Definitions & Understandings

"I know I can not teach anyone anything, I can only provide an environment in which he can learn."

Carl Rogers.

 

Reinventing Practice

Student Centred Learning

QSITE Professional Development Program
2000


Your Facilitators :Sarah Cole, Debbie Kember

 

 Student centred learning places emphasis on students' needs and expectations. Traditional classrooms focus students  attention on the teacher who delivers content from the front of the room for long periods of time. Such approaches and associated with students as 'empty vessels needing to be filled with facts and figures', passive learning and compartmentalised knowledge that students have difficulty applying to other areas of study. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this style of approach contributes nothing to life long learning and hastens the urge to end formal education.

In contrast learning experiences designed to actively involve students in the development of knowledge and cognitive skills have the potential to make learning a more enjoyable task for students and provide the opportunity for teachers to interact with students on an individual basis.

 

The transition from a traditional approach to a student centred model requires teachers' to refocus their classroom practices. For students the transition requires guidance as they may well have been comfortable making minimal contributions to the learning process. Some may lack the maturity, self-discipline and cognitive skills to be independent learners. A developmental approach is needed to successfully implement active learning strategies.

Student-centred learning environments involve students':

  • actively participating in learning
  • building on previous learning
  • developing the desire and skills to continue learning
  • taking responsibility for  learning  
  • socially constructing knowledge through higher order thinking skills.

Teachers using this strategy recognise the diversity of prior knowledge and varying styles of learning new material. With this in mind we have chosen to focus on Howard Gardener's Multiple theory as a means of developing student centred learning environments.   We do not see it as the only model for developing students centred learning environments however it is one which is worth consideration and debate. 

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence was first published in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences [Basic Books]), in 1983, when Gardner was brave enough to challenge the notion that there is only one way to measure intelligence and that intelligence relates solely to mathematical and linguistic concepts.  Gardner first discussed the possibility of there being 7 intelligences:

  • Logical/Mathematical, the ability to think sequentially and logically to solve problems;

  • Verbal/Linguistic, the ability to communicate ideas to others through language;

  • Body/Kinesthetic, the ability to learn through movement and to excel in physical activities;

  • Musical/Rhythmic, the ability to remember tunes, develop rhythms and melodies and communicate feelings through music;

  • Visual/Spatial, the ability to communicate feeling through and interpret meaning in pictures;

  • Interpersonal, the ability to work co-operatively on tasks as a useful member of a group;

  • Intrapersonal, the intuitive person who is able to reflect on their own experiences and abilities to solve a problem.

Gardner later added an eighth intelligence–

  • Naturalist, the ability to recognise and classify objects and features into appropriate categories.

 

Return to Student Centred Learning HomePage

Return to Reinventing Practice HomePage


Copyright QSITE 2000
Page maintained by Deborah Kember
Last updated: September 26 2000