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Student Centred Learning Internet Links

Student Centred Learning (Intrinsic Motivation)

A Child-Centered Curriculum
Check out the "Educational Philosophy" section.  There is a good article entitled "A Child-Centered Philosophy of Teaching and Learning: The Child as the Center of Curriculum"

Creating Tomorrow’s Learner-Centered Environments—Today!
Part of the Adult Learning Service Online - An interactive conference via satellite for higher education leaders who are planning the facilities, infrastructures, programs, relationships ...of tomorrow’s learning!

Creative Learning Exchange
The Creative Learning Exchange encourages a view of education for primary and secondary schools based on discovery as the essence of the learning process. This view advocates systems education implemented through learner-centered learning.

Culture of a Student-Centered Learning Environment
Colorado University present a great description of a SCL culture.

Excerpts from The Learner-Centered Classroom and School: Strategies for Increasing Student Motivation and Achievement
From a book on SCL.

Funderstanding - Learning Theories
We've broken down this section on theories into the following five categories:

GLEF.org - George Lucas Educational Foundation
An extensive site with a range of resources - looking at moving teaching into the 21st Century.

Human Centred Technology
Includes information about SCL - focus is on implementing and designing technology.

Improving learning and teaching from a learner-centred approach
An article from the University of Guelph.

Information Skills for Student Centred Learning
An overview of a Research Project funded by the British Library.

In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms
In Search of Understanding--The Case for Constructivist Classrooms is an important book for Expeditionary Learning. It offers practical help and conceptual guidance in probing a simple proposition: we construct our own understandings of the world in which we live.

Learner-Centered Classrooms, Problem-Based Learning, and the Construction of Understanding and Meaning by Students
Part of a site on science education.

LEARNER-CENTERED EDUCATION
(Special Note: This paper is a draft of the preface to an upcoming special issue of the 'Communications of the ACM' devoted to learner-centered education. It includes references to specific papers that will be contained in the issue.)

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles: Guidelines for School Redesign and Reform
Produced in conjunction with the American Psychological Association.  Written in non-technical language, this document outlines twelve psychological principles that can provide the foundation for improving the quality of teaching and learning in America's schools.

Learner Centred Language Instruction: Best Practice
The aim of the paper is to propose an approach to second language teaching and learning that would satisfy second language learners and facilitate their learning process. From the University of Western Australia.

Learner centredness: opportunity and necessity
An article from the University of Guelph.

Learner centredness and the learning objectives
An article from the University of Guelph.

Learner centredness and the learning objectives: A response
An article from the University of Guelph.

More Than 50 Ways to Learner-Centered Literacy
Basically a book review about adopting a student centred approach.

Phi Delta Kappa Int'l
Some book reviews on SCL topics.

PROJECT EMPOWER
Welcome to Project Empower. The Commonwealth College seeks to make learner-centered instruction the norm in all its undergraduate programs. Project Empower has been conceived to quickly bring as many Commonwealth College faculty as possible into the learner-centered paradigm.

Self-Directed Learning Home Page
The initial development of these pages has been aimed primarily at those interested in the advancement of the knowledge base associated with self-directed learning.

Society for Effective Affective Learning
Welcome to the SEAL site. We are a UK-based global association of people interested in the dynamics of learning, with an active membership in over 40 countries. We are also a community of individuals committed to the spread of ideas through their practical implementation.

Some Realities of a Student Centred Approach to Teaching
A collection of resources from New Zealand.

STEPS TOWARD BECOMING A SELF-DIRECTED LEARNER
An excerpt from a paper by a teaching professor.

Structuring Schools to Support Learner-Centered Classrooms
The Massachusetts Education Reform Restructuring Network (ERRN) comprises various school restructuring projects, and is a key vehicle for schools as they implement Education Reform, including the Common Core of Learning and Curriculum Frameworks.

Student-Centered Classrooms (or Families of Education)
A short paper by Christopher Bradbury.

Student-centred learning in Asian Studies
The CAUT (Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching/ National Teaching Development Grant) project was awarded to the Centre for Asian Studies in 1995 to carry out a research project entitled 'Student-centred Learning in Asian Studies.'

Student-Centered Learning
An article about a Student Centred approach to Electronic, Multimedia and Communication.

Student Centred Writing programme
From the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Students Can Learn on Their Own
Section I below makes suggestions about how teachers can best manage students' independent work. Section II provides lists of available independent-learning materials K-12. Section III is a list of the publishers referred in Section II.

Teaching for Effective Learning:  A Paper for Discussion and Development
Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum site.  Seems to be heavily influenced by Donna Brandes and Paul Ginnis.

The Empty Centre: Does Student-Centred Learning Imply Abdication Or Role. Redefinition For Educators?
An article from Curtin University.

The Global Classroom
Teaching in the 3rd millennium.  A hyper-media resource produced by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

The NCREST Network: supporting the development of learner-centered schools
NCREST is developing an electronic network to facilitate the work of its Intentional Networks and to connect the knowledge and resources of the Affiliates.

The Transference Relation in Teaching
A substantial academic document that references the SCL guide by Donna Brandes and Paul Ginnis.

Transforming the learning environment
Part of the IBM Higher Education site.  Other articles linked to this one.

Visioning about Technology & Learning
Some familiar SCL ideas, with a focus on the use of technology.

What is Student Centered Learning?
Some indicators of an effective SCL environment.

What does `learner centred' mean?
An article from the University of Guelph.

What is learner-centered?
A definition.

Intrinsic Motivation

Learning and Student Motivation
We can assist this faculty member by pointing her to the rich literature of psychological studies on motivation and human learning, most of which–although the actual language may vary–contrast extrinsic motivation (performing for a grade) with intrinsic motivation (developing an internalized interest in the subject matter).  Many of the studies below chart experiments which tested the relationship between motivation orientation (extrinsic or intrinsic) and performance, and many of them offer practical suggestions for helping our students develop an intrinsic interest in–and hence an intrinsic motivation for studying–our subject matter.

STUDIES FIND REWARD OFTEN NO MOTIVATOR
Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain
By Alfie Kohn
(from the Monday 19 January 1987 Boston Globe) 

MOTIVATION
Impacting motivation in the classroom
There are a variety of specific actions that teachers can take to increase motivation on classroom tasks. In general, these fall into the two categories: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
 
 Intrinsic
  • Explain or show why learning a particular content or skill is important 
  • Create and/or maintain curiosity 
  • Provide a variety of activities and sensory stimulations 
  • Provide games and simulations 
  • Set goals for learning 
  • Relate learning to student needs 
  • Help student develop plan of action 
  Extrinsic
  • Provide clear expectations 
  • Give corrective feedback 
  • Provide valuable rewards 
  • Make rewards available 

As a general rule, teachers need to use as much of the intrinsic suggestions as possible while recognising that not all students will be appropriately motivated by them. The extrinsic suggestions will work, but it must be remembered that they do so only as long as the student is under the control of the teacher. When outside of that control, unless the desired goals and behaviors have been internalised, the learner will cease the desired behavior and operate according to his or her internal standards or to other external factors.

Cognitive Functioning
An article by A. Bandura - largely examining th e concept of self-efficacy, closely related to issues of intrinsic motivation.

Exemplars

Accelerating the Adoption of A Student Centered Campus
An article from the University of Colorado.

Belmont Senior High School
A Western Australian school that has implemented SCL across the campus.

Faculty of the Constructed Environment (RMIT)
An overview of the SCL approach adopted by this department.

Foothills School
A Western Australian school that found its way in SCL.

Hoboken Charter School - Learner-centred education
A statement of the Student centred approach from this American school.

River Valley High School
An American high school with a vision to student centredness.

State of Hawaii - Act 272 - Student-Centered Schools
A summary of some very forward-thinking legislation.

Student Centered Learning
A collection of papers and presentations compiled by John Buchanan - Management Systems.

Student Centred Learning in a Large First Year Management Class: History,Reflections and Future Direction
An extensive report about a SCL project from New Zealand.

Structuring Schools to Support Learner-Centered Classrooms
The Massachusetts Education Reform Restructuring Network (ERRN) comprises various school restructuring projects, and is a key vehicle for schools as they implement Education Reform, including the Common Core of Learning and Curriculum Frameworks.

Student Centered Learning in a Special Education Environment
One teacher's experiences in New York.

Teacher Power: DESIGNING A STUDENT-CENTERED SCHOOL
Imagine a school with no separate subject disciplines, no grades, no credits, no Carnegie units. This is University Heights High School on the campus of Bronx Community College, an alternative school for 400 students.

Union Elementary School Web Site
Another US school advocating SCL

Waialae Elementary School
The Student-Centered School legislation in the 1994 Educational Omnibus Bill has provided Waialae with a new opportunity to develop innovative frameworks for transforming the classrooms into places that produce authentic student achievements. The school community takes on the responsibility as a Student-Centered School with a renewed sense of mission to the goals of public education and quality educational experiences for all children. We invite you to be a part of our journey.

Detractions and Objections

The Fraud at the Heart of Schooling Failure
I suppose every movement needs its detractors and I guess all voices need to be heard, in that light I include this link.

Outcome Based Education
Don Closson (Probe Ministries)
Claims that "Christians see human nature as fixed and unchanging" and somehow OBE is going to lead our students to "violate the moral or religious views of parents".  It also claims that OBE has no subject content in a curriculum.

The Specter of Educational "Reform"
An amazing array of articles and commentary on what's wrong with educational change occurring around the globe - but mainly in the US.  Worth a look, you're bound to encounter some of these arguments in time.

What is Outcome Based Education (OBE): A WHITE KNIGHT TO THE RESCUE OR A DISASTER IN THE MAKING?
An article that is aimed firmly at debunking OBE - but it also seems to criticise shifts towards student centredness and asserts teacher as "the expert".

Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education
A group of Cognitive Psychologists critically analyse "situated learning" and "constructivism" as they see it applied in the educational setting.