Important Topics:
Student Learning
Student-centered learning is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than
those of others involved in the educational process. This approach has many implications for the design
of curriculum, course content, and interactivity of courses. A student-centered course may address the
needs of a student audience to learn how to solve some job-related problems using aspects of
mathematics. In contrast, a course focused on learning mathematics might choose areas of mathematics
to cover and methods of teaching which the student would consider irrelevant.
Student-centered learning is in stark contrast to teacher-centered learning. Student-centered learning is
focused on the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of
learning. This classroom teaching method acknowledges student voice as central to the learning
experience for every learner. Teacher-centered learning has the teacher at it’s' center in an active role
and students in a passive, receptive role. Student-centered learning requires students to be active,
responsible participants in their own learning.
Background
Traditionally, teachers were at the center of learning with students assuming a receptive role in their
education. With research showing how people learn, traditional curriculum approaches to instruction
where teachers were at the center gave way to new ways of teaching and learning. Key amongst these
changes is the idea that students actively construct their own learning (known as constructivism
(learning theory)). Student centered-learning means reversing the traditional teacher-centered
understanding the learning process and putting students at the center of the learning process. Students
learn best by experiencing the learning and being in control of it.
Characteristics of Student-centered learning
 Students are active participants in their learning
 Students make decisions about what they will learn and how
 Students construct new knowledge and skills by building on their current knowledge and skills
 Students understand expectations and are encouraged to use self-assessment measures
 Students work in collaboration with other learners and demonstrates authentic learning
 Teachers recognize different learning styles
 Teachers help students work through difficulties by asking open-ended questions to guide the
student so that they arrive at a conclusion or solution that is satisfactory to them
 Learning is an active search for meaning by the learner;-constructing knowledge rather than
passively receiving it, shaping as well as being shaped by experiences
 Students monitor their own learning, to understand how knowledge is acquired, and to develop
strategies for learning
 Students are intrinsically motivated to reach goals they have set for themselves
 Students make decisions about group membership; who they will work with and how
 To implement a student-centered learning environment, attention must be given to the
following aspects of learning:
 The goal of student activity
 The role of the teacher
 Student's motivational orientation
Student Money Management Center | 237 Nebraska Union | Lincoln, NE | 68588-0461
http://www.unl.edu/smmc | smmc@unl.edu | 402-472-9093
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Important Topics:
Student Learning
Assessment
Student interaction
Because much of the power resides with students, teachers must realize that they are collaborators in
learning. This is a role teachers must be comfortable with if they are to successfully implement a
student-centered learning environment. A successful student-centered learning environment will be
open, dynamic, trusting, respectful, and promoting the natural desire and curiosity to learn. Students
will collaborate on meaningful, authentic problems, which serve to further their understandings of the
subject matter and themselves. This experiential learning involves the whole person; their feelings,
thinking, goals, social skills, and intuition. The result is a person who is empowered to be a lifelong
learner; a student who embraces their own abilities and is accepting of others.
Student Money Management Center | 237 Nebraska Union | Lincoln, NE | 68588-0461
http://www.unl.edu/smmc | smmc@unl.edu | 402-472-9093
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