Personal Transformation from a Teacher to a Learning Facilitator: A Case Study

Abstract

Transformation from a traditional teacher to a learning facilitator is a major change. This change is resisted quite often because of two reasons: lack of strong need to change and loosing the class control. In student-centred instruction (SCI), the teacher still has traditional functions like lecturing, designing assignments and tests, and grading and providing students with opportunities to learn independently and from one another and coaching them in the skills they need to acquire. Good professors may feel awkward when they start using student-centred methods and their course-end ratings initially may drop. It is tempting for instructors to give up in the face of all that, and many unfortunately do. Attempt is being made in this paper to demonstrate the personal transformation of a traditional engineering teacher to a learning facilitator, and various issues concerning the change process are discussed. Faculty Leadership Institute (FLI) of Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) on Effective Teaching during July 2008 is a turning point for change. This workshop had enough influence and strength to dispel all the preconceived ideas about teaching and create an urge to embrace student-centric outcome-based teaching learning. A strong belief was developed in IUCEE mantra “I am teaching, are they (students) learning”. The challenge lies in preparing both self and the students to accept the new learner-centric teaching methodology and facilitate the process of learning. The author experimented the outcome-based teaching for the courses taught and convinced about the positive response and change in classroom dynamics. Once convinced, the author started conducting workshops on the outcome-based education to bring in a change in the process of teaching and learning.

Keywords

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FormalPara Abstract

Transformation from a traditional teacher to a learning facilitator is a major change. This change is resisted quite often because of two reasons: lack of strong need to change and loosing the class control. In student-centred instruction (SCI), the teacher still has traditional functions like lecturing, designing assignments and tests, and grading and providing students with opportunities to learn independently and from one another and coaching them in the skills they need to acquire. Good professors may feel awkward when they start using student-centred methods and their course-end ratings initially may drop. It is tempting for instructors to give up in the face of all that, and many unfortunately do. Attempt is being made in this paper to demonstrate the personal transformation of a traditional engineering teacher to a learning facilitator, and various issues concerning the change process are discussed. Faculty Leadership Institute (FLI) of Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) on Effective Teaching during July 2008 is a turning point for change. This workshop had enough influence and strength to dispel all the preconceived ideas about teaching and create an urge to embrace student-centric outcome-based teaching learning. A strong belief was developed in IUCEE mantra “I am teaching, are they (students) learning”. The challenge lies in preparing both self and the students to accept the new learner-centric teaching methodology and facilitate the process of learning. The author experimented the outcome-based teaching for the courses taught and convinced about the positive response and change in classroom dynamics. Once convinced, the author started conducting workshops on the outcome-based education to bring in a change in the process of teaching and learning.

FormalPara Keywords

Student-centred instruction • Learning styles • Outcome-based education • Course outcomes • Learning facilitator