21st Century Strands & Strategies
Chapter: Strands & Strategies: Deep Dive
27
Student
Centered
Instruction
Strategies
Inquiry-Based
Learning
Project-Based
Learning
Problem-Based
Learning
Cooperative
Learning
Flipped Instruction
Blended Learning
Student Centered Instruction Strand
Student Centered Instruction is the intentional integration
of innovative pedagogy which promotes inquiry-based
learning through the effective use of differentiation
strategies and technology to engage and empower
learners. Inquiry-based learning is inherent in all of the
student centered strategies. In real inquiry, students
follow a trail with their own questions that leads to a
search for resources and the discovery of answers which
ultimately leads to generating new questions, testing
ideas, and drawing their own conclusions. Real
innovation is the drive for answers, new products, and
solutions to problems.
Big Ideas
“The tenets of a student-centered approach are:
•
Focus on active rather than passive learning,
•
Emphasis on deep learning and understanding,
•
Increase responsibility and accountability on the part of the student,
•
Increase sense of autonomy in the learner,
•
Increase interdependence between teacher and learner,
•
Develop mutual respect within the learner teacher relationship, and
•
Focus on a reflexive approach to the teaching and learning process on the part
of both teacher and learner.”
Source: Lea, S. J., D. Stephenson, and J. Troy (2003). Higher Education Students’ Attitudes to
Student Centered Learning: Beyond ‘educational bulimia’. Studies in Higher Education 28(3),
321-334.
