Learner-Centered Teaching in Nonmajors Introductory Biology: The Impact of Giving Students Choices

Abstract

Learner-centered teaching represents more than creating a course where students are actively engaged. Rather it is articulated by a shift in the balance of power, function of content, role of the instructor, purpose of assessment, and/or responsibility for learning in a course. To make the learning environment in a largeenrollment nonmajors Biology course more learner-centered, students were given the responsibility to: 1) select course topics, 2) determine the types and weights of course assignments used to assess learning, and 3) individually decide, prior to being assigned work, the weight of exams and projects. Combined survey results from two learner-centered sections of the course (n = 137) indicate that a majority of the students found that choosing the topics enhanced their learning of course material. Students also reported that they put more effort into the parts of the course that they had weighted more heavily. In addition, results support that students are reflective of the learner-centered environment, confident in their ability to learn biological topics and more interested in biology than they thought they would be. Finally, course averages from the learner-centered courses were significantly higher than course grades from instructor-centered versions of the course.

Are the dominant teaching theories in higher education adequate to underpin teaching practices in enterprise and entrepreneurship context?

“…styles, methods and conceptions of teaching. Teaching is a central activity of the most educators in higher education (Teichler, 2009;Marriss, 2011;Li, 2015), and one of their major sources of personal satisfaction (O'Brien, 2009), which can have a significant impact on students' development and positively affect their achievements in general (Hurney, 2012;Hattie, 2003). Gray (1988, p. 07) "teaching style can be defined as a relatively consistent pattern of behaviour or preferred approach, which colours one's stance towards subject, students, colleagues, methods, media, etc.".…”

“…As Hurney (2012) and Hattie (2003) posit, teaching can actually have a significant impact on students' development and positively affect their achievements in general, conversely, can teaching have such positive influence on an individual's entrepreneurial development? The study of Aluthgama-Baduge (2017) finds out that there is still dearth of knowledge in the area of influence of teaching in the development of one's entrepreneurial skills and attributes.…”

Pediatric emergency medicine fellowship point‐of‐care ultrasound training in 2020

“…These survey studies primarily target PEM faculty and do not evaluate specific components of POCUS training across fellowship programs, including structured curricula, training requirements, or clinical applications taught. Learner‐centered teaching increases motivation and positively affects learning outcomes 15–17 . Therefore, understanding the perspective of PEM fellows is a critical component in appraising the current state of POCUS training.…”

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“…Non-major courses are also sometimes offered in a similar way to those offered to major students, which makes it difficult for non-majors to connect to the course content. Furthermore, non-majors tend to take only one of these courses in their entire career, leading instructors to think they need to cover as much material as possible [1].…”