The Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at Ferris State has historically advocated
for a learner-centered teaching approach. My personal teaching and learning philosophy
is aligned with many if not all of the basic tenants of this approach. Rather than
adopt the commonly used term “learner-centered” teaching, much of which I agree with,
I prefer to use the term learning-centered teaching. My purpose or hope in making
this distinction is to take the definition (at least for myself) a step beyond the
current definition. The “learning-centered” environment does not make the learner
the only participant of central importance in the learning environment as the “learner-centered”
environment implies. The learning-centered teaching environment is inclusive of, and
yet broader than the learner-centered environment. In my opinion, this distinction
is important because the learner should not have more power or more importance than
the facilitator of learning who in most cases is more qualified to structure the learning.
Rather, the learner and facilitator should share equally in the responsibilities for
learning, but should not exceed their expertise or capabilities.
http://pedagogy.merlot.org/LearnerCenteredTeaching.html
http://academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/weimer.htm
http://learnercenteredteaching.wordpress.com/about/
