What is the experience of legal lecturers who practice learner-centered teaching? What are its benefits and its drawbacks in comparison to traditional teaching techniques? In brief: Learner-centered teaching improves the quality of teaching a topic but not the quantity covered.
Benefits:
- it achieves stronger and deeper learning results both in the short run and in the long run.
- learner-centered teaching is significantly more motivating both for the lecturer and for the learners
- learner-centered teaching provides learners with the learning skills that allow them, after teaching is over, to independently sharpen and further their professional expertise.
The drawbacks of learner-centered teaching: First, it takes time and effort to learn the techniques of applying learner-centered teaching. Second, although it achieves much deeper and longlasting learning, it does not necessarily achieve more extensive learning. In other words in a given amount of time one one could cover less content than before.
Legal professionals find it hard to admit that they do not really know how to achieve longlasting deep learning or how to truly motivate their audience. When lawyers start to consider using or exploring learner-centered teaching they ask me about its features. That’s for the next blog.