What is Principles of Teaching and Learning?

Principles of Teaching and learning are actually instructional methods and strategies that
comprise all the principles and methods used by teachers to enable student to learn.
Instructional strategies, or teaching methods, depend on a number of factors such as the
developmental level of students, learning styles of students, goals, intent and objectives of the
teacher, content, and environment including time, physical setting and resources.
Instructional methods are kinds of instructional ways or activities used to guide the facilitation
of learning in each phase of the instructional process.

In planning to facilitate, ask these questions

What happens in the typical classroom?

Who’s delivering the content?

Who’s leading the discussions?

Who’s previewing and reviewing the material?

Who offers the examples?

Who asks and answers most of the questions?…In most classrooms it’s the teacher. Should it be
so? Why?
– Maryellen Weimer

There is a Paradigm Shift in Education…..What?

Copied from: https://www.karenfogle.com/paradigm-shift-in-education

Do you remember when we had to write and post letters or use a typewriter in the office or use
the old telephone call boxes? Well, there is a paradigm shift in technology as is in education.

Accordingly, a paradigm shift is defined as "an important change that happens when the usual
way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way."

For example, the Internet created a paradigm shift in the way business is conducted. Email and
scan replaced the fax machine and courier services. Orders for securities can now be placed
directly by the client via the Internet and are sometimes executed in seconds.

The concept of learner autonomy fits with the overall paradigm shift because it emphasizes the
role of the learner rather than the role of the teacher. It focuses on the process rather than the
product and encourages students to develop their own purposes for learning and to see
learning as a lifelong process.
Education is no longer defined in terms of what a teacher will teach but rather in terms of
what a student will be able to demonstrate. Thus, it is from here that instruction must work
backward. ( Research the Flipped Classroom.)

If we are to be responsible for what a student learns then it is essential that we understand
WHAT a student knows before new learning begins and HOW best to build on what each student
already knows.

“To learn is to change. Education is a process that changes the learner.” – George Leonard

Our role as teachers is to be a “guide on the side” instead of a “sage on the stage.” We have
moved from an instruction paradigm, in which an instructor transfers knowledge to students,
to a learning paradigm, in which a teacher’s role is that of coach. The result is a student
learning how to learn and discovering knowledge with the coaching guidance of a teacher.

Learner autonomy

To be autonomous, learners need to be able to have some choice as to the what and how of
the curriculum and, at the same time, they should feel responsible for their own learning and
for the learning of those with whom they interact. Learner autonomy involves learners being
aware of their own ways of learning, so as to utilize their strengths and work on their
weaknesses (van Lier, 1996). Intrinsic motivation plays a central role in learner autonomy. The
teacher no longer shoulders the entire burden of running the classroom. A form of
democratization takes place with students taking on more rights and responsibilities for their
own learning..

What is Facilitation:
Facilitation is a term used to describe a possible role of the teacher. Facilitation is providing the
necessary resources, information and support in order for learners to complete a task, rather
than teaching. ...

Example
A teacher facilitates a discussion on Facilitation by asking learners to research the issues for
homework, structuring the groups, providing a list of useful functional phrases, acting as a quick
reference for language questions, and managing the discussion where necessary.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it within himself
- Galileo

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire – William Butler Yeats
What is the facilitation of learning?

Facilitated learning is where the students are encouraged to take more control of their learning
process. The trainer's role becomes that of a facilitator and organiser providing resources and
support to learners. ... They must also develop their own objectives and be responsible for
learning assessment.

In facilitation, the role of a central authority is reduced in favour of giving students more power
to direct their own learning.
Students are given the material and tools they need to learn and support is given to them to
engage with ideas, understand concepts and apply that knowledge to their own lives.
It marks a shift from simple content delivery to student-directed learning and encourages
dialogue, exploration, and curiosity.

Who is a facilitator?

In the student-centered model, the teacher takes on the role of facilitator: guide, coach,
conductor, midwife, gardener. Why?  Because the students are doing the work of problem
solving, reviewing, discussing and creating.

Patti Richards confirms that an educational facilitator-

- opens the doors to learning rather than simply providing information to students in a rote
format
- guides and allows students to discover knowledge on their own rather than constantly being
spoon fed facts and information

Initially, this may feel like the teacher’s job has been replaced by her students. However, the
teacher’s voice becomes more critical because she is now engaging her students as they work
through higher order thinking skills of application, evaluation, and creation.

This doesn’t mean that learner-centered teachers stop giving examples, telling stories, and
exploring content in front of their students. As the author explains, “That’s [demonstrating
critical thinking, illustrating points, etc.] a legitimate part of teaching. But they shouldn’t be
doing these tasks all or even most of the time. Ultimately, the responsibility for learning rests
with the students.”

Weimer offers seven principles for teachers who want to develop their facilitation skills.
Throughout the chapter, she provides very helpful, concrete examples from her own teaching
experience and from other teachers.
 Principles of Facilitative Teaching
1. Let Your Students Do More Learning Tasks: Set your students up to do all of the things
mentioned in the quote at the top of this post. The challenge we encounter here is that our
students aren’t going to do these tasks as well or in the same way as we would. It’s like learning
to walk, they will pick up the skills of our discipline as they try it out.

2. Teachers Do Less Telling so that Students Can Do More Discovering: Most teachers I
know spend an entire class session reading through their syllabus. Weimer offers a totally
different and interactive approach where here students explore and discuss the elements and
structure of the course.

3. Teachers Do Instructional Design Work More Carefully: In short, the lion’s share of a
teacher’s work is done before class. I think that online teachers have an edge here because their
classroom time has been displaced and is most often asynchronous. For those of us moving our
courses to a hybrid format, we are offered an opportunity to rethink and better integrate the
learning activities in our courses. Instead of just preparing lectures, we are designing learning
activities for our students to participate in.

4. Faculty More Explicitly Model How Experts Learn: In the place of a polished talk, we
explain our own process: what we do when we encounter difficult learning tasks, how do we
decide if a resource is worthwhile, and how they are encountering new information in their field.
She explains that “Students need to see examples of learning as hard, messy work, even for
experienced learners.”

5. Faculty Encourage Student to Learn From and With Each Other: Most students and
teachers groan when they hear about “group work” (see the image ->).
But I think that’s because we expect collaborative projects to work right out of the box. They
don’t. Later in the chapter, the author shares one such experience and what she learned from it.
Given time by perseverance, and improvement through redesign and skill development, group
work can be a very effective teaching strategy.

6. Faculty and Students Work to Create Climates for Learning: When students are given
responsibility for their classroom experience, classroom management becomes a secondary issue.

7. Faculty Use Evaluation to Promote Learning: Students learn to evaluate their own work
and the work of their peers. Teachers still issue grades, but the evaluation process becomes
formative as well as evaluative.

I’m impressed with Weimer’s reminders that this is a “messy” process, and that even in this 2nd
edition to the book, she doesn’t have good answers for teachers who are trying to figure out
when to intervene and when to hold back. My final reflection on this new role is that it demands
a modicum of humility. Students will have insights we’ve never thought of, and others will try
our patience. The facilitator role means that our students will see the limits of our expertise and
our abilities to perceive and communicate. For us, turning the tables demands deeper character
and developing new skills.

5 Principles of Taking a Facilitative Approach

Copied from: https://www.leadstrat.com/blog/5-principles-of-taking-a-facilitative-approach-2/

1. Seek participation, not just input

Time and energy is wasted implementing something that months later gets abandoned when the
leaders finally figure out it was a bad idea. If they had only asked, the wasted time and resources could
have been put to a much more productive use – if they had only asked. People who take a facilitative
approach recognize that they can get better decisions and achieve higher levels of buy-in when those
impacted by the decision are involved in creating it.

When you seek participation and not just input, you often come to better solutions with much stronger
levels of commitment.

2. Ask and empower, don’t command and control

Often, people don’t involve those impacted because they believe they need to control all aspects
of what is done in order to achieve their desired result. However, individuals who take a
facilitative approach understand how to empower others.

3. Connect first; correct second

Some people are expert at pointing out mistakes others make.  They seem to enjoy demonstrating
or feeling a sense of superiority by identifying errors and then showing what others have done
wrong.

Individuals who take a facilitative approach understand the importance of connecting with
people first and helping them discover their own errors. They actively look for strengths to praise
and then use questions to create an environment of self-correction rather than a culture of blame.
They recognize the power of being the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage.”
They strive to leave every interaction with the person feeling lifted up rather than put down.

4. Engage conflict; address dysfunction

When you don’t have the tools to effectively manage conflict and dysfunction, you tend to
respond with either a “fight or flight” strategy when faced with a challenging situation.  Those
who take the flight approach will avoid addressing the issue and will hope it goes away on its
own.  Those employing the fight strategy tend to try to overpower the situation by forcing their
will without listening to or considering other alternatives.

Individuals skilled in taking a facilitative approach view conflict as a symptom that perhaps
better solutions are available; they view dysfunction as a sign that something important is not
being addressed.  They understand the three reasons people disagree and have strategies for
addressing each one. They fully buy in to the dysfunction principle–conscious prevention, early
detection, clean resolution–and use appropriate techniques to prevent, detect and resolve
dysfunction.

5. Use process to guide, not to stifle

All organizations use processes. For example, organizations use processes for setting direction,
product development, hiring, and budgeting. However, in many organizations, the processes are
unconscious, unclear, or unreasonable.  In some cases, the organization is over-processed, and
the processes get in the way of creativity, flexibility and responsiveness.  In other cases the
organization’s lack of documented processes increases conflict, uncertainty and redundancy, as
people end up stepping on one another in the name of getting things done.

Individuals who take a facilitative approach recognize the clarity and efficiency that effective
processes can provide but also recognize the importance of using processes to guide and not to
stifle creativity or initiative. Managing this delicate balance is key to taking a facilitative
approach.

Facilitator vs traditional teacher

Teacher Facilitator

1. Large Classroom Small groups

2. Powerpoints Handouts. Scenarios, group activities

3. Direct control of class activities Indirect control of class and activities

4. Teaching starts from teacher's own knowledge Facilitator starts by assessing the knowledge of
the group

5. Teaching follows a pre-set curriculum Facilitators addresses issues identified by the

group or their community and adopt
new ideas to the needs and culture of the
group

6. Teachers delivers lectures to a group of students Facilitators uses practical, participatory

usually from The front of class methods, e.g. group discussions

and activities in which all members of

the group participate

7. Information flows in just one Information flows in many

direction, from teacher to student different directions between the

facilitator and individual group members

8. Teachers are concerned with students Facilitators encourage and value

understanding the right answer different views

9. Teachers have a formal relationship with Facilitators are considered as an equal,

students, based on the status of a teacher and develop relationships based on trust,

respect and a desire to serve

Competencies of a Facilitator

1. Prepares for training delivery

2. Creates a positive learning climate

3. Establishes credibility as facilitator

4. Adapts teaching to what participants know and how they learn

5. Focus on learning objectives

6. Facilitates learning by encouraging participation 

7. Employs a variety of teaching tools and techniques

8. Ensures learning outcomes

What makes a good facilitator?

What is Flipped Learning?
In simplistic terms, flipped learning can be described as "school work at home and home work at
school".

Teachers who employ flipped learning seek to reverse the traditional classroom model by
delivering lecture materials outside the classroom (often via video or podcast), while repurposing
in-class time for more active learning strategies. These strategies can include small group work,
class discussion, speech presentation, hands-on activities or lab experiments.

There is no one way to flip a classroom. The goal is to simply use in-class time as a workshop,
where students can collaborate on projects, freely discuss topics and test their knowledge on the
materials they studied outside the classroom. During this time the teacher acts as a coach,
monitoring progress, encouraging collaboration and clarifying content.

Why flip your classroom?

 Students become active participants in the learning process. In a traditional classroom

model, students are passive participants, merely absorbing classroom or lecture material.
There is often not enough time to stop and ask questions or discuss content. In a flipped
model, however, lecture materials are posted online and made accessible 24/7. Thus,
students have time to learn at their own pace, jot down any questions they may have
before class, and refer to the material again and again. This method prevents students
who may need more time to understand concepts from getting left behind as well.
 Students master material. In a traditional classroom, content is often quickly covered -
not mastered. In a flipped model, however, students have the time to work
collaboratively, ask questions and host in-depth discussions. Teachers can quickly
identify and correct errors in thinking, and generally have more time for one-on-one
interaction. This engagement ultimately leads to a deeper understanding of concepts and
a better mastery of skills.
 Increases flexibility. Because lecture or instructional materials are posted online and
available 24/7, it's easy for students (and teachers) who miss class due to illness, family
emergencies, vacations and the like to catch up quickly. Constant access to content
negates the need for make-up assignments as well.
 Increases student confidence. In a flipped classroom, students are given the time and
space to master new material, and, through active learning strategies, take responsibility
for their own learning and success. This ideally increases academic achievement and
builds self-confidence. When students feel confident, they're more likely to embrace
future challenges and opportunities.

Benefits of Facilitation
Some of the best facilitators are not subject matter experts. They don’t have all the answers but
they know how to inspire others to be curious, to think and reflect on their experiences, and seek
answers for themselves.
Sound familiar?
Whether you’re a teacher or a facilitator – or both – there are many benefits to having a
facilitative approach.

1. With less time spent on delivering content, teachers and facilitators can spend more time on
building a learning community and setting up the right environment for students to exchange
ideas and experiences.

After all, learning is social by nature. We can learn vicariously through others.

Facilitation’s focus on active learning also means students are more likely to engage in deeper
learning. They can see the relevance of what they’re learning and can apply that knowledge
beyond and across many different contexts.

The best thing about facilitation—fostering a capacity for life-long learning! The skills students
gain from managing their own study will help set them up for continuous learning.

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, “The children are now working
as if I did not exist” — Maria Montessori

What makes a good facilitator?

1. A good facilitator knows how to lead without being the leader.

2. They can show students where to look without telling them what to see.
3. They give students space to explore their interests and provide opportunities for them to make
meaningful connections between the material and their own worlds.
4. They understand that not everyone learns the same way and can provide tailored support so
that everyone can participate and achieve their goals.
5. Ultimately, they can bring out the best in their students and empower them to make informed
choices about their learning.
6. They let learning happen.

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners”—
John Holt.

Do you use a facilitative approach in your teaching practice? Tell us about your
experience. 

Reference

Aaron Johnson.May 31, 2013. The Role of the Learner-Centered Teacher. Copied from
http://excellentonlineteaching.com/the-role-of-the-learner-centered-teacher/