STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING

A new teaching initiative at OSU, Student Centered Learning (SCL), has been incorporated into the floriculture production class. The premise of SCL is that students become actively involved in all aspects of the class from the beginning, and in the process learn better. The class was first taught in this manner in winter quarter '97.

Students helped determine which crops to study (we can't do all the 100's available in 10 weeks), decided how grading should be done (they were tougher than I might have been), and wrote the code of conduct for the class. In return for the right to be involved in these decisions, they assumed the responsibility of gathering information on some of the selected crops and presented the information to the class. As the instructor, I presented the information on poinsettia, potted mums and Easter lily to demonstrate what kind of information would be necessary. The students took it from there. The crops they selected as a group turned out to be very similar to the ones I would have taught. The selection was done by letting each student list every crop they were interested in. They were provided trade journals to help them think of crops. Of the over 200 individual crops named, the10 most frequently requested crops were chosen to be studied. These included bedding plants, including perennials, hydroponics (both the system in general and tomatoes as the model crop), New Guinea Impatiens, cyclamen, begonias (tuberous, semperflorens, and Reiger), geraniums (seed, cutting, ivy, and Martha Washington), cut roses (the students used the information given by their peers on hydroponics when discussing the new cultural techniqures) and others.

The 17 students worked as teams of 3 or 4 and grading was based on both individual and team performance. The students evaluated their own team members for the team portion. In the process, they learned team and management skills but more importantly they learned how to gather cultural information from a wide variety of sources, decided how to deal with contradictory information , and assimilated it into a presentation. They prepared growing guides for their classmates to use in future jobs. The pressure was intense and real to do a thorough job. Their friends were depending on them.

As an instructor, I was very impressed with the quality and thoroughness of each of the presentations. I was prepared to have to correct misconceptions and misinformation, but that never happened. My role became that of adding cutting edge information of research that is being done at OSU or elsewhere on the crops studied.

The class was taught in two 3 hour blocks of time to allow for discussion. Often the discussions were so animated that students opted to not take a 5 minute break each hour so they could continue uninterrupted. The 3 hr. block of time also allowed integration of the lab exercises in the greenhouse to be incorporated into the class very smoothly. When it was appropriate to be in the greenhouse, we could go there and not have to wait for a designated lab period. It made coordinating labs with lectures and presentations much easier.