My Developmental Stages In LearningTheories Stage 2 - A Transformative Experience

This occurred in the Summer of 1965. I was fulfilling my doctoral residence requirement at Northern Illinois University. I was preparing to take the two-day written examination and I thought it would be a good idea to sit-in on an Education Curriculum class. I asked Dr. Margaret Carroll, chairperson of my doctoral committee and professor of the class if I could do that and she thought it was a good idea although I had missed the opening session.

There were about 15 students in the class and we were all seated around some large tables.  The students were all ready with the usual notebooks for taking notes on the professor’s lecture. Dr. Carroll started the class:

“The assignment for today’s class was to read Chapter 1 in the text and to have a discussion on the contents.”

She stopped talking and she sat there.    She sat there . . . .   And she sat there . . . .

  None of the students started the scheduled discussion.  They just sat there. I was a guest and I was not going to say anything.

  Thirty minutes later with Dr. Carroll sitting there and the students doing the same, Dr. Carroll said, “We will take a break now and after the break we will continue our discussion.” She got up and walked out of the room.

The students just sat there shaking their heads. Some of them hadn’t bought the book yet. Others had the book and were waiting for the instructor to tell them what it was about. Others had the book and had only read Chapter 1. I knew what happened but it was not my place to tell them. Dr. Carroll was in charge.

  The class members and Dr. Carroll and I got back together in the classroom. She said, “We will now continue our discussion on Chapter 1.” There were some attempts by some students to start a discussion but it was fairly disjointed.

  The class time ended and Dr. Carroll said, “Next week we will have our discussion on Chapter 2.”

The class members knew that they were dealing with something new and different. The following week they all had read Chapter 2 and were ready to discuss its contents. For the rest of the semester, everything went well; every session being better than the previous one.

The Education Department at Northern Illinois University had replaced their Teacher-based instructional model with the Student-centered Learning model. Dr. Carroll had used that model in its purest form. 

Student-centered Learning - A Definition

In this model, the learner is required to be active in her learning. Taking notes and sitting, listening to the professor telling you what you need to know is being augmented with an active, involving presence.

Student-centered Learning broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student by putting responsibility for the learning path in the hands of the  students. Student-centered instruction focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning and independent problem-solving. 

The beliefs and the practices are based on Constructivist Philosophy and Cognitive Psychology. We will be sharing my 40 year experience using Student-centered Learning in my classrooms in the upcoming blogs.