TEACHING THAT PROMOTES LEARNING

If a campus desires to create an environment that focuses on learning and supports students’ development in all aspects of its operations, what would that campus be like? What would teachers who aspire to teach in ways that promote learning do about the nuts of bolts of instructional practice? What kind of classroom policies would they employ? What kind of tests and assignments would they use? Would they lecture, use group work, or rely more on technology? And what about others who interact with students in the library, learning center, residence halls and other campus offices? Can an entire campus be learner-centered?

These questions will be the focus of an interactive presentation on teaching that promotes learning across campus. It will be based on a book, Learner Centered Teaching by Maryellen Weimer, that identifies five areas of practice relevant to how much and how well students learn in campus venues as diverse as the classroom, library, laboratory cafeteria and residence hall lounge.

Maryellen Weimer teaches at Penn State Berks, where she is a professor of teaching and learning. In 2005, Weimer received the Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching, one of Penn State’s university-wide teaching awards.

Weimer received a Ph.D. in speech communication in 1981 from Penn State. Spending most of her career at Penn State, Weimer has held several different positions at the university. For ten years she directed the university’s Instructional Development Program. She also served as a senior research associate in Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, where she was an associate director of the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, a U.S. Department of Education Research and Development Center funded for five years.

Over the past twenty years, Weimer has consulted with more than 275 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada as well as overseas on a variety of instructional issues. She regularly keynotes national conferences and regional meetings.

Since 1987, Weimer has edited Teaching Professor, a monthly newsletter on college teaching. She has authored or edited nine books, including one on faculty development, one on teaching for new faculty, and an anthology edited with Robert Menges, Teaching on Solid Ground: Using Scholarship to Improve Practice (Jossey-Bass, 1995). Her most recent book, Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning: Professional Literature that Makes a Difference, was published in 2006.