Abstract
The purpose of this case study, of the undergraduate faculty at a private New
England college, is to understand if the faculty members embraced a theoretical
framework of employing principles of andragogy, constructivism and a learner-centered
approach. The problem that guided this case study is to find out to what extent college
faculty used a learner-centered teaching approach when teaching adult learners to meet
the demands of the 21st century. The methodology used for this descriptive case study
included the use of the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) survey instrument,
mean data supplied by the author of PALS, a faculty focus group, a student focus group
and data provided from the student evaluations of undergraduate faculty members
supplied by the research site. This case study answered the two research questions. The
first question, “To what extent do the undergraduate faculty members use a learnercentered
approach?” the answer is that it is within the norm established by the PALS
survey instrument. The second question “Do educators with educational methods courses
use a learner-centered teaching approach?” the answer is yes, and there is a statistically
significance between the educators that have and have not taken educational methods
courses. The teachers with educational methodology courses provide more individual
instruction than teachers who have not taken methodology courses. On the other hand,
teachers without educational methodology courses involve the students more in
developing the curriculum than those teachers that have taken educational methodology
courses.