Learning-Centered Learning

Over the course of the twentieth century, there have been a number of movements for educational reform in the United States. The Progressive Education Movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s was the first to start to focus on student interest and student learning activities. The Humanistic Education Movement of the late 1960s and the early 1970s started to see teachers as facilitators of learning, and developed a concern about individual learners and their own learning process. In the 1990s, there was another shift toward and a concern for making learning environments more learner-centered. O’Banion called for the creation of a learning college where “the learning college places learning first and provides educational services for learners anyway, anyplace, anytime” (O’Banion, 1995-96, p. 22). This shift toward a more learning-centered paradigm has been described in different terms and philosophical positions. Oblinger and Rush (1997) used the phrase “The Learning Revolution” to describe this new shift toward a more learner-centered paradigm. I have suggested (Reynolds, 2000) that the term “Learning-Centered Learning” best describes this shift toward an increasing concern for learners and the learning-centered process.

This book builds on this renewed interest in focusing on learners and their learning environments. As stated in the Introduction, the mission of this book is to articulate a 21st-century philosophical construct that promotes effective and productive learning environments for all learners. This new construct views learning as multidimensional, accommodates individual learning-style characteristics, produces intrinsic motivation, and gives expanded control and responsibility to learners. This new philosophical construct, while building on the work of others, lays a foundation of five philosophical assumptions that can be used to build productive learning environments.

 This book is meant to assist all learners and facilitators of learning to better understand and to apply these learning assumptions. Learning facilitators include all educators, from public school teachers to college professors, but it also includes mothers and fathers who are homeschooling a child or children, and would include trainers working for industry or the government. All of these learning facilitators have some influence and control over what learners are allowed to learn, how they learn it, and how the learning is to be measured.

Even though the 1990s produced a concern for a shift toward a more learner-centered paradigm, the educational and learning literature does not seem to agree on how to define this concern or how to describe the underlying assumptions that will promote this new philosophy for learning. This book describes the five philosophical assumptions and the theoretical constructs that support those assumptions, and which can be used by learners and learning facilitators to build more effective and productive learning environments.

References

O’Banion, T. (December/January 1995/1996). A learning college for the 21st century. Community College Journal, 66(3), 18-23.

Oblinger, D. G., & Rush, S. C. (Eds.) (1997). The learning revolution: The challenge of information technology in the academy. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.

Reynolds, J. (2000). Learning-centered learning: Theory into practice. Inquiry:  The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 5(2), 9-15.