help guide you in your planning to make changes

5d.Forming Groups to Make changes Who wants to focus on the role of the instructor? Who
wants to focus on assessment? Which components are you considering transforming?
Once in the larger section for the chosen dimension, form smaller sub-groups working on
the same component

5e.Select one component you want to consider -Each component has specific questions to
help you identify how you can change your course (spend 15 minutes on questions)
Questions are grouped by dimension , Components are labeled and numbered as they are
on the tables you have . Answer only the questions for the component you want to change.
Individually answer the questions about how you teach (usually in the middle of the
questions) Discuss in groups the questions about in ideal settings and possible ways to
change

5f.2 part small group activity (20 minutes) - Groups will be working on the same component
Part 1- consider possible changes .Consider which changes you might make based on the
discussion you just had ,Agree upon 1-2 possible changes
Part 2- planning for transformation - Discuss the answers to the questions on the planning
for transformation form for the selected component

6. Answer tactical planning questions • What do you need to do, decide prior to
making changes?
• Identify obstacles or challenges that need to be overcome
• Identify strategies for overcoming obstacles
• Identify necessary resources
• How can you get students to accept this change?

Evaluate
Your quiz is in separate sheet.

This Module if for 6 hours (2 weeks) so the Due date is on January 29,2021.

References
Edupedia. reservedhttps://www.theedadvocate.org/edupedia/content/what-is-
essentialism/JUNE 10, 2018.
Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc . . An IAC Company.
https://www.excite.com/education/education/essentialism-in-education 2001 - 2020.
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PCK120 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching 14

&sclient=img&ei=FqD5X_bZFcb00wS18qjADQ&bih=657&biw=1366#imgrc=gMaBM4okCRSDx
M&imgdii=9yBmlJpvob-rZM
Varatta, K. Knowledge Works. https://knowledgeworks.org/resources/learner-centered-
learning/