2.1

Learner-centered teaching vs. traditional teaching

In a traditional classroom, desks are lined up in rows facing forward. The teacher conveys information, sometimes using visual aids like a chalkboard or slideshow. Students are expected to listen, take notes, and demonstrate their knowledge after the lesson through homework assignments and exams. Although lecturing is the fastest way to move through course material, it is a one-way street because it lacks student feedback. Teachers may be moving at the wrong pace or have unclear explanations. Nonstop lecture can be overwhelming to students because there is no time provided to reflect on new concepts.

In learner-centered classrooms, student interaction is encouraged. Desks may be arranged in a large circle or in smaller sections facing each other to facilitate collaboration. Because students often form their own study groups after class, this teamwork structure is both familiar and energizing. Doing group work in class also allows the teacher to monitor and guide the process, keeping students on track. This technique is called cooperative learning. Similar to the structure found in a lab setting, it allows students to learn from their classmates while also requiring individual accountability³.

The learner-centered classroom is also active. The traditional, hour-long lecture should be broken into smaller sections (20 minutes or less). Breaks in the lecture are opportunities for student-teacher interaction, partner work, group work, or reflective writing. In the active learning approach, students solve problems, answer questions, either generated by themselves or the teacher, discuss, explain, debate, or simply brainstorm. Conclusions from these breakout sessions can be shared with the class and serve as an informal assessment: a snapshot of student understanding. Adjustments to the lesson plan can be made based on this insight. While “interruptions” to the lecture schedule may at first be seen as a misuse of time, the ability to customize one’s instruction for maximum effectiveness is worth the effort in the long run. The learner-centered science classroom is driven by student curiosity. A technique called inductive learning dares students to go beyond their comfort zone and grow as problem-solvers. Students should occasionally be presented with problems which, given their current knowledge, they are not able to easily solve. The challenge presented motivates them to seek out and learn new material.

Finally, the learner-centered classroom gets students involved in the assessment process⁴. Often times, teachers score students’ work using a rubric: a document that defines the criteria for a particular grade. However, in the traditional classroom the rubric is only seen by the teacher. It is utilized during the grading process, after students have turned in their work. In contrast, the learner-centered approach gets the classroom involved with the rubric from beginning to end. Students may even contribute to writing it. The rubric should be handed out before students begin their assignment. Students working in groups can use it to critique each other’s work, and individual students can reflect on it before turning in their final draft. In this way, the assessment process can coincide with interactive teaching. Traditional learning is an approach that does not engage active learning, but instead discourages cooperation: for instance, grading on the curve can create an antagonistic environment.

2.2

The inquiry-driven classroom

To apply the learner-centered approach to teaching science, the concepts of cooperative, active, and inductive learning can be applied in the context of inquiry¹. The goal for inquiry-based teaching is to foster an environment where students act as researchers in the classroom. A list of student qualities fostered in the inquiry-based classroom with specific examples for teachers is presented in the following table:

Table 1.

Appropriate teacher’s role for inquiry-based student attribute.

2.3

Recognizing and encouraging diversity of learning in science

One of the reasons why traditional lecturing techniques are not as effective as learner-centered techniques is due to the variety of learners present in a class. Decades of research has been done on various learning styles⁵ and cognitive diversity. The accumulation of this work leads to ever increasing ways to categorize student learning. Some examples of dividing learning styles include big-picture/detail-oriented, conceptual/hands-on, and impulsive/methodical. Beyond these personality-based styles, diversity in the classroom includes broader contexts such as family environment, cultural background, and language abilities. A learner-centered science teacher should recognize the variety of student learning styles and respond by incorporating a range of teaching techniques. Diversity in teaching allows a teacher to reach out to each student while enhancing a broader skill set in all students.

What does diverse teaching look like? There are several roles the instructor can play in guiding students:

Science has a reputation for being limited to one particular learning style, namely an analytical, logical, or methodical approach. While this attribute is essential to scientific knowledge, additional qualities enhance and improve the scientist’s work. Creativity, social interaction, and big-picture thinking are essential. Creativity allows exploration and generation of possible directions in an investigation or engineering project. Social interaction is required in most laboratory work, whether between lab mates or among collaborative institutions. Finally, big-picture thinking allows one to put their work into a larger context. The ability to move back and forth between holistic understanding of a concept and step-by-step knowledge of each detail is one of the most valuable higher-order abilities to foster in a student of science.

A learner-centered teacher should also affect students’ learning style in ways that enhance their abilities. For scientific work, the teacher can foster a self-directed and motivated attitude, build comfort with hands-on activity, encourage good note-taking and attention to detail, and demand a critical eye in the pursuit of evidence.

3.1

Asking engaging questions and using wait time

The goal in asking a question out loud to a class is not to hear one student give the correct answer first. Rather, the goal is to get all students thinking about the question. There are several ways to do this. Ask the question first before calling on a particular student. Give students extensive wait time⁶: Stand in silence for at least 5-10 seconds. It is natural for a teacher to get uncomfortable if students do not immediately raise their hands. However, pausing for a significant amount of time shows students that you are serious about them answering the question. It also allows students to think without rushing. Do not give in to the temptation to call on the first student that raises their hand. This is problematic because other students will disengage if a few eager students consistently answer the questions for them. This practice also forces the conversation into pace of the fastest learner, which makes it harder for other students to participate as the discussion progresses. To show an expectation of participation say, “Raise your hand when you can tell me…[question].” If students still hold back, follow up with “I only see a few hands…I need to see more!” to increase the pressure. Finally, if a question is especially challenging to students, break it down into smaller sub questions. Guide the students to the answer with lead-in questions that provide hints to the larger solution. Leading a discussion session is quite challenging to a teacher because it involves such a high level of interaction and improvisation. Mastering this technique is incredibly worthwhile, though. Discussion-based learning can occur in many contexts, from one-on-one office hour interaction to recitation sessions to post-lab discussions. In any case, the students will benefit from direct and personalized instruction, and the teacher will benefit from the level of insight to student understanding the discussion provides.

3.2

Getting shy students involved

If students are not eager to participate out loud, it does not necessarily mean that they are not engaged or are not understanding. Speaking in front of the classroom is difficult for shy students. To keep everyone involved, ask students to write their answer down or discuss it with their neighbor. This gives shy students an opportunity to practice their wording and gain confidence in their answers. The teacher could walk around the classroom, notice a student’s written answer, and say “That is a useful perspective – I will call on you in a few minutes to share your answer.” Doing this serves two purposes: it prepares the student to speak out loud, and it pre-validates their answer as being correct. If shy students gain confidence through these supportive speaking opportunities, they may push themselves to participate more overtly in future class discussions. Encouraging shy students to share their perspective as students is incredibly important – early encouragement will help them assert themselves in the future. Confidence is essential for job interviews, professional networking, teamwork/collaborations, and research presentations.

It is important to remember that there will always be a few students who will remain shy. However, we must also remember that in a traditional lecture approach, 5% of the students (if that many) are actively involved and 95% are not. If interactive teaching exercises can do anything to modify those percentages, you are already ahead of the game.

3.3

Too much material, too little time

One of the drives for following a customary lecture teaching setting is the fact that there is a lot of material that needs to be taught in a specific, and most often short, time frame⁷. Of course, it is possible to project on a screen all the course material indicated in the syllabus in a short time frame, going through several book chapters of text in a month. The issue lies on the fact that this action does not allow for the students to learn, but just simply to observe a lot of text in a short time frame. Imagine how different the perception of the student would be if instead of only reading and making an exact replica of the text on the board into their notebooks, they had to engage in one or two quick active learning exercises, either by working individually or in small teams? This process would without a doubt slow things down and the syllabus would most likely not be completely covered, but the students would become more comfortable with the material presented.

Some active learning exercises include answering questions, starting problem solutions, filling in missing steps in derivations, brainstorming, formulating questions about material just presented, summarizing or even quizzes. A quick way to get all of the students to participate, even the shy ones, is to ask a few multiple choice questions. All students should quietly answer by a show of hand. The multiple choices are associated with a number, and the student would indicate the answer by holding up that number of fingers for the professor to see or writing it down on a piece of paper and showing that instead. These types of exercises take just a short break from the lecture, and will energize and keep the students focused and awake.

3.4

Addressing large classrooms

One of the concerns when dealing with active learning methods is how to properly use them when faced with large classrooms. Do active learning methods work in large classes? The answer is yes⁶.

Large classrooms are a challenging setting to implement interactive teaching: the professor may not able to make eye contact with everyone or even answer all of the students’ questions. Shy students can be left behind even more so in larger classrooms. The key is to break up a large group into smaller groups that can interact, ask and answer questions. In this environment, even shy students are more likely to participate and feel less foolish. However, this may take time. The first time you assign group activity, the introverts in the class may pull back and try to avoid participating. The best thing to do is to simply walk over and remind the group that they are supposed to be working together. Once they realize that you are aware of their actions, they will be less likely to continue to pull back and after a few of these exercises it will feel more natural.

Some alternatives to posing questions to a large audience after a lecture and enduring a few long seconds of silence, are activities that Professor Richard M. Felder, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University⁸, has proposed. His strategy is to assign a task and give the class a couple of minutes to work on it in groups of three to five. For example:

The last two questions can be particularly engaging and instructive. More standard questions like ‘Are there any questions?’ or ‘Did you understand what I just wrote/said?’ tend to shut students down because they are broad and require a simple yes/no answer. The alternative questions listed are much more engaging: they are precise enough to generate specific answers, but open-ended enough to spark curiosity and generate critical thinking. By implementing a couple of these in a class, the students will be stimulated and will be more likely to pay attention the entire period. Keep in mind that there exercises can also be used during office hours.

Finally some additional specific examples that can be useful when practicing learner-centered teaching, in both large and small groups, such as specific formatted activities can be found in Appendix B.

4.1

Learner-centered teaching techniques applied in the OPTI 370 classroom

The recitation course was observed by visitors throughout the semester. Various students from the Certificate in College Teaching program would sit in on the class and document their observations. The results are summarized in the following sections, which serve to validate the learner-centered approach and give specific examples of how to implement it.