TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 384 appraisal of a learning environment can help them to see the purpose and meaning in their learning experience, which may in turn influence their use of a deep approach to learning. Using a deep approach to learning, in which counselor trainees are reflective and ascribe personal meaning to knowledge that is learned, can help prepare trainees for future work as professional counselors when they will be required to think independently and tolerate ambiguity (Dollarhide et al., 2007). Therefore, counselor educators teaching didactic classes with a learner-centered focus are concerned with helping counselor trainees develop how they think (e.g., critically, reflectively, complexly) rather than simply what they think (i.e., memorization of specific content). This phenomenon is demonstrated in the following case study. Case Study: A Commentary When Randy (first author) first asked me (Jane; second author) to join in this project about learner-centered teaching, I was excited to do so. At the time, Randy was a doctoral candidate and I was a faculty member in a counselor education program. I consider myself to be student-centered, an effective facilitator of student learning and a postmodernist who takes a nonexpert stance with students. Randy asked me to develop a case study of a traditionally didactic course taught from a learner-centered course approach. Again, I was excited to do so, thinking that this would be an easy task, in light of my learner-centered approach to teaching. Yet when I began to think about a course to use as a case study, one that would demonstrate a learner-centered approach, I began to doubt that I was truly learner-centered. The course I was considering was a couples counseling course that I had taught for years, a traditionally “didactic” course. Though I had incorporated a number of experiential activities into this course, I continued to lecture frequently (about half of the class time), believing that students benefit from listening to and asking questions about the theories and techniques they are learning. So was I learner-centered? Did I even have a class that I could present as a case study? Randy and I had lively conversations that expanded my thinking about learner-centered teaching. I told him that I was struggling to differentiate experiential learning from learner-centered teaching, and that I did not think I was as learner-centered as I had believed. Experiential learning, contextual learning and problem-based learning all became a bit of a muddle for me, as there is considerable overlap between these concepts about teaching. Randy noted Barrett’s (2007) view that teaching does not have to be either-or, teacher-centered or learner-centered, but can be on a continuum between both. With this idea in mind, I reconsidered the couples counseling course and reflected on ways that my teaching might evidence a learner-centered approach. The couples counseling course that I teach typically has 20–25 master’s students enrolled, along with a few doctoral students. It could be considered a content-heavy, didactic course covering couples therapy theories, focusing on concepts and techniques specific to couples counseling and their application in the therapeutic setting. As mentioned, I lecture in the course about these concepts and techniques and also provide students with experiences through class activities and homework assignments that aim to help students think about how they might eventually apply their learning to counseling practice. I set up one such in-class experience by inviting an underrepresented couple, often a same-sex couple, to class to talk about their experiences as a couple. Either I or a doctoral student interview the couple about the development of their relationship, experiences they have had with others