Student-centred learning is;
“a shift in responsibility from lecturer to student with the latter assuming greater ownership of their learning.” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014)
In my opinion, student-centred learning as described by McCabe and O’Connor (2014) is the essence of why students choose to study at higher educational level. The student is responsible for their own learning and development through attendance at lectures, tutorials and independent study. Students have selected to enrol on a programme; undergraduate, masters or PhD, in their own specific interest. There is no legal requirement to attend university as there is of primary education, but an assumption they will engage in independent learning through choice. However, through closer reading and PGCAP orientation, it is my role as a lecturer to assist the “shift in responsibility” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014), which can especially be a challenge to students who matriculate as school leavers. It is not enough to give all learning content on lecture slides, but a creation of “learning environments” (Biggs,2017) to allow students to take “ownership of the learning” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014). My interpretation of “ownership of learning” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014), is that students can establish their own effective studying/learning styles through a variety of teaching techniques introduced by the lecturer. Solely lecturing from slides alone will not inspire students to conduct their own further reading or interest.
As I have discussed previously, the BSc programme is predominantly set by the General Dental Council (GDC), this has often clouded my opinion that knowledge transmission via lecture is the only way to ensure that all content is successfully covered. If all content is on slides and discussed/delivered within a lecture, students will have all they require to succeed. This style of teaching has led to “conditioned success through mimicking and regurgitating” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014), which is often demonstrated by students learning lecture slides like theatrical scripts without ability to utilise the data in a problem-solving situation. By adopting a student-centred approach and creating a teaching space where students have the “freedom to make mistakes in a controlled environment” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014), I the lecturer, can aid and guide the discussion but allow students to “assume full responsibility for the construction of their knowledge”. (Elen, et al. 2007)
I share the transactional view as illustrated in Elen, et al.(2007) paper on “Student-centred and teacher centred learning environments: what students think”. As a lecturer and teacher my “responsibilities” aren’t decreased “but a continuous reassessment and reorientation of these responsibilities and tasks.”(Elen, et al. 2007) Movement away from traditional lecturing does not leave the lecturer without a purpose but an opportunity to adapt learning activities to suit the variety of student learning needs and promote deep understanding of concepts.
Integrating student-centred learning into the current programme
BSc OHS is a programme that lends well to a student-centred approach to teaching and learning. Lecturers from the 2014 study conducted by McCabe and O’Connor utilised group work, blended learning and peer teaching. Some of these techniques I currently use for teaching and subconsciously adopt the student-centred approach, but often revert to the didactic style when I struggle to think of innovative ways to teach a concept. However, from my reading I have realised the adopting a student-centred approach can be a straight forward as changing the layout of the teaching environment in terms of seating. (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014) I plan to make gradual changes to my teaching to move towards a student-centred approach as much as possible, for example recording excerpts of lectures for students to watch prior to a lecture/tutorial so that students have prior knowledge and will engage more in discussion than if the information has been delivered in that instant. I anticipate this will promote a “student-centred approach”, as students can elect to engage with video material prior to the tutorial, so that they have prior knowledge in preparation for in class discussion and clarification with the lecturer.
References
(2013) ‘Student-centred learning: the role and responsibility of the lecturer’, Teaching in Higher Education, 19(4), pp. 350-359. Available at: https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1080/13562517.2013.860111 (Accessed: May 2018).
Biggs, J (2017), ‘Aligning teaching for constructing learning’, The Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/id477_aligning_teaching_for_constructing_learning.pdf (Accessed: 06 Feb 2018).