Learner-Centered Teaching

by Maryellen Weimer

Book Overview

In this much needed resource, Maryellen Weimer-one of the nation's most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching-offers a comprehensive work on the topic of learner-centered teaching in the college and university classroom. As the author explains, 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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787956465
• ISBN13: 9780787956462
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

excellent book

It is a good guide book for college teachers who want to motivate their students.

Support for Educators

Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice came highly recommended. When Ms. Weimer came to my college to speak I jumped at the opportunity to attend. The seminar was great fun and very informative! This book is great support for the educator who desires to improve the level of learning and responsibility in the classroom in such a way that the students are more empowered. A must read for todays college educator!

Shifting the Focus

These days the trend in education has been to shift the focus of classes from the teachers to the students. The idea is that by taking responsibility for their own education and by learning by doing and working with others, students will be able to learn skills that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, teacher-centered lectures will only cause the students to cram for exams and quickly forget what they learned as soon as the exams are finished. This book offers an easy to read guideline for shifting your class to a learner-centered environment. The author has done a good job in writing a practical text. It's not weighed down with too many discussions of research and theory. Instead, the author presents her ideas through her own experiences and the experiences of other teachers. This makes it very easy to follow her recommendations as they have been tested and tried in a classroom setting rather than in an academic journal. If you're looking for a scholarly work, this may not be what you're looking for, but if you want an easy-to-read practical guide to implementing learner-centered teaching practices, then this is perfect. One more thing, this book was written by and primarly for those who are teaching in university. With some adjustments, you may be able to use the recommendations in this book in a high school setting as well.

Excellent Overview

This book not only makes the very strong case for a shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered instruction, it provides a road map for how to achieve that shift in both the classroom and the entire academic institution. It is an excellent book for both faculty and administrators in higher education.

A very useful and well-researched approach

Expertly written by Maryellen Weimer (Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning, Berks-Lehigh Valley College, Pennsylvania State University), Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes To Practice is an invaluable resource for college and university educators concerning the learner-centered teaching approach that takes into account what, how, where, and what conditions under which students are learning. Individual chapters convincingly address implementation and fine-tuning adjustments to adopting the learner-centered teaching style, and the appendices include a syllabus, sample learning log, and more. A very useful and well-researched approach, Learner-Centered Teaching is an important and strongly recommended addition to Educational Reference collections and Classroom Instruction reading lists.