Making Learning-centred Teaching Work in Asia and Beyond

This book guides readers to transition their teaching to learning-centred practices. Based on Weimer’s (2002, 2013) and Blumberg’s (2009, 2019) framework, the authors describe their faculty learning community-based journey through the adaptation, implementation, and assessment of a series of practical learning-centred teaching strategies.

While furnishing a critical discussion of challenges, directions, and development of learning-centred pedagogy as applied to an Asian context, this book provides suggested pathways for educators around the world to embark on their own journey toward learning-centred teaching. These pathways cover a range of disciplines and teaching contexts from architecture and engineering to systems thinking and general education, illustrating the robustness and flexibility of learning-centred teaching. The authors provide examples of good teaching practice to help instructors, instructional designers, faculty developers and university administrators see how principles of learning-centred teaching and assessment can translate practically into quality classroom teaching and learning. The rigorous assessment methodology is both highly reflective and readily applicable to teaching assessment and portfolio development. It also shows how Blumberg’s rubrics (2019, Making Learning-Centered Teaching Work, Appendix B, available for download on our website) and Cole & Stavros’ (2019) SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results) framework can be used to evaluate the impact of interventions.

Contributing unique insights, this is a valuable guide for anyone interested in implementing student learning-centred pedagogical approaches and using rubrics for assessing teaching practice.

Lynette Tan is Director of External Programmes and Associate Professor at Residential College 4, and Master of Eusoff Hall at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is on the university’s teaching excellence honour roll as well as a member of the NUS Teaching Academy.

Daniel Jew is Director of Studies, College of Alice & Peter Tan, and Senior Lecturer, Department of History, at the National University of Singapore. He is co-editor of The Uncertain Past (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and a member of the NUS Teaching Academy.

Phyllis Blumberg is an Educational Developer, Faculty Coach, Assessment Consultant and acclaimed author of Making Learning-Centered Teaching Work (2019) and Assessing and Improving your Teaching (2013). She directs Blumberg Educational Consulting, and is Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Assistant Provost, University of the Sciences (USA).