The Learning-Centered University

Making College a More Developmental, Transformational, and Equitable Experience

Steven Mintz

An essential guide to transforming the college experience for student success. In The Learning-Centered University, renowned historian Steven Mintz unveils a comprehensive blueprint for addressing the critical issues of stagnating incomes and productivity, persistent wealth inequalities, and political polarization plaguing colleges and universities today. With practical strategies and a deep understanding of the history and future of higher education, Mintz outlines how we can transform higher education to promote access, affordability, degree attainment, and equity. Mintz provides a thought-provoking analysis of the challenges facing higher education, from the growing disparities in resources and facilities to the need for a more holistic approach to students' development. He offers actionable solutions to create a more interactive, engaging, and skills-focused learning environment. From seamless community college transfers to embedding career preparation throughout the undergraduate experience, Mintz steers institutions toward a future that embraces innovation and student success. This essential guide also explores the transformative potential of technology in education, the importance of equity and student support services, and the future of the humanities. Drawing on his vast teaching experience and expertise in student success, Mintz provides practical insights and strategies for driving academic innovation and overcoming resistance to change. The Learning-Centered University is an invaluable resource for educators, administrators, and policy makers who are dedicated to offering a more equitable, accessible, and impactful learning experience for all students.

Becoming a Learning-centered University

Achievement, Technology and Assessment

California State University, Northridge, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (U.S.)

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Leading the Learner-Centered Campus

An Administrator's Framework for Improving Student Learning Outcomes

Michael Harris, Roxanne Cullen

Praise for Leading the Learner-Centered Campus "This book moves far beyond previous thinking about change. Many in higher education want to create more learner-centered campuses but grapple with how to do it. Harris and Cullen show us how to lead the change to more learner-centered campuses and offer very practical tools for getting there from here. Every campus that takes student learning seriously should be having the conversation that this book advances and supports." John Tagg, author, The Learning Paradigm College "This is a dynamite text for all leaders in higher education who want to implement change. It starts with a deceptively simple idea that change needs to be 'learner-centered,' not just in the classroom, but in every aspect of a campus. Achieving that end is far from simple, but the authors make clear that it's well within reach if readers pay close attention to the wisdom in this book." Thomas Ehrlich, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and former president, Indiana University "At a time when most of higher education is seeking effective ways to maximize the value of student-centered learning, Harris and Cullen provide a comprehensive road map for completing the kind of paradigm shift that can accomplish just that ... This book merits the attention of everyone with a stake in the future of higher education." Anthony J. Diekema, former president, Calvin College "If higher education is going to provide what students will need in the twenty-first century, it'll have to complete the transition from teaching to learning that Barr and Tagg proposed back in 1995. Leading the Learner-Centered Campus is an indispensible resource for professors and administrators who are committed to the success of today's college students." Jeffrey L. Buller, author, The Essential College Professor, The Essential Academic Dean, and The Essential Department Chair

Developing Learner-Centered Teaching

A Practical Guide for Faculty

Phyllis Blumberg

Developing Learner-Centered Teaching offers a step-by-step plan for transforming any course from teacher-centered to the more engaging learner-centered model. Filled with self-assessments and worksheets that are based on each of the five practices identified in Maryellen Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching, this groundbreaking book gives instructors, faculty developers, and instructional designers a practical and effective resource for putting the learner-centered model into action.

The Learner-Centered Curriculum

Design and Implementation

Roxanne Cullen, Michael Harris, Reinhold R. Hill

THE LEARNER-CENTERED CURRICULUM “If an institution is to be truly learner-centered, all processes and practices need to be learner-centered, and the curriculum is no exception.”—From the Preface The Learner-Centered Curriculum is for educators and administrators who envision an educational environment that produces students who are creative and autonomous learners. By encouraging an appreciation and adoption of learner-centered practices, educators can transform their curricula to become more focused on the learner. The book presents a framework for curriculum design based on learner-centered principles while at the same time offering technical advice on implementation as well as the strategic use of assessment, technology, and physical spaces to support innovative design. The authors include several examples of existing curricula that illustrate their framework in practice. Throughout the book, they emphasize the need for assessment, both formative and summative, stressing the point that assessment is an effective driver of change. The book includes a wide variety of options both for individual classroom practice and for programmatic assessment. The Learner-Centered Curriculum explores the current technology and tools available to educators that can support learner-centered practices and foster autonomous learning and demonstrates how technology can assist in removing some of the obstacles to achieving a learner-centered design. In addition, the authors explain the importance of physical spaces in relation to learner-centered curricular design and show how to tie renovation to curricular implementation to foster incentive to innovate and provide a physical manifestation of learner-centered principles.

Understanding Learning-centred Higher Education

Claus Nygaard, Clive Holtham

This book - a product of an international symposium held in Greece in June 2008 and arranged by the international academic association Learning in Higher Education - addresses the importance of moving from a content-based view to a learning-centered view of higher education. Researchers and practitioners from five continents discuss three central themes that concern learning-centered higher education - the concept of learning; curriculum; and learning, teaching, and assessment processes. The chapters integrate theoretical conceptualizations and empirical examples. The book thereby offers both new approaches to the understanding of learning-centered higher education, as well as normative implications and examples of best practices from people involved in everyday practices of quality enhancement within higher education.

Making Learning-Centered Teaching Work

Practical Strategies for Implementation

Phyllis Blumberg

This is a substantially expanded and enhanced revision of Phyllis Blumberg’s acclaimed and bestselling book, Developing Learner-Centered Teaching: A Practical Guide for Faculty (Jossey-Bass, 2009).This easy to follow how-to-guide provides faculty with both a thorough introduction to this evidence-based approach to teaching and practical guidance on how to progressively implement it to strengthen the impact of their teaching. It demonstrates how they can integrate learning-centered teaching into their classroom practice without sacrificing content and rigor, and how to positively engage students in the process by demonstrating its impact on their mastery and recall of key concepts and knowledge.An added outcome, given that learning-centered teaching is correlated with improved student learning, is the resulting assessment data that it provides faculty with the measures to meet the increased demands by accreditors, legislators and society for evidence of improved teaching and learning outcomes. Phyllis Blumberg demonstrates how to use rubrics to not only satisfy outside requirements and accreditation self-studies but, more importantly, for faculty to use for the purposes of self-improvement or their teaching portfolios. She provides examples of how the rubrics can be used to ascertain whether college-wide strategic plans for teaching excellence are being met, for program review, and to determine the effectiveness of faculty development efforts. The book includes the following features: ·Boxes with easy-to-implement and adaptable examples, covering applications across disciplines and course types ·Worksheets that foster easy implementation of concepts ·Rubrics for self- assessment and peer assessment of learning-centered teaching ·Detailed directions on how to use the rubrics as a teaching assessment tool for individuals, courses, and programs ·List of examples of use classified by discipline and type of course Phyllis Blumberg offers Making Learning Centered Teaching Course Design Institutes and workshops on this and other teaching and assessment topics. Half day to multiple day modules.For more information or questions contact blumbergphyllis@gmail.com, or IntegrateEd.com

Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered Environment

A Guide to Facilitating Learning in Higher Education

Terry Doyle

Before entering higher education, most students’ learning experiences have been traditional and teacher-centered. Their teachers have typically controlled their learning, with students having had little say about what and how to learn. For many students, encountering a learner-centered environment will be new, possibly unsettling, and may even engender resistance and hostility.Taking as his starting point students’ attitudes toward, and unfamiliarity with, learner-centered classrooms, Terry Doyle explains that motivating students to engage with this practice first of all requires explaining its underlying rationale, and then providing guidance on how to learn in this environment. This book is about how to help students acquire the new skills and knowledge they need to take on unfamiliar roles and responsibilities. It is informed by the author’s extensive experience in managing learner-centered classes, and by his consultation work with faculty.The first four chapters focus on the importance of imparting to students the evidence and underlying philosophy that is driving higher education to move from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered practice, and what this means for students in terms of having control over, and making important choices about, their learning. The final eight chapters focus on how to impart the skills that students need to learn or hone if they are to be effective learners in an environment that is new to them. The book covers such practices as learning on one’s own; creating meaningful learning when collaborating with others; peer teaching; making presentations; developing life long learning skills; self and peer evaluation; and give meaningful feedback.This book provides a rich and informative answer to the fundamental question: how do I help my students adjust to a learner-centered practice?

A 3-year Study

Transformation to a Learner-centered University

Patricia Ann Hill

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Learner-centered Teaching

Five Key Changes to Practice

Maryellen Weimer

In this second edition of the classic work Learner-Centered Teaching, Maryellen Weimer--one of the nation's most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching--offers a comprehensive introduction to the topic of learner-centered teaching in the college and university classroom. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes the most current examples of practice in action from a variety of disciplines and contains new information on the research support for learner-centered approaches. Weimer also includes a more in-depth discussion of how students' developmental issues influence the effectiveness of learner- centered teaching. Learner-centered teaching focuses attention on what the student is learning, how the student is learning, the conditions under which the student is learning, whether the student is retaining and applying the learning, and how current learning positions the student for future learning. To help educators accomplish the goals of learner-centered teaching, this important book presents the meaning, practice, and ramifications of the learner-centered approach and how this approach transforms the college classroom environment. Learner-Centered Teaching shows how to tie teaching and curriculum to the process and objectives of learning rather than to the content delivery alone. The book also offers well-researched advice for educators who want to transition to a learner-centered approach in their classrooms and identifies the steps to take to put into place learner-centered policies and practices. Learner-Centered Teaching provides a theoretical foundation for the learner-centered approach and outlines a positive way to improve teaching. This second edition clearly shows how the learner-centered approach equips students with skills needed for a life of learning and how these approaches lead to learning that is transformative for both students and teachers.

Learner-Centered Teaching

Putting the Research on Learning into Practice

Terry Doyle

This book presents the research-based case that Learner Centered Teaching (LCT) offers the best means to optimize student learning in college, and offers examples and ideas for putting it into practice, as well the underlying rationale. It also starts from the premise that many faculty are much closer to being learner centered teachers than they think, but don’t have the full conceptual understanding of the process to achieve its full impact. There is sometimes a gap between what we would like to achieve in our teaching and the knowledge and strategies needed to make it happen.LCT keeps all of the good features of a teacher-centered approach and applies them in ways that are in better harmony with how our brains learn. It, for instance, embraces the teacher as expert as well as the appropriate use of lecture, while also offering new, effective ways to replace practices that don’t optimizing student learning. Neuroscience, biology and cognitive science research have made it clear that it is the one who does the work who does the learning. Many faculty do too much of the work for their students, which results in diminished student learning. To enable faculty to navigate this shift, Terry Doyle presents an LCT-based approach to course design that draws on current brain research on cognition and learning; on addressing the affective concerns of students; on proven approaches to improve student’s comprehension and recall; on transitioning from “teller of knowledge” to a “facilitator of learning”; on the design of authentic assessment strategies – such as engaging students in learning experiences that model the real world work they will be asked to do when they graduate; and on successful communication techniques.The presentation is informed by the questions and concerns raised by faculty from over sixty colleges with whom Terry Doyle has worked; and on the response from an equal number of regional, national and international conferences at which he has presented on topics related to LCT.

Learning Centered Training for Learner Centered Programs

Suzanne Kindervatter

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Learning-Centered Learning

Jim Reynolds

Wishing Star Incorporated is in the business of making dreams come true, and Ben is the head of operations. His job is to grant the wishes of individuals who believe in the legitimacy of supernatural phenomenon; leprechauns, fountains of eternal youth and beauty, magical lamps with genies inside...or a Wishing Star. During his ten year tenure, Ben has found that it takes a special kind of person to buy into such a fantastic concept...mainly a power hungry, greed consumed, unscrupulous kind of person...which makes collecting payment for services rendered all the more satisfying. While Ben doesn't charge anything to grant a client's wishes, his interpretation of the wish is rarely what his customers expect, and Ben's employer has a non-negotiable policy regarding the reversal of granted wishes. The only way to reverse a wish and do away with any undesirable effects stemming from it is contract annulment...a gentle way of phrasing, "forfeiture of one's eternal soul to the owner of Wishing Star Incorporated." And Ben's boss isn't a guy anyone would want in control of their destiny post-mortem. He goes by the name of Bub, and aside from being the sole shareholder in Wishing Star Incorporated, he also rules supreme in the bowls of hell. Unwittingly duped out of his own soul a decade ago, Ben made a deal with Bub in order to regain it. In return for procuring the souls of fifty other unfortunates, Ben would regain the opportunity to circumvent an afterlife of brimstone and hellfire. However, upon reaching number forty-nine, Ben now has doubt that the means justify the end. Even with the questions of conscience, Ben is eager to complete his fiftieth assignment...if for no other reason than to escape constant contact with his nauseatingly amiable employer, Bub. Not looking forward to Ben's retirement, Bub has decided to try and coerce Ben into staying on the Wishing Star team for another fifty souls. Knowing that Ben will assuredly turn down a straightforward offer, Bub decides to make the possibility of Ben fulfilling his contractual obligations highly unlikely by tossing a barracuda in the bath water. That barracuda's name being Randy Salyers; the apathetic by-product of consumer driven society. A young man with nothing to loose and no interest in gains. Ben's problems don't begin and end with Randy, a customer uninterested in his wares. There's also the fact that Randy Salyers ex-wife is Bub's new mistress and she thinks Bub hired Ben to kill Randy. This might not be a problem in Chicago or New York City, but Ben is now in Circleville, Ohio...and news travels fast in a rural Ohio farm town. If Ben can keep a colorful cast of yokels from sticking their noses, as well as other body parts, in his business there might just

Inspired College Teaching

A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth

Maryellen Weimer

Praise for Inspired College Teaching "The thoughtfulness, personalization, and consideration Maryellen Weimer demonstrates in discussing the experience of faculty members; her ability to identify issues that are shared and solvable; and her suggestions and solutions to commonly experienced stressors and difficulties in college teaching are major strengths of this volume. In addition, her personal and professional reflections on her long career as a faculty member, writer, and faculty developer expose tantalizing research questions that young education researchers might want to examine. The originality of this volume is its exploration of and reflection on a faculty member's career from a long-term perspective. The focus on iterative self and course renewal is personal and thus practical. In a way, it is a 'workshop between book covers' or perhaps several workshops!" Laura L. B. Border, director, Graduate Teacher Program and Collaborative Preparing Future Faculty Network, University of Colorado at Boulder "A book by Maryellen Weimer always displays her wonderful grasp of the literature on college teaching and learning, her ability to tell good stories, and her wit and wisdom. This one is no exception." Nancy Van Note Chism, professor, Indiana University School of Education, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis "Although I work at a faculty teaching center and encounter many books on teaching, I have seen very few that span the full arc of the teaching career and what steps can be taken at each stage in order to retain vitality all the way through the way that this book does. I look forward to getting my own copy and using it as a resource in the faculty development activities of my center. It will have a wide readership." Mano Singham, University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education, Case Western Reserve University

Learner-Centered Theory and Practice in Distance Education

Cases From Higher Education

Thomas M. Duffy, Jamie R. Kirkley

Learner-Centered Theory and Practice in Distance Education: Cases From Higher Education brings the voice of the learning sciences to the study and design of distance learning. The contributors examine critical issues in the design of theoretically and pedagogically based distance education programs. Eight distance education programs are described in enough detail to allow readers with different interests to understand the pedagogical approaches and the implications of implementing those approaches. Issues of theory, pedagogy, design, assessment, communities of practice, collaboration, and faculty development are discussed. Each section of the book includes: *a primary chapter written by an author or authors involved with a distance education program that reflects learner-centered principles; *a formal reaction to the chapter by a specialist from the learning sciences, educational evaluation and policy, administration, or the corporate sector with expertise in issues of distance learning; and *an edited transcript of the authors' discussion of the primary chapter held at a symposium at the Asilomar Conference Center. A final "summing up" section offers two perspectives--from leading scholars outside the fields of instructional design, evaluation, and the learning sciences--on the approaches and thinking reflected in the rest of the book. This book is essential for researchers, as well as all those engaged in delivering, supporting, or administrating distance education programs at the post-secondary level. The descriptions, strategies, and principles will inform the design of continuing education, as well as degree-based education and corporate education and training, and distance education programs for adults.

Teaching in the Sciences

Learner-Centered Approaches

Acram Taji

Gain a clear understanding of what effective teachers do—and how successful students learn Over the past 20 years, a greater concentration on research aimed at both teaching and learning has revealed that “chalk and talk” teaching, copying notes, and “cookbook” practical lessons offer little challenge to student

Professional Community and Professional Development in the Learning-centered School

Judith Warren Little

Provides a research-based blueprint for teacher learning, including the goals it can serve, strategic content priorities, and effective approaches or strategies. In "learning-centered" schools - where there is an emphasis on both student and teacher learning - teacher professional communities are the hub of a learning system that focuses on instructional improvement. These communities are strategically linked with various other modes of professional development within and outside the school.

Creating Learning Centered Classrooms

What Does Learning Theory Have to Say?

Frances K. Stage, Patricia A. Muller, Jillian Kinzie, Ada Simmons

This report reviews the literature on learning theories and frameworks applicable to instruction of undergraduate college students. An introductory section provides an overview and discusses the importance of learning frameworks. The first half of the volume addresses various theoretical frameworks in detail. These include: motivation theories, including performance attribution and self-efficacy; and theories offering a social perspective, such as social constructivism and conscientization. Each theory is presented in terms of a case study which examines elements of the theoretical construct, reviews relevant research on young adult and college student populations, discusses the relationship of the framework to college students' learning, and identifies possible educational applications. A separate section focuses on other theories which challenge assumptions about learning. The second part of the monograph discusses the usefulness of these frameworks for studying and fostering academic learning. One section addresses the need for more classroom-based research on college student learning. The final section applies the various theoretical frameworks to the classroom, emphasizing the importance of diverse methods for presenting academic material, activities to facilitate learning, and multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning. (Contains approximately 375 references.) (DB).

The Learning Center: Heart of the School

Lowell Horton, Phyllis Horton

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Starting a Learning Assistance Center

Conversations with CRLA Members who Have Been There and Done That!

Frank L. Christ, Rick Sheets, Karen Gail Smith

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