[quoting Norman, 2 Apr 96] I so structure the situation that the students have to discover exactly the information I want them to learn... My philosophy is to instruct through problems. Present a problem that the students are to solve, one that is intrinsically interesting. Structure the problem so that along the way, they have no choice but to encounter exactly the issues you want them to learn.
My question: Is this LEARNER-centered? If the INSTRUCTOR/TEACHER poses the problem, HIS/HER problem?
Especially the last sentence above worries me: "...exactly the issues you want them to learn." How learner-centered could that be? Isn't this just a later model of the same car we have been driving since the previous century? Surely a learner-centered approach should have the STUDENTS find/identify problems and pose solutions, with guidance from the teacher perhaps.
I believe strongly in providing a lot of structure, and in making the environment guide the student to exactly the points that need to be explored and learned. Exploratory learning works if the teacher has set up the situation that the exploration always happens upon just the concepts to be acquired.
Again some questions: Is this exploration? How finely is the target area delimited before the student is let loose to "explore" what is left? Isn't it much like letting a dog loose in a kennel of 4x4 meters? Or is the area demarcated by the teacher at least the size of a respectable ranch? Much more fun and intrinsic interest in exploring a ranch than a kennel, I would say. But how does one simulate a ranch adequately?
This is not a critique! I merely have more (dumb?) questions than I have answers for. And--funnily enough I agree with Don in many respects, simply because I am faced daily with situations that force one to be teacher-problem-centered rather than learner-centered (the 200-student classes referred to earlier), with no technological support except an OHP and chalk. I then do exactly as Don does--throw problems at them that I think will let them explore and learn. (Only to find out too late that those were not their real problems.)
Finally, from painful experience I have to concur with Kent:
[quoting Thomas, 2 Apr 96] My concern with the term learner-centered, especially when used with the term exploratory learning, is that the learner is often the LEAST QUALIFIED person to decide what they need to learn and when they need to learn it