| This research study evaluated the effectiveness of two approaches (teacher-centered or learning-centered) of a faculty development course designed to help university faculty begin to migrate from teacher-centered to more learning-centered principles. Faculty at Wright State University participated in a 7-week, for-credit, graduate-level course. Half of the group completed a totally online course designed with teacher-centered (TC) principles while the other half completed a blended-learning course designed with learning-centered (LC) principles and faculty were evaluated on the degree to which they adopted and implemented learning-centered principles. The dependent measures were: change in self-reported learning-centeredness via the Principles of Adult Learning Scale, knowledge of learning-centered principles via a criterion-referenced test, use of learning-centered principles while participating as a student via the Classroom Community Scale, and synthesis of learning-centered principles via a rubric applied to a mini-lesson designed by each participant. The results of this study showed that the incorporation of learning-centered principles did make a difference. By the end of the course, participants in the learning-centered (LC) group significantly increased their knowledge (p = .022) and significantly transformed to a more learning-centered teaching style (p = .012). Participants in the LC group had a significantly higher level of connectedness than the TC group (p = .023). |
