Is student-centred learning a Western concept? Lessons from an academic development programme to support student-centred learning in Iraq

Jordan, Lynette; Bovill, Catherine; Othman, Samir M.; Saleh, Abubakir; Shabila, Nazar P.; Watters, Natalie

doi:10.1080/13562517.2013.827649

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Content and language learning need to be integrated. Considering that none of the teaching staff are Western and the number of lecturers in level 3 or higher increased from 11 to 32, we concur with Jordan et al (2014) that taking a student-centred approach focusing on the learning process is not inherently a Western concept. What distinguishes level 4 is that the teaching and learning activities are fully aligned with the intended learning outcomes of the programme level taught (Biggs & Tang, 2011); the extent to which it is student-centred; the ability of lecturers to reflect on their own performance and on feedback from external sources, and to transform this into practice (Postareff et al, 2007); and explicitly supporting students in understanding assessment verbs.…”

Section: Teaching Practice Tablesupporting

confidence: 67%

Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

Lamers

Admiraal

2017

International Journal for Academic Development

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This paper investigates the development of teaching practice of the multinational staff delivering UK programmes in a higher education institution in Oman hosting these programmes. It presents a tool to evaluate the teaching practice, and points to those elements of an academic development framework that were found to be most useful in supporting staff in moving towards a student-centred, learningfocused teaching approach. The majority of the lecturers made this shift. We therefore conclude by arguing for long-term CPD aimed at enhancing teaching quality to be part and parcel of a partnership.

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Section: Teaching Practice Tablesupporting

confidence: 67%

Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

Lamers

Admiraal

2017

International Journal for Academic Development

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“…The troublesome nature of threshold concepts such as SCL may make it more likely that staff in some countries would prefer to avoid the uncomfortable liminal spaces created by troublesome concepts, and therefore prefer more convergent and less contestable forms of knowledge. In contrast to Hofstede's explanation, we argue elsewhere that this unwillingness to engage with troublesome concepts may not be culturally specific and may be better explained by individual personalities, motivations, teaching habits and philosophies (Jordan et al 2014).…”

Section: Perspectives On Learners and Learningmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In one transnational project, in which all three authors were involved, we provided an academic development programme for staff at a University in Northern Iraq that focused on supporting staff to implement student-centred learning (SCL) within curricula across the institution (Jordan et al 2014). We were invited to provide this academic development programme by senior staff in the institution, but as is common in many projects of this nature for practical reasons, many of the participants were not involved in these early negotiations of the proposed project.…”

Section: Differing Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational approaches to teaching and learning in higher education: challenges and possible guiding principles

Bovill

Jordan

Watters

2014

Teaching in Higher Education

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The higher education sector has become increasingly internationalised over recent decades. This paper examines a range of challenges that can arise where teaching staff in one context support and implement learning and teaching initiatives in another international context -transnational teaching. We use examples and experiences from our own practice to highlight challenges that arise from implementing cross-cultural and transnational teaching and that warrant further exploration, including differing expectations; differing views of learners and learning; the illusory nature of transformed practice; and time constraints. We discuss these challenges in the light of Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions as well as critiquing this model. We then highlight some possible guiding principles for transnational higher education work that include modelling good practice; ensuring reciprocity and mutual benefit; ensuring individual integrity and institutional credibility; and developing and supporting transnational staff.

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“…It is in such settings that students have autonomy and choice in their curricula (O'Neill and McMahon 2005). However, disciplinary differences remain as student-centred learning is more common in 'soft' disciplines (such as social science) compared to those described as 'hard' (such as physical science) (Lueddeke 2003;Lindblom-Ylänne et al 2006), and there are debates about the transferability of the concept to diverse international contexts (Jordan et al 2013). There is a dissonance between the extensive rhetoric of student-centred learning and its implementation in higher education, where there are various barriers to student-staff co-creation of the curriculum (Bovill et al 2016;O'Neill and McMahon 2005).…”

Section: Descriptive Representation Of the Student Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

Bird¹,

Pitman²

2019

High Educ

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There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. Yet, there is limited theoretical or empirical analysis of the authorship of current reading lists to justify this imperative. The present study developed and applied a method for auditing the authorship on reading lists of two modules, one from science and one from social science, in a research-intensive British university. The paper explores whether these reading lists can be considered descriptively representative of the student body or scholarly community. The analysis of reading lists found empirical basis for concerns that university curricula are dominated by white, male and Eurocentric authors, with some exceptions. The reading lists did not represent the diverse local student body but came closer to representing the demographic profile of academic staff. To interpret these findings, the paper argues that reading lists have a role to play in decolonising our universities, and offer opportunities to critique and deconstruct disciplinary boundaries. Further research is required to explore student and staff views of reading lists and the meaning of diversity, to evaluate existing tools, and address barriers to decolonising our curricula on a global scale.

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Is student-centred learning a Western concept? Lessons from an academic development programme to support student-centred learning in Iraq

Cited by 23 publications

References 6 publications

Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

Transnational approaches to teaching and learning in higher education: challenges and possible guiding principles

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

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