This document discusses creating a learning-centered college based on theories of progressive education, constructivism, and learning organizations. It explores defining roles based on student needs rather than instruction, focusing on learning outcomes, and utilizing technology and peer learning. The document suggests topics like individualizing instruction, active learning methods, professional learning communities, and authentic assessment. The overall goal is to improve learning and increase student success by making students partners in the learning process and responsible for their own choices and growth.

1. BHC Faculty PTD
October 1, 2010

2.  Progressive Education (John Dewey)
 Humanist Psychology (Carl Rogers)
 Constructivism
While all important and useful theories, we may
decide that this really isn‟t what we need to
focus on.

3. Does O‟Banion‟s vision of a
learning college, really fit under
the more general theory of a
learning organization?

4. Organizations where people continually expand
their capacity to create the results they truly
desire, where new and expansive patterns of
thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free, and where people are
continually learning to learn together.
- Peter Senge
The Fifth Discipline

5. The five disciplines represent approaches for
developing three core learning capabilities:
 fostering aspiration
 developing reflective conversation
 and understanding complexity

6. 1. Personal mastery is a discipline of continually clarifying and
deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of
developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.
2. Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or
even pictures of images that influence how we understand the world
and how we take action.
3. Building shared vision a practice of unearthing shared pictures of the
future that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than
compliance.
4. Team learning starts with dialogue, the capacity of members of a team
to suspend assumptions and enter into genuine thinking together.
5. Systems thinking - The Fifth Discipline that integrates the other 4.
(The process of understanding how things influence one another
within a whole.)

7. Nothing will change, no matter how fascinated
you are by a new idea, unless you create some
kind of a learning process. A learning process
is a process that occurs over time whereby
people‟s beliefs, ways of seeing the world, and
ultimately their skills and capabilities change.
- Peter Senge

8.  changes the dynamics of student-faculty
interaction to optimize students‟ learning
 focuses on what is learned rather than on
what is taught
 utilizes technology to create opportunities for
student learning
 utilizes student peer interaction (collaborative
learning).

9.  LCE typically creates more active learning
venues for students beyond the standard
lecture and discussion method.
 The larger goal of learner-centered education
is to improve learning and increase student
success.

10.  The learning college creates substantive change in individual learners.
 The learning college engages learners as full partners in the learning
process, with learners assuming primary responsibility for their own
choices.
 The learning college creates and offers as many options for learning as
possible.
 The learning college assists learners to form and participate in
collaborative learning activities.
 The learning college defines the roles of learning facilitators by the
needs of the learners.
 The learning college and its learning facilitators succeed only when
improved and expanded learning can be documented for its learners.

11. At its best, formal schooling is every society‟s
attempt to provide a powerful environment that can
create substantive change in individuals. But formal
schooling is no longer at its best. In the learning
college, this first principle must form the
framework for all other activities. The learners and
the learning facilitators in the learning college must
be aware of the awesome power that can be
released when learning works well. Learning in the
learning college will not be business as usual.
Powerful processes will be at work; substantive
change will be expected. Learners will be exploring
and experimenting with new and expanded
versions of what they can become. (Page 49)

12.  Objective
 Explore ways that we can individualize instruction, make it more meaningful to each student, and
encourage students to become more engaged and take responsibility for their own learning.
 Reading/Video Resources
◦ Learner-Centered Classrooms, Problem-Based Learning, and the Construction of Understanding
and Meaning by Students
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/sc3learn.htm
◦ Creating Learning Centered Classrooms. What Does Learning Theory Have To Say?
http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-2/theory.htm
◦ 7 things you should know about… Personal Learning Environments
◦ Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning
 Suggested Topics of Discussion
◦ an exploration of how learning can be individualized
◦ differentiated and/or personalized learning
◦ how can we make students more responsible for their own learning
◦ How we change the learning climate on our campus
◦ Personal Learning Environments and Personal Learning Networks
 O‟banion writes, “There will be many options for learners to engage the learning college, including
self-guided print and video modules, group-based activities—face-to-face or through the Internet—
classes and laboratories “on-campus,” and individual consultations with a variety of specialists.”

13.  Objective
 Become aware of what active learning is and learn from peers how they are using active learning
methods in their own classes.
 Reading/Video Resources
◦ Active Learning http://www.cat.ilstu.edu/additional/tips/newActive.php
◦ What Makes Lectures „Unmissable‟? Insights into Teaching Excellence and Active Learning
◦ What is Meant by "Active Learning?'
◦ The Promise of Open Educational Resources
 Examples of Open Content and Open Educational Resources (OER)
◦ Flat World Knowledge - http://www.flatworldknowledge.com
◦ Connexions - http://cnx.org
◦ Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
◦ The Community College Open Textbook Collaborative - http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org
◦ Merlot - http://www.merlot.org
◦ MIT Open Courseware Initiative - http://ocw.mit.edu
 Suggested Topics of Discussion
◦ Presentations by faculty members on how they are using active learning methods in their own
classrooms.
◦ Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Content, and Learning Object Repositories
O‟Banion writes, “When faculty are no longer role-bound to provide all of these learning options
directly themselves, the learning college will be free to secure learning materials from whatever
sources are available.”

14.  Objective
 How to develop, locate, or join on-ground and online professional learning communities
for students, faculty and staff.
 Reading/Video Resources
◦ Seven Habits of Highly Connected People - http://www.downes.ca/post/44261
◦ New Learning Environments for the 21st Century: Exploring the Edge
◦ Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction
◦ ERIC Review: Learning Communities at the Community College.
 Suggested Topics of Discussion
◦ Building professional communities of practice (Wenger)
◦ Creating campus environments that promote student interaction, engagement and
collaboration.
◦ Ideas for campus events that create a more scholarly feel for students and the
community could also be solicited here.
◦ A unit on how to effectively use networking technologies to join online learning
communities can also be introduced.

15.  Objective
 Explore some of the roles within a learning-centered college.
 Reading/Video Resources
◦ Learning-Centered Leadership: A Conceptual Foundation
http://www.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Documents/pdf/LSI/VALED_Conc
eptual.pdf
◦ Figure 3.2 on page 58 in O‟Banion‟s “A Learning College for the 21st
Century.”
 Suggested Topics of Discussion
◦ Learning-centered leadership behaviors for formal and informal
leaders.
◦ A discussion on potential learning-centered roles and behaviors of
faculty and staff. O‟Banion‟s list of roles in figure 3-2 might be used
as a starting point. Expand on this list and identify who within the
organization might be able to fulfill some of them.
◦ Roles within Senge‟s learning organization

16.  Objective
 To explore assessment methods that shift the focus from instruction to
learning and focus on authentic, real world tasks.
 Reading/Video Resources
◦ Work with assessment coordinator
 Suggested Topics of Discussion
◦ Learning-centered assessment techniques
◦ portfolios
◦ authentic assessment methods.
◦ Formative vs. summative assessment

17.  This doesn‟t have to be a buzzword or
meaningless activity that we engage in once a
month.
 We can set out to collaboratively improve the
learning environment on our campus.

18. BHC Faculty PTD
October 1, 2010