Student-Centered Learning (SCL)

Synopsis

SCL is also known as flexible learning, independent learning, open/distance learning, participative learning, or self-managed learning. It focuses on the student’s needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles, with the teacher acting as a facilitator of learning. It puts students first in the teaching and learning pedagogy. SCL requires that students be active, responsible participants in their own learning. Table below highlights some useful SCL activities.

Outside the classroom	In the classroom
Independent projects	Buzz groups (short discussion in twos)
Group discussion	Pyramids/Snowballing (buzz groups continuing the discussion into larger group)
Peer mentoring of other students	Crossovers (mixing students into groups by letter/ number allocations)
Debates	Rounds (giving turns to individual students to talk)
Field trips	Quizzes
Practicals	Writing reflections on learning (3–4 minutes)
Reflective diaries, learning journals	Student class presentations
Computer-assisted learning	Role playing
Projects	Poster presentations
Writing newspaper articles	Students producing mind maps in class
Portfolio development
PBL	PBL (less complex problems)
Case study	Case study (Simpler cases)
Modular approach

In addition to PBL, case study, and modular, PoPBL (Project-Based Problem-Based Learning) other SCL approaches should be taken into consideration.

Other SCL Approaches	Definition of terms
Collaborative	Working together to achieve a goal, but in its negative sense it is working as a traitor
Contextual	Relating to, dependent on, or using context (e.g., contextual criticism of a book)
Cooperative	A business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit
Constructivist	A theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas
Inductive	Of, pertaining to, or involving electrical or magnetic induction
Experiential	Pertaining to or derived from experience
Simulation	The imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process; the act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system