Guideline Eleven | Responsibility

11. When students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, they are more likely to develop higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation and be better prepared for life long learning.

Placing learners at the heart of the learning process and meeting their needs, is taken to a progressive step in which learner-centred approaches mean that persons are able to learn what is relevant for them in ways that are appropriate. Waste in human and educational resources is reduced as it suggested learners no longer have to learn what they already know or can do, nor what they are uninterested in.” Edwards, R. (2001). Meeting individual learner needs: power, subject, subjection. In C. Paechter, M. Preedy, D. Scott, and J. Soler (Eds.), Knowledge, Power and Learning. London: SAGE.

The essential features of student-centred teaching are freedom of choice, students’ responsibility for their own learning and the creation of a supportive environment in which students can develop their potential. The role of the teacher is to guide and facilitate learning rather than to control it. The perspective provides a rationale for the use of problem-based learning, project-based learning and other enquiry-based methods of learning. It is argued that these characteristics promote lifelong learning.” How Students Learn. George Brown A supplement to the Routledge Falmer Key Guides for Effective Teaching in Higher Education series.

 

Toolkit Guideline 11

 

Online Resources

 Five Characteristics of Learner-Centered Teaching, Maryellen Weimer. link

Student-centred learning: What does it mean for students and lecturers? Geraldine O’Neill and Tim McMahon. University College Dublin. link

Classroom Activities: Simple Strategies to Incorporate Student-Centered Activities within Undergraduate Science Lectures. Barbar Lom. link