Guest Author - Gregory A. Kompes
My K-12 and bachelor degree learning experiences were instructor centered learning experiences. In these face-to-face, brick and mortar experiences the teachers acted as sages on stages (Hoover, 1996). They lectured, usually in reiteration of what we had read in the textbook, while we learners took notes and regurgitated what had read and been lectured to about. There were a few exceptions to that, like science experiments and music classes, where lectures were followed up by some type of hands-on learning experience. Even the early online courses I took were instructor centered learning experiences. The lectures were posted in word form instead of audio form, but they were still lectures. This instruction was followed with multiple choice quizzes and papers sent via email to the instructor for evaluation and grading.
I was introduced to learner-centered instruction when I began my online MS. Ed. coursework at California State University (CSU). CSU emphasized a constructivist learning approach that was primarily learner centered. Constructivist teachers do not take the role of the "sage on the stage." Rather, teachers act as "guides on the side," facilitators of learning who provide students with opportunities to test the adequacy of their current understandings allowing learners to construct new understandings based on what they already know. This makes learning active rather than passive because students must apply their current understandings in new situations in order to build new knowledge (Hoover, 1996). Gone were lectures. The online learning environment cedes control to the learner (Forman, 2002; Hughes, 2004) and this environment is also an excellent place to address multiple learning styles. Instead, we were introduced to a topic, read more about it through textbooks and journal articles, and then discussion questions were posed. Those questions required a first post and response posts by the learners.
In my own online course design, I strive to be a constructivist learning facilitator by introducing new topics for exploration and, when necessary, guiding learners to deeper understandings while supporting them in finding applications of this newly acquired knowledge. It is interesting to me to discover that the majority of my students have only instructor-centered learning experience and many of them are uncomfortable and even at times dissatisfied learner-centered classroom experiences.
References
Hoover, W. A. (1996) "The Practice Implications of Constructivism." SEDLetter, Vol. 10, Num. 3. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v09n03/practice.html.
Hughes, J. A. (2004) "Supporting the Online Learner." Chapter 15, Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch15.html.
