Student-Centred Learning

Leadership development has become an import aspect of the UAE's educational system. In recent years, UAE leaders have focused on the reform of higher education assessment, curriculum and administration with a view to encouraging Emirati students to contribute to the nation's growth as national human capital, through leadership roles where they will be guided and educated driving the needs of the knowledge economy. In many courses, students are more knowledge recipients than producers; they are considered cognitively active whilst physically inactive where learning is considered a passive process. BUSS301, a third-year undergraduate course taught to engineering students has undergone major revisions influenced by student evaluations on application, relevance and assessment. The earlier syllabus entitled Corporate Leadership and Human Resource Management (more theoretical and examination driven) has evolved to a more recent Enquiry Based approach: Teaching and Learning Leadership by Simulation and Theory where students are driving their own learning through inquiry using a project-based learning (PBL) approach.

(published in: SAGE, Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy 2014)

The American teacher Helen Parkhurst (1886-1973) developed at the beginning of the twentieth century the Dalton Plan to reform the then current pedagogics and the then usual manner of classroom management.

In the context of the decolonisation of the curriculum, it is essential to incorporate student voices in order to situate learning in an appropriate milieu. To this end, this chapter explores the affordances of open educational resources (OERs) and student-centred open pedagogy as resources that can be used for teacher education. It is also suggested that the decolonisation of the curriculum process be focused on students. This chapter involves a critical analysis of the pertinent literature on OERs and open pedagogy interpreted against the background of the scholarship on the decolonisation of the curriculum. The literature shows how the past has influenced the learning process. Consequently, the decolonisation of teacher education is essential, and OERs, as well as open pedagogy, provide avenues to address this issue. Open educational resources involve various types of resources, mostly online, with specific licencing that allows for adaptation and localisation. Therefore, using OERs with adequate licencing from international sources would allow South African lecturers to adapt such resources in order to adhere to the needs of a decolonised curriculum. Furthermore, in the spirit of open education, such revised resources can then be shared to the benefit of others in similar contexts as a form of demiurgic decolonisation. In addition, this chapter approaches open pedagogy as not only the practice of using OERs in teaching and learning but also a means of facilitating greater participation by students. In this regard, students can be empowered to utilise, and ultimately revise and create OERs within the context of communal constructivism. Finally, a framework is provided for practices with OERs and student-centred open pedagogy towards the decolonisation of teacher education in South Africa.

This article begins with general suggestions for developing students’ ability to find, evaluate and understand information online. Next, the article addresses the specific case of finding information on vegan nutrition. Three sources are recommended as quality sources of information on the nutritional needs of people pursuing vegan diets.

The increasing gap between the demand and supply of graduates with high-level qualifications, i.e. tertiary attainment levels, has been a central driver for curricular higher education reforms in Europe. In the last decade, the Bologna Process has established curricular reforms; however, progress toward the implementation of the pedagogical concept of student-centred learning in European higher education has been rather slow. This paper reviews the current educational policy context within which European higher education institutions operate. Societal developments and trends as well as curricular reform efforts to facilitate a paradigm and culture shift from teacher-centred learning to student-centred learning are discussed. The paper further outlines major obstacles from the perspectives of faculty and students that continue to hinder the successful and widespread implementation of a student-centred learning approach in higher education practice.

“My students don’t ‘get it’ ” ... “this fourth year student can’t apply basic theories” ... “the applicants for this engineering position don’t have the industry-related skills we need”. Complaints from university teachers and industry employers are well-documented. We present students with all the knowledge they need – why is it that so many of them don’t seem to end up with functional understanding of the subject? Globally in higher education, there has been a move away from accepting a ‘transmission’ style of education (the student is an empty vessel to be filled) to a ‘constructivist’ style – where the student is an active participant in development of knowledge and understanding in an ‘authentic’ (real-world) context. This is a challenge for subjects that are traditionally content-rich, and focused on examining knowledge acquisition rather than application of understanding. This paper explores recent learning theory and shows how understanding of learning styles and approaches can be applied to Materials Engineering education to support deeper learning, and promote the development of important graduate attributes such as self-directed learning, research and teamwork skills.

This article argues that peer learning, specifically Peer Assisted Study Sessions, supported by academic tutors, is a valuable part of the agenda to emphasise the social mission of higher education. This study draws on data collected at two time points from respondents who were trained as Peer Assisted Study Sessions leaders. The data reveal that peer learning interventions nurture specific proficiencies and attributes of the Citizen Scholar, particularly creativity and innovation, design thinking and resilience. This study focuses on how Peer Assisted Study Sessions leader respondents conceptualise and articulate their own learning, relating it to the development of these specific proficiencies and attributes. It also offers insight into how Peer Assisted Study Sessions leaders foster the skills of citizen scholarship for those participating in their sessions.

Among the discussion-content analytical tools in the field of e-learning research, the community of inquiry (CoI) model is extensively applied and continuously improved by its users. This model investigates the types of elements that are manifested through inquiry-based learning processes in online discussions. They are social, cognitive, teaching, and metacognitive presences. These elements are essential for meaningful student interactions to take place in online learning environments. Particularly, the metacognitive presence construct of the CoI model discovers the students’ ability of self and co-regulation of learning in an online learning environment. However, the metacognitive presence construct of the CoI model has not been evaluated along with the other components of the model. Therefore, in this paper the CoI model was re-evaluated to determine its reliability in analysing discussions in online courses on Information Technology related subjects. The evaluation was carried out on the basis of four online courses designed and developed for a distance learning programme in Sri Lanka. The paper discusses the modifications that were needed to make the model more applicable for conducting discussion-content analysis in similar types of online learning environments, and reports on the results of the final evaluation. The findings of the study imply that the theoretical framework of the CoI model needs to be improved to properly enclose the metacognitive presence component. In addition to that, the study adds points to the CoI model supporting for its well applicability and reliability in analysing online discussion content in Information Technology related courses.

With this chapter, I contribute to the book on LEARNING-CENTRED CURRICULUM DESIGN IN HIGHER EDUCATION by providing guidelines on designing a more learning-centred curriculum through contextualisation and adapted teaching methods. The focus is specifically on the Arts (drama, music and visual arts) curriculum for generalist Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) Foundation Phase (FP) pre-service teachers. This course is aimed at teachers of 5 to 9 year olds. Dance (creative movement) as valuable part of the Arts was excluded from this chapter due to it not being offered as part of the Arts module but rather as a section under Physical Education where there is more time available.
In this chapter I define a learning-centred curriculum as being one where deep learning takes place through active student involvement that is followed by reflection, abstract conceptualisation through theory and then a return to the initial activity with renewed knowledge (Mayer, 2004; Fry, 1979). Conditions for deep learning start with “an intention to understand the material being studied” Gordon 2002:484). Once students have the ‘intention to understand’, one can progress and move onto developing Hermida’s (2014) higher-order cognitive skills (analysing, synthesizing, problem solving), which will ensure retention of knowledge which can then in turn be utilized in new learning situations.
I focus on student learning in the Arts module where new skills have to be obtained and retained in a time restricted program. Unlike content matter of many other subjects, Arts cannot easily be acquired through reading and learning about it. An effective learning-centred curriculum has to be in place to ensure that practical work is followed by reflection (lecturer and students) and abstract conceptualisation before returning to further teaching to ensure that students go through a process of deep learning to build confidence for future teaching.
Lecturers in the Arts have a dual task - they do not only teach theoretical knowledge that students can also acquire on their own through reading - they have the added task of teaching artistic skills in various art forms. These artistic skills, like playing a music instrument and mastering a paint or drama technique are traditionally acquired over many years of practise, yet in the B.Ed curriculum for Foundation Phase it must be taught in a few weeks.
I share insights gained from the literature regarding curriculum development, contextualisation and learning-centred teaching methods. I also provide the framework I used for developing an Arts curriculum for B.Ed Foundation Phase teachers (Grade R to 4) and indicate how learning-centeredness and contextualisation was approached. As a segment of contextualisation I touch on the meaning of decolonisation in an Arts curriculum in an attempt to address the issues currently plaguing Higher Education in South Africa where students are calling for a move towards an African-centred curriculum rather than focussing on global education. Furthermore I discuss the way I adapted my teaching methods to be more learning-centred. 
By comparing some sections of the newly adapted curriculum with the original curriculum, I provide a glimpse into the subtle changes that sometimes need to be made to improve learning.
The main challenges in the Arts curriculum for B.Ed Foundation Phase students that motivated the reworking of the curriculum are discussed. These challenges are predominantly caused by students’ lack of prior knowledge, untrained role models, unsuitable teaching spaces, time limitations in the curriculum and contextual inappropriateness.
As shown in the central model above, I position my chapter in section 2 of the book, because my focus is firstly on how students learn and secondly, on what I designed to ensure a contextualized and a learning-centred curriculum. I argue that the curriculum should be designed as a learning-centred action plan, because student learning is individually contextualised. This is something we will come back to in much more detail.

Reading this chapter, you should gain at least three insights:
1. The framework needed for a contextualised Arts curriculum;
2. How to build in teaching methods that promote learning-centeredness;
3. A comparison of the previous curriculum to the new contextualised, learning –centred curriculum.

I will firstly give a background to the events and challenges that led to the redesign of the B.Ed Foundation Phase curriculum at the University of Mpumalanga where I am employed. This will be followed by a section on suitable frameworks exploring learning, learning-centeredness and contextualisation. The final part provides insight into how the changes were made through addressing the challenges and restructuring the curriculum to meet the needs of being learning-centred and contextualised.

Learner-centred education (LCE), or student-centred learning as it is often referred to in the higher education context, is a pedagogical approach that emphasises the following: active learning; increased responsibility of the learner for the content of their learning, and also for how they learn; and greater collaboration/interdependence between the teacher and students (O’Neill & McMahon, 2005). In this book, the author explores the concept of LCE and its potential as a pedagogical approach in a range of different international contexts. Although, the main focus of the book is on the implementation of LCE in school settings, the informative discussion of both the theoretical and practical implementation of LCE, and the well considered insights into implementing learning and teaching in different international contexts, offer many relevant insights for academic developers working in universities and colleges.

Employability has been put into focus of educational developments by governments, policymakers and other stakeholders since the beginning of the Bologna process. This often met with strong negative reactions coming from academics and students. Keeping academic values at the core of education is opposed to transforming higher education institutes purely into agents for economic development. At the same time students do strive for employment after graduation, and preferably meaningful employment.

Many online programs at the university level are implemented through trial and error, replicating the same kinds of “traditional methods” used in face-to-face or on-campus courses. Thus, there is a need to consider how contemporary learning objectives can be best achieved through online courses. This presentation reports on a study examining the effects of a course redesign of a course in an online graduate program at a Colombian university. Chosen for redesign was a pre-existing course that largely reproduced traditional lecture-based teaching approaches with a lack of supporting audio-visual materials and a severely limited amount of student-professor contact time. The course was completely refashioned to produce “outside-in” learning, replacing lecture-oriented classroom approaches with a with the objective of producing an inclusive, student-driven, multi-modal model appropriate to 21st-century learning needs, better supported with audio-visual materials for input and feedback to maximize student-professor contact time. The redesigned course was tested over a period of one semester with 10 participants: 8 students and two instructors. Data were collected from student artifacts, surveys, and interviews and analyzed to assess the effects on student performance as well as both student and instructor perceptions. Results suggest appropriate online course design can have a positive effect on learning outcomes. At the same time, genuinely student-driven pedagogical approaches that both promote and expect agency can discomfit students who are themselves long-accustomed to “traditional” models that place fewer demands on them. This suggests a need for further research on ways to adjust attitudes and expectations amongst adult online learners.