Blog Entry #7

The readings for this week were chapter 12 (Motivation in the Classroom) and 13 (Teaching Culturally Diverse Students) in McKeachie's Teaching Tips, and an excerpt from Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT). In this entry, I respond to three questions concerning LCT.

What is "learner-centered teaching" (LCT)?

In my own words, LCT refers to teaching practices that place special emphasis on student needs. I developed this definition based on what seemed to be a common theme in the writing of Hofer and Suinn in McKeachie's Teaching Tips and the author of the excerpt from Learner-Centered Teaching.

Although Hofer and Suinn do not use the term LCT (that I noticed), they are in fact advocating LCT by acknowledging specific needs of students and addressing how those needs can be met to facilitate learning. Hofer discusses motivational theories, and suggests that students arrive in the classroom with different types and levels of motivation. By responding to the different types and levels of student motivation appropriately, Hofer suggests that learning can be facilitated. Suinn discusses teaching to culturally diverse populations, and suggests that learning can be facilitated by acknowledging and responding to the unique needs of students from various backgrounds. The author of the excerpt from Learner-Centered Teaching focuses on the balance of power in college classrooms. This author argues that learning can be facilitated by encouraging active participation of students in the process of developing course content, policy, and evaluation methods.

Which aspects of LCT could you incorporate in your own teaching?

There were several ideas in this week's readings that would work well in my PSYC 214 course this Spring. Hofer discusses the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on learning. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation influenced by internal factors such as natural curiosity and enjoyment regarding learning, and extrinsic motivation refers to motivation influenced by external factors such as grades and expectations. As an instructor, my goal will be to facilitate intrinsic motivation when possible by making the relevance of the material to student's lives clear. Fortunately, social psychology has many applications to our daily lives so this should not be exceptionally difficult. Of course, I will also provide external motivators for students such as grades to motivate students to keep up with the material when they are busy or lack interest.

The excerpt from Learner-Centered Teaching provides many ideas for encouraging students to take an active role in their learning. Although the author does not use the term intrinsic motivation, the ideas presented should facilitate intrinsic motivation among students. This is because allowing students a role in determining course content, policy, and evaluation should facilitate their natural engagement and interest with the material they are learning. In my own course, I do not plan to involve students with all aspects of course design. However, I do plan to allow students to determine the topic of the paper they write. Other instructors who have taught PSYC 214 typically require students to write a paper demonstrating their understanding of social psychological principles in a popular movies. I intend to broaden the options for writing this paper by allowing students to demonstrate their understanding of social psychological principles in other situations (e.g., their work experiences, novels they read).

Which aspects of LCT would be difficult (or, in your opinion, unwise) to incorporate in your own teaching?

As the author of the excerpt in Learner-Centered Teaching argues, I feel it would be unwise to allow students to make significant course decisions such as determining which textbook is used. As stated above, I do intend to allow students some flexibility in determining paper topics, but I feel it is important that this flexibility is limited. Because students typically lack knowledge and experience about the topics being taught, it is important that the instructor make major decisions.

I also feel it would be unwise to assume that student behavior is necessarily influenced by their cultural background. Suinn describes how as a way of showing respect, Asian-American students may be more likely than Caucasian students to avoid eye contact. Although it is possible that lack of eye contact may be indicative of cultural differences, it may also indicate that a student is not paying attention. Of course, it is difficult for an instructor to identify what the true cause of every behavior is. I think the important lesson here is to not make assumptions either way.

Additional Resources

Information about LCT from the University of Oregon