UNIT 1

LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING
FOUNDATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS
LESSON 1 Learner-centered Teaching
Creating a learner-centered environment is the most important
thing an educator can do to optimize students’ learning. At first,
this concept might be a little bit uncomfortable for students, most
of whom are accustomed to teacher-centered learning
experiences.

Objectives:
1. Define learner-centered teaching
2. Name the characteristics of learner-centered teaching
3. Familiarized with the different learner-centered principles .
Learner-centered Teaching
Learner-centered teaching - means subjecting every teaching activity
(method, assignment, or assessment) to the test of a single question:
‘‘Given the context of my students, course, and classroom, will this
teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?’’
A learner-centered environment is different. It requires students to
take on new learning roles and responsibilities that go far beyond
taking notes and passing tests. It is an environment that allows
students to take some real control over their educational experience
and encourages them to make important choices about what and how
they will learn. In learner-centered classrooms, collaboration is the
norm, not an occasional class activity.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
Learner-centered Teaching can optimize students’ opportunities to learn in
many different ways. 4 Aspects of learner-centered practice that are crucial to
achieving this optimization:
1. Involving Students in Firsthand Learning - When students engage in
firsthand learning experiences, they learn to:
a. figure things out for themselves,
b. believe in the analytical abilities of their minds,
c. connect with the world around them directly, and
d. learn to use their innate curiosity to discover the power of their learning abilities
(First Hand Learning Inc., 2007).

However, this powerful process is one with which students have limited familiarity, and
they will need our help to learn how to be successful firsthand learners.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
(cont.)
2. Giving Students Choices About and Control of Their
Learning - The second aspect, which goes to the heart of
the learner-centered practice, is to share more control over
students’ learning with them. Sometimes we in education
forget that it is indeed the students’ learning we are trying
to facilitate—it is, in fact, all about them. Giving students
some say in their own learning is an important aspect of
their lives, giving them a greater sense of control, which
leads to a greater sense of safety, a greater trust in those in
charge, and a willingness to be more active participants in
the process.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
(cont.)
3. Teaching Students Lifelong Learning Skills - The
third aspect of a learner-centered practice goes hand-
in-hand with teaching for long-term memory. As an
integrated part of teaching the course content, the
need to teach the lifelong learning skills that students
will need to live successfully in an ever-expanding
global economy.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
(cont.)
To optimize this preparation, we need to help our students develop
lifelong learning skills that include the learning-how-to-learn skills and
strategies needed to deal with the complex and challenging life ahead.
Skills such as:
a. how to locate needed information,
b. how to evaluate the source of that information,
c. how to collaborate with others to create meaningful learning,
d. how to solve problems found in contexts different from those with
which they are familiar,
e. how to organize information into meaningful patterns, and
f. how to think in the specific ways of a subject discipline are all
skills that most students do not adequately possess and,
therefore, need to learn.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
(cont.)
4. Promoting the Relevance of Learner-Centered Teaching - The
fourth aspect of successfully implementing a learner-centered
practice is to be able to explain to students why you want them to
change their roles and responsibilities, and how these changes
will produce deeper and long-lasting learning.
One fascinating finding in the TV program Sesame Street was that
the children lost interest not because the colors were not bright
enough or the characters attractive, but when they did not
understand what was going on. We should take this lesson from
Sesame Street to heart.
4 Aspects of Learner-centered Practice
(cont.)
Students might lose interest in what we are trying to
teach because they do not understand why the
information is important or relevant to their lives or to
the learning goals of the class. Or it might be that they
do not understand how the information can be applied
in any meaningful way, or why the particular way the
professor is requesting the information be learned is
necessary or the best way to learn