A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

Coauthor Edwards has developed and delivered an undergraduate first year course in which students were encouraged to take more responsibility for their own learning. The techniques used included giving students responsibility for: 1 setting their own objectives, and working at their own pace 2 making self-assessments of their own work, and the marks to be awarded for it 3 arranging their own visits, individually or in small groups, to public or private organisations 4 liaising with external lecturers, and agreeing the content of their lectures with them 5 keeping their own diaries of work plans and achievements 6 arranging and moderating their own computer-based electronic conference. Coauthor Sutton was invited to be an external observer of the operation of the course. He met the students in large and small groups on several occasions; observed the processes involved in self-assessment; and used two questionnaires to help elicit the students' feelings about the course. This article discusses the course, its content, the learning methods used, the students' reactions, and the results obtained.