Adaptive Teaching: An Effective Approach for Learner-Centered Classrooms

In this paper, we discuss our approach on how to achieve adaptive teaching which leads to a more efficient learner-centered environment. Based on the Felder-Silverman learning styles model, there are four scales for the learning aptitude which are active/reflective learners, sensing/intuitive learners, visual/verbal learners, and sequential/global learners. The different conglomeration of these scales for the students in any cohort forms a specific cognitive profile. We used the Felder-Soloman index of learning styles survey to determine the dominant learning styles within a cohort of students. Knowing the students’ cognitive profile helped us adapt our teaching styles to achieve an optimal learner-centered classroom. We mainly focused on activities that would engage the majority of the students, to help facilitate the learning process and consequently, improve the students’ achievement. The effectiveness of this approach was quantitatively verified by assessing the students’ satisfaction with the learning process using traditional non-adaptive teaching process and adaptive teaching process with activities tailored towards the students’ learning styles.