Learner-centered Instruction

As educators, we all think of ourselves as “learner-centered,” so why has this become a buzz word in academic circles? The decade of the 90s will most assuredly go down as the beginning of an era of assessment and accountability for higher education. With mounting pressure on higher education institutions to develop students that have the skills and competencies needed to function successfully in the workplace, stakeholders from governors to state legislators to parents demanded a better understanding of what exactly is “learned” in college. A shift from content-centered teaching to learner-centered teaching is best described in the work done by Barr and Tagg (Table 5).¹² They propose that content-centered faculty deliver content to students – it is the “sage on stage” delivery where if I, as the content expert, tell you all that I know about a content area – the assumption is the student will come to know it as a result of listening to the faculty member. In contrast, learner-centered faculty embrace the concept of active learning which is supported through the learning theory outlined above. The learner-centered faculty member believes that only when students engage actively in the content, will they be able to learn and retain the information that then can be taken beyond the classroom and out into the workplace.

A more concrete example comparing “content-centered” vs. “learner-centered” follows. In a content-centered ethics course the mission and purpose would be for the faculty member to transfer knowledge from faculty to student through faculty developed lectures on the topic of ethics. Conversely, in a learner-centered ethics course, the mission and purpose would be to elicit the student’s discovery and construction of their own knowledge on the topic of ethics. Rather than the traditional 50-minute lectures in the content-centered classroom, the learner-centered class would involve experiential learning with students engaged in academic service learning and “hands on-real world” experience where they are required to grapple with ethical issues relevant to dentistry such as lack of access to oral health care services. The reader is encouraged to examine an article by Gadbury-Amyot, et al., which describes how an ethics course made the transition from the “Instruction Paradigm” to “Learning Paradigm,” as described by the work of Barr and Tagg.¹³ In the “Learning Paradigm,” the learner-centered faculty member becomes a facilitator of learning versus the content-centered faculty who values being the “expert” on the topic with little to no idea of how students are interpreting the content.

Learner-centered faculty believe the students can learn only when they engage in the learning process and only through students grappling with ideas and concepts will meaningful and long-term learning take place. The learner-centered faculty member expects students to take responsibility for their own learning by becoming self-directed learners, ultimately improving their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Most academic programs have responded to increased demands for accountability by ensuring their curriculum has been thoughtfully conceived with logical and rational sequencing to maximize the learning experience for the student. Again, looking to learning theory to inform curriculum, the learner is taken through a sequence that includes the introduction of foundation knowledge and concepts followed by the introduction of more complex concepts and learning that can be built upon a solid foundation of knowledge. Well-designed assessment plans that include capstone projects such as portfolios are able to document the journey of student growth from novice to competent graduate and require the students to engage in reflection and self-assessment.

The hallmark of a competent individual has been defined as one’s ability to accurately self-assess.⁵ Portfolios used for assessment are purposeful collections of evidence accumulated over time and from multiple sources with the intention of documenting the learning process by involving students in active reflection on their learning. Capstone projects, such as portfolios, provide the venue where students engage in self-assessment and meaning making about their educational experience. While faculty ultimately deem students competent and ready for graduation, capstone projects, such as portfolios, provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate their competency through the evidence collected throughout the educational journey, and reflecting and assessing their growth, from beginning professional students to competent graduates.