Teacher-Centered to Learner-Centered Educational Model

Mark B. Yeary Ph.D. Candidate Department of Electrical Engineering Texas A&M University
Introductory Comments Learner-centered education is a promising model that, I believe, relies on two complementary components: (1) placing more responsibility in the hands of the students, and (2) requiring the instructor to serve as the presenter or facilitator of knowledge, rather than the traditional source of all knowledge. The ideas presented in this essay discuss how the shift from the teacher-centered to the learner-centered model should foster an environment that will increase the overall quality of the students learning experience in the modern engineering educational arena. I have served as a teaching assistant for eight semesters and also as a lecturer for five semesters. As an educator, I will share my experiences in the classroom and how they can be related to the learner-centered model. Also, I will share some of my ideas as a graduate student. Student Motivation In order to introduce a change in the studentslearning process, it is also prudent to change the way students are evaluated. I think if students took a more active role in determining their grade, the quality of their work would increase. This would tend to work well in the upper level courses where project work is paramount. Several semesters ago, I had an abundance of grading and homework to complete at the end of the term. As an experiment, I requested my students to assign themselves the grade that they thought they deserved based on their effort on the final project. I gave them the specifications of the design and two weeks to do the work. At the end of the two weeks, it was my duty to meet with them in the laboratory and verify their working design. I was surprised at the additional effort that they spent on their projects in order to achieve a perfect grade. In the subsequent semesters, by using this grading policy for term projects, I have concluded that students tend to perform better than if I solely assign them a grade. This gives the students an enhanced active role in their own education. Coincidentally, it could be argued that the learnercentered model of education will prosper when the students are given the opportunity to have more control of their destiny by determining their course grade. There are also other ways to increase student motivation. I also support an idea that I refer to as evaluate, submit, and evaluate. The traditional grading style is to instruct the students to submit their project work and evaluate it. During the several courses that I have taught, I have also provided some additional office hours for design review. This is a conference time that I provide for my students so that they can visit my office with an almostcomplete project. This visit allows me to review their work, and tell them where they need to apply more effort. Another strategy to improve the students motivation and performance is through the use of class presentations. I have observed when I require the students to give a presentation of their work, rather than simply submitting it for me to read, they tend to apply more effort and dedication. An oral presentation forces them to organize their thoughts in a clear and systematic manner. This tends to support the theme of shifting the emphasis away from the shoulder of the instructor and onto the student During a s. student educational career, presentations are few in s number, but are typically a memorable and meaningful experience to the student. I am always surprised that most students can seem to clearly recall the details and contents of the presentations that they have made while completing their collegiate education. Team Work Recently, much attention has been placed on teamworking both in industry and in the current education literature. I have taken some courses in the past and have been placed into a team as is traditionally done. However, the instructor did not offer teamwork management skills. If the project is too large in nature and divided up into too many parts, then some pupils do not learn what they really need to learn in the course. In order to allow the learnercentered education to work, every member of the team needs to be able to be knowledgeable of all parts of the project. Unlike industry, where the goal is to complete a project as quickly as possible, each team member is still a student enrolled in the course, and they should have the chance to fulfill all of the learning objectives. It is also important for each member of the team to teach the others about his or her part of the project. Depending on the course, each team member should be able to complete the entire project himself or herself by proportionally increasing the completion time in inverse proportion to the number of students assigned to the project. Typically instructors ask the students to prepare a peer evaluation to identify who bore the brunt of the work. I feel as though the traditional peer evaluation could be

augmented by also inquiring whether or not the team was a useful learning experience; because, I think some team members work hard, but don necessarily learn all that is t required. Clear Expectations To enhance the effectiveness of the learner-centered model, I am also confident that the students should know exactly what is expected of them. Before each exam I give, I typically prepare an in-depth list of learning objectives. I usually call this exercise an essay-style take-home quiz. I also specify, the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the students to convince me that they know what they are talking about. I have discovered the take-home quiz is an effective vehicle for guiding the students to accurately learn both the breadth and the depth of the course material. And more importantly, a set of expectations accomplishes two goals: (1) it guides the students to study the material that is relevant to the focus of the course, and (2) it provides a somewhat tangible goal for the students to achieve. The Design Component of a Course During the last several years, there has been an emphasis in increasing the engineering design component of a course. I perceive that most students can solve typical homework problems, but they have trouble starting a design problem. As design is taught, more emphasis needs to be placed on how to categorize and evaluate the solution possibilities and how to choose the most appropriate one. There needs to be a more organized decision making approach that should be added to the beginning stages of the design process. Course Material and the Internet Since the learner-centered model relies on the fact the professor will be viewed as a presenter or facilitator of knowledge rather than the traditional source of all knowledge, I believe that the Internet could serve as a valuable tool. As an example, computer simulation is an important component in engineering education. Often times, students are expected to prepare a source file to simulate a physical phenomenon, as in MATLAB. I have learned it is very effective to issue the source code and other information via a website, rather than the traditional photocopies. This has allowed my students to make the same simulations I made in order to reconstruct the examples found in the lecture notes. I recently surveyed my students to determine the quality of distributing engineering educational material over the Internet. In general, they agreed to the statement, this was a helpful tool that helped me understand the material. Exposure to the Current Literature I think the learner-centered model would benefit by exposing the undergraduate students to the current literature in their discipline. When I was an undergraduate student, I

had very little exposure to the current literature in my field. One of the most meaningful assignments that I completed as a young graduate student was called Paper Review. The professor required us to critique a relevant journal paper based on the material that we learned in class. I would like my students to have access to the same fulfilling learning experience. Challenges of the new Model I believe that in order for the learner-centered education to work, the classroom instructor should continue to strive to teach the students the basics and the important concepts of the course. As a student myself, I have taken some courses, and, in some instances, the basic principles were not stressed. Sometimes the fundamentals were so natural to the professor, that he or she quickly glossed over them. In some cases, the learner-centered model must be applied with care. Some of my fellow graduate students are visual-learners and depend exclusively on what the instructor presents in class. I consider this one of the more difficult issues of the model, and it requires more investigation. I am confident the model could eventually encompass even these students. The instructor of the course also needs to be cognizant of which segment of the course students is learning the s required material. Since the new model relies on increasing the responsibility on the students behalf, then perhaps the top 20% of the students will do well. On the other hand, the instructor should also monitor the performance of the lower 20% of the students, and ensure that they are getting the guidance and explanation that they need. Benefits of the Model In conclusion, the learner-center model is very effective. I do believe that it is the professor bellwether s responsibility to accurately present and explain the material with as much gusto as possible, but ultimately the student must learn the material. The collegiate education is important for many reasons, two of which include: preparing students for the workforce, and preparing students for continued education in graduate school. The learnercenter model is directly beneficial to both. When I interned for IBM, the amount of new material, new vocabulary, and new company jargon was immense. Ultimately, it was my responsibility to learn and teach myself as quickly as possible so that I could become an effective team member. As a graduate student, it is especially imperative to be a self-starter and to have the ability to teach yourself new ideas. Concluding Thoughts In conclusion, the learner-centered model relies on the fact the professor will be viewed as a presenter or facilitator of knowledge rather than the traditional source of all knowledge. It also places more responsibility in the

hands of the students. I would suspect that many terrific educators already use elements of the learner-centered model in their teaching strategy without realizing it. The effort to characterize a shift from a teacher-centered to learner-centered educational model will provide the necessary nomenclature to describe this educational process. Moreover, as the instructor becomes the facilitator of knowledge, this trend will parallel the growth of

Information Technology as it becomes more prominent in the twenty-first century. An example that epitomizes the movement from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered education, Sanford recently announced that it would offer an M.S.E.E. using material exclusively presented over the Internet. In this extreme case, the responsibility is solely in the hands of the student.