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After taking Learner-Centered Teaching this semester, I’ve found myself coming back to three core realizations:
Wearing the learner’s hat matters.
When I consciously place myself in my students’ position, I teach with more empathy, clarity, and purpose.Experiencing evidence-based teaching was truly valuable.
It wasn’t just theory; engaging with research-supported activities through out this course helped me understand what learner-centered teaching actually looks like in practice, and guided me in designing more thoughtful, student-focused learning experiences.Small details make a big difference.
Something as simple as a syllabus can set the tone for the entire course—it’s the first letter I write to my students, and it shapes their expectations, trust, and motivation from day one.
The following sections involve artifacts that I created and my reflection on each point :)
🤠 Putting the learner's hat while teaching
🤠 Putting the learner's hat while teaching
Reflection after mini teaching demonstration (google docs)
Although I had previous teaching experience as a TA and instructor of record, I've always felt there is a significant gap between learner and teacher but do not know how to address such 'gap'. Through the earlier sessions on learning theories and co-teaching demonstrations, I could learn how to put learner's hat while teaching. There are some common mechanisms that enhance one's learning (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018); but at the same time, there is no one-size-fits all learning strategy for everyone. Learning how to learn helped me what strategies I can take to enhance students' learning experience. Especially during the teaching demonstration, we faced a lot of choices that we can make, including but not limited to the type of high-impact activities, timeline, and order of activities. Although there is no right or wrong answer, peer discussion after demonstration made me think of each step from learner's perspective.
📚 Experiencing evidence-based teaching
📚 Experiencing evidence-based teaching
Coming up with proper learning outcomes was exciting but also blurry part for me. The list of action verb (Palmer, Bach, & Streifer 2014) and SMART guided me to elaborate on what we want the students to be able to do at the end of the lesson or entire course. The most effective way to learn this process was peer-feedback by colleagues who are in different fields. Through suggesting different ways to frame learning outcomes and asking questions on ambiguous parts, we could come up with clearer, measurable learning outcomes.
✉️ Syllabus: the first letter you send to your students
✉️ Syllabus: the first letter you send to your students
During this semester, the most exciting part was creating a syllabus. Syllabus is full of "what to do" and functions as a contract between instructor and students. Back in my time as undergrad, I often find the first session of class as either redundant (just repeating what is already in the syllabus) or overwhelming (hearing too may "DO NOT"s or "DO"s). Of course it needs to effectively provide essential informations regarding your class; but it doesn't have to be dry, assertive, or sometimes aggressive. As I was building this syllabus, I came to see it as the first letter that I send to my students. I asked to myself questions such as "why do students need to do this assignment?", "how would they feel in week X?", and "what were the common questions students asked me during the previous courses?". I am very excited to use this syllabus in the coming semester and keep developing this over time!
Final_syllabus_Chaelin.docxSyllabus_rationale_Chaelin.docxPage updated
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