Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice (review)

I want to improve my teaching, and I think most faculty want to improve their teaching as well. However, the first thing I learned in Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice is that my teaching should not be the focus. Student learning should be the focus of my classes. It seems absurd that we need to state this; however, the learner-centered literature points out that teaching pedagogy focuses primarily on the strategies and skills of the teacher, implying that if there is teaching, there is learning.

Weimer reminds us that our teaching should facilitate more and better learning for students. This book is divided into two parts: a delineation of the five key changes to practice, and a discussion of implementing this approach in one's classroom. The appendices offer powerful examples to guide teacher practice, with handouts that develop learning skills, a syllabus and learning log, and a robust reading list of the literature.

Weimer explains that in order to be learner-centered, instructional practice needs to change in five key areas: (a) the balance of power, (b) the function of content, (c) the role of the teacher, (d) the responsibility for learning, and (e) the purpose and processes of evaluation.

Issues of power and authority abound in the classroom. It is assumed by the administration, the teacher, and the students that the teacher controls the environment and the processes through which students learn, and it is done this way because it benefits students. This assumption is legitimized through policies, procedures, rules, rights, and expectations. However, this assumption is based on the belief that most students do not come to class with the skills, abilities, or maturity to be motivated self-directed learners. The author asserts that the shift in power in the classroom from teacher control to shared decision making with students is a necessary step toward achieving a learner-centered classroom. The teacher does not abdicate legitimate instructional responsibility; the teacher enables student ownership, comfort, and enthusiasm (to name a few) of the learning process.

The function of content changes in the learner-centered classroom when the content is also used as a tool to develop learning skills. The function of content then takes on a dual purpose: to acquire knowledge and to develop learning skills. It is the means as well as the end purpose of instruction. It enables learners to become aware of themselves as learners, recognize and understand their strengths and weaknesses, acquire strategies to build on their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses, become confident in their learning skills, and become self-directed learners, which leads to life-long learning.

Typically the literature on teaching focuses on the steps and processes a teacher must perform for good pedagogy. It is assumed that effective teaching results in learning. In the learner-centered classroom literature, teaching does not equal learning. Weimer states that by changing the paradigm of the role of the teacher in the learner-centered classroom, instructors become guides and facilitators for learning. This change in teacher role places the emphasis on the learner and away from the teacher as the focus for learning.

When we consider where to place the responsibility for learning in the learner-centered classroom, it becomes clear that students have a responsibility here also. The focus shifts to the actions required of students; they must accept the responsibility for learning. This involves developing the intellectual maturity, learning skills, and awareness necessary to function as independent, autonomous learners. The author asserts that teachers contribute to this process by creating and maintaining conditions that promote student growth and movement toward autonomy.

Weimer states that the purpose of evaluation in the learner-centered classroom is both to provide feedback (i.e., grades) and generate learning. In a learner-centered climate, students learn to assess their own work and participate in...