Being subject-centred: A philosophy of teaching and implications for higher education

Being subject-centred as a higher education teacher offers a rich and illuminating philosophical and practical understanding of learning. Building upon previous research on subject-centred learning, we draw on reflection, literature review and a phenomenological approach to show how our ways of being infuse the teaching and learning environment. Philosophically, it is our way of being with our subject as teachers that influences the learning within our students. We show how posing the question: 'What is the best way to teach this subject?' helps a teacher find the best way to enhance the learning experience. It entails moving away from reliance solely on approaches that simply 're-present' content, such as lectures and online learning management systems, to interactive classrooms where space is created for the students to enter into their own engagement with the subject in a shared pursuit with the teacher, resulting in more effective teaching and learning. We illustrate this with personal accounts of our own journeys as teachers. We acknowledge that it takes courage to teach and to fully be subject-centred in the face of prevailing trends and pressures for other ways of teaching currently prominent in the higher education sector. But, ultimately, it is who we are as teachers that matters most, and being subject-centred provides the most effective way for us to most meaningfully reach our students

Student-centred schools make the difference

The primary focus of this review is on how school leaders can develop and sustain a student-centred philosophy at all levels within their schools in order to increase the quality of education for all students. The authors draw on research literature from Australia and internationally to examine the impact that student-centred education can have on student outcomes, particularly for those students in disadvantaged contexts. The review initially explores the concept of student-centred schools and how this notion is nested within a range of theoretical and philosophical constructs. The authors draw from research into student-centred pedagogy, learner-centred education, student-centred teaching and learning, and student-centred/ learner-centred leadership to provide a description of a student-centred school. They then consider models of leading student-centred schools, drawing from AITSL’s Australian Professional Standard for Principals and looking at the large-scale student-centred reforms in Ontario, Canada. The authors use Viviane Robinson’s five dimensions of school leadership that impact on student outcomes: 1) Establishing goals and expectations, 2) Resourcing strategically, 3) Ensuring quality teaching, 4) Leading teacher learning and development, and 5) Ensuring a safe and orderly environment.  They then extend this framework to include three additional dimensions of student-centred schooling that emerged from the literature: a) Working with the wider community, b) Ethical Leadership, and c) Student voice. This report offers a critical review of literature to address the hypothesis that student-centred schools make the difference

The Teacher: another Variable in the Use of Foreign Language Learning Strategies?

The Bologna process aims to create the European Higher Education Framework (EHEF) by making academic degree and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. The EHEF has different implications for university students, representing a change in emphasis from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’, from a teacher-centred approach to a student-centred approach. In the last thirty years, researchers have discussed the role of teachers and students in the language learning-teaching process. Until then, the acquisition of a foreign language was focused on the teacher’s methodology. In the 80s and 90s, a series of student-centred approaches emerged, with the aim of making students more autonomous and independent in their learning. Language learning strategies are part of the tools used to improve language learning. There are different definitions and taxonomies of language learning strategies (Chamot (2001), Cohen (1998), Oxford (1990), O'Malley (1990) and Wenden & Rubin (1987) and there have been extensive descriptive studies on the different variables affecting the use of learning strategies including gender, previous linguistic knowledge, motivation, learning styles and/or second language versus foreign language acquisition. This paper aims to explore the instructor’s conscious or unconscious influence students’ use of learning strategies. To undertake this study, a group of teachers was asked to assess the 50 strategies presented in an adapted version of the Strategies Inventory Language Learning (Oxford 1990) according to their suitability and practicality for their students. The participants were lecturers from the French and English Department at Cádiz University. The languages included in the study were English, French and German for specific and general purposes

New models for learning flexibility: negotiated choices for both academics and students

‘Flexible learning’ represents a need associated with ‘lifelong learning’ and the equipping of graduates to actively engage in a ‘knowledge society’. While the precise meaning of each of these terms is not easy to discern, notions of flexible learning have progressed an evolutionary path that concentrates on students as though they are the only stakeholder group in the higher education environment that would benefit from choice. Academic discourse also presumes that all cultural groups making up the increasingly diverse student population aspire to engage in student-centred learning as a precursor to involvement in a knowledge economy. In this environment academics have been encouraged to embrace on-line teaching and promote a more student-centred learning approach when the natural inclination and talent of many academics may make this style of pedagogy so challenging that learning outcomes are compromised. We question this ‘one size fits all’ mentality and suggest a model that empowers both the students and academics by allowing them the ability to choose the approach that suits their educational philosophy and preferred learning/teaching approach. The model represents an innovation in flexibility that recognises initial embedded learning foundation abilities and reaches both teachers and learners by utilizing their own frames of reference

Understanding the Impact of Technology: Learner and School Level Factors

The first part of this report focuses on the factors impacting on learner performance in national tests at primary and secondary level. This was the central research question of this research. The second section focuses on teacher and learner perceptions of their own responses to learning and the learning environment. This was centred on, but not confined to, their school. The institutional structures record the level of development of the schools sampled here and investigate the use of two key technologies – interactive whiteboards and learning platform

Experiences of early adopters in changing their thinking regarding teaching practices for the online environment in a New Zealand university : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education at Massey University

The aim of this thesis was to investigate how early adopters changed their thinking regarding teaching practices for the online environment. The study investigated how early adopters adapted and developed their classroom based teaching practices for the online environment, the effect of online teaching practices on their students' learning, and the types of professional development lecturers engaged in to learn about online teaching practices. A mainly qualitative approach, within a case study method, was used to undertake the research in a medium sized, New Zealand university, where the researcher is an academic developer in the centralised professional development unit, jointly responsible for supporting staff in online teaching practices. Written informed consent was obtained from lecturers participating in this study. A mail-in survey, individual interviews and online course observations were used to gather data for the research questions. This is a limited case study owing to the small size of the sample. The study concluded that early adopters changed their thinking about teaching practices over time, adapting and developing student-centred approaches to learning for the online environment. The study found that early adopters' perceptions of student learning was of a higher quality online, than in the classroom, owing to student learning approaches being deeper, more interactive and collaborative. Finally, the study showed that a majority of early adopters did not engage in research based professional development activities, which made changing their thinking from teacher-centred to student-centred online teaching practices, difficult and stressful

Developing Learning-Centred Classrooms and Schools

This chapter examines the issues and processes in developing more explicit focus on learning in classrooms and schools. It brings together the author’s experience of development projects in England and international research. It starts by examining the major forces which have kept classrooms teacher-centred for 5,000 years, moves on to suggest some important starting points for the journey from teacher-centred to learner-centred classrooms, and then identifies the sort of language for learning which will go on to develop learning-centred classrooms. Also considered are the ways in which teachers can be learners themselves, and how the culture of a learning-centred school is created and maintained. Positive effects on pupils’ engagement, motivation and attainment are summarised. 36 references

Collaborative Student Centred Learning: Intellectual Property for Product Designers

This paper fits into the topics of student centred learning and learning spaces and explores the question - How will the academic/industrial interface develop? At least a basic understanding of intellectual property (IP) rights is essential for practice as a professional engineer and/or designer to ensure commercial success. Yet it is recognised that there are barriers to incorporating learning and teaching of IP within the Higher Education design and engineering curriculum. These barriers include an already ‘over-packed’ curriculum and no established pedagogy. This paper reports on an example of collaborative student centred learning activity between BA/BSc Product Design (PD) and LLB Law (Intellectual Property Practice option) (LLB) final year students at Bournemouth University (BU). The final year product design students are required to design and produce a working prototype of a marketable product. The LLB students advise on the intellectual property aspects of the design. This learning activity has been ongoing for a number of years, however, last academic year changes were made to incorporate an assessed element for both sets of students and make the learning space almost entirely virtual using the BU virtual learning environment (VLE) called myBU. It is the outcome of these changes that are reported in this paper, using data gathered from the on-line discussion forums and the feedback from students. The activity has proved to be an extremely valuable learning experience for both sets of students, providing simulation of real life for both designers and IP lawyers and bridging the academic/industrial interface

Pedagogy and new power relationships

Changes in the context of Higher Education have led to lecturers being disenfranchised. Both the introduction of new managerialism and developments in pedagogy have contributed to this process. On the one hand, performance management and the introduction of teaching and learning strategies have put issues of pedagogy and curriculum development into the realms of strategic management. On the other, student-centred learning has usurped teacher-centred models of education. In this paper, reviews of both of these trends are presented. Based on these, a benchmarking tool has been developed which enables the identification and monitoring of the way that the locus of control for various teaching-related activities has changed. This tool is then applied to the case of an MBA course that was transformed from a traditional to a distance format. The issues that arise from this case are discussed, and conclusions are drawn about the potential implications of “creeping managerialism ” in the context of Higher Education

What should we do with Jack-in-the-box? Anticipating surprises in mobile learning

Today's learners are the owners of multifunctional phones and other lightweight portable devices that many of them carry around wherever they go. Equipped with connected digital devices that make learning readily accessible 'anytime, anywhere', learners appear to be moving to a position of power with regard to their ability to influence how and where learning happens and even its content and form. The technologies are precipitating a shift from teacher-centred towards learner-centred education. However, the majority of teachers and learners are unprepared. There is anticipation of exciting opportunities, but also fear of what might happen. It is also becoming obvious that established methods of researching technology-enhanced learning do not transfer readily to mobile learning research. Projects report that learners behave in unexpected ways; context of use, mode of use, and learning process have all been described as 'unpredictable'. Our aim is to examine the implications of new manifestations of mobile learning for both teaching and research. Drawing on teaching experiences and research projects at The Open University and elsewhere, the paper identifies and illustrates the 'surprise' elements of mobile learning. The image of a 'Jack-in-the-box' toy is used here to symbolise both the playful and potentially unsettling aspects of mobile learning. Anticipating surprises means expecting and welcoming them, being happy when they occur, and being able to accommodate them in our plans