Empowering Students to Think Deeply,  Discuss Engagingly, and Write Definitively in the University Classroom

A typical college classroom is often pictured with the professor talking for several hours while students frantically try to write down everything that is said. This type of classroom has traditionally produced surface learning and has done little to promote learning that lasts. Do university classrooms have to be professor driven? Can university classrooms become engaging and facilitate student learning? What does a learner-centered classroom look like at the university level? The authors of this paper will explore effective strategies for making this shift to learner-centered university classrooms. Strategies include the use of an essential question for a course, a taxonomy of comprehension for class discussion, and writing activities. Specific university classroom examples are included. A typical college classroom is often pictured with the professor talking for several hours while students frantically try to write down everything that is said. This type of classroom has traditionally produced surface learning and has done little to promote learning that lasts. In addition, many professors, regardless of their discipline, may teach as they were taught rather than considering more effective teaching methods. Therefore, this cycle that restricts teaching beyond this one narrow dimension continues. Do university classrooms have to be professor driven? Can university classrooms become engaging and facilitate student learning? What does a learner-centered classroom look like at the university level? The authors of this paper will explore effective strategies for shifting university students from surface learning to deeper, more lasting learning as they are provided opportunities to become engaged learners through varied strategies. The article is divided into three parts: comprehension strategies, discussion strategies, and writing strategies