Page 12 - Learner Centered Teaching

Reconsidering Responsibility

The fourth principle of Learner Centered Teaching is the reconsideration of

responsibility, specifically the responsibility of students to be active learners and

of educators to provide them with the skills to do so. Traditional classrooms often

reinforce cultures of dependence where students are encouraged and rewarded

for placing their learning (the what, where, when, and how) in the hands of their

instructors. Professors provide students with guidelines for what they should

learn, when they should learn it, and how they should demonstrate their learning.

Only rarely do students move beyond the guidelines given to them. This

approach creates a culture of dependence. The principles of Learner-Centered

Teaching encourage independent student learners.