Learner-Centred Practices
Last week, April 24th, I attended Carleton University's Teaching Innovation Symposium, InspirED 2024. It was an interesting and informative collection of talks, in a friendly and welcoming environment. I enjoyed getting together with colleagues in such events, especially because I have not done much of that since the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to listening to various presentations and discussions, I took the speaker role at two sessions. With online classes and conferences, and being on leave for almost two years, I felt a little rusty and nervous speaking in front of a live crowd, but I think it went well.
In my first presentation (PowerPoint, PDF), I talked about Teaching with Virtual/Augmented/Extended Reality. Based on more than a decade of working on using virtual environments in education, I discussed the motivations, risks, and barriers to using such tools in education. I mentioned how we need further research on Inclusion, Suitability and efficacy, Personalization and combining with AI, and XR-based pedagogy, and then went over some suggestions for how to start with using VR in classrooms, introducing our multi-platform educational VR framework, Circles, and the learning modules we have created using it (uni-vr-sity.ca).
For the second presentation, I teamed up with a colleague to conclude the symposium with reflections on learner-centred practices. We decided to do this not with typical presentations but with an interactive session where the audience (and us) would reflect on what they heard (or wanted to hear) throughout the symposium, and how it relates to learner-centred educational practices. We thought this would be a positive variation to common conference concluding remarks, which are done by organizers. Instead of yet another talk, this could give attendees the chance to reflect on the conference, make sense of what they have heard and seen, and exchange ideas and plans. We started our session with a brief explanation of what we consider a learner-centred practice, i.e., educational activities that are focused on the learner instead of the content. This doesn't mean they ignore the content (or learning objectives), but the structure of the learning process and practices are defined with the learner in mind. It is a matter of perspective: when you look at an object from a different angle, you still see the same thing but may see new parts and gain new insights. Different perspectives may have much in common or may look very different. That is why proper understanding of a phenomenon requires multiple perspectives.
While interesting conversations followed on symposium topics and how they serve learners, I thought more about how the theme of the symposium, inspiration, relates to learner-centred education and the concept of perspectives. I realized that, interestingly enough, inspiration can be an eye-opening and helpful insight to define learner-centred practices and illustrate the role of perspectives.
Here is how I see it:
When designing curriculum and learning activities, we may think of "inspiring experiences," which will result in focusing on what content and activities we consider likely to inspire learners for more learning. This "perspective" is likely to bring together many elements that are inspiring from the instructor's point of view. Many of these may also be so for the learners, but the role of the learner and also the importance of the presenter/instructor are not highlighted.
Another alternative is to have "instructors who inspire". We all have seen speakers who can use very simple content and yet can move audience with their passion and though-provoking conversations. This perspective highlights the importance of the way learning experience is presented.
Finally, we can remember that the real goal is for the learners "to be inspired". With this perspective, we, first and foremost, consider the learners, who they are, what they like and need, and how they interact and get engaged. This learner-centred perspective keeps the real goal in mind and so helps design the learning experience with them in mind.