Realising student-centered learning requires education providers to actively support students taking agency and therefore responsibility in co-developing the learning experience, environment as well as learning pathways.
Whether learning takes place online or on-site, SCL is more meaningful when education providers enable students to take ownership in co-develop education in real-time and as equal partners in an education community sharing this purpose. The well-being not only of students but also of the education community they form part of stands to gain from SCL. Achieving this goal requires education providers to go beyond tick-box actions such as simply including a student or two in an internal or external quality assurance panel or requesting students to fill in surveys and feedback forms after completing their programmes. Education providers should actively support learners to take agency in (a) co-developing competencies which can enhance the learning experience and (b) governing education to improve not only the learning experience, but also the learning environment and pathways.
Centralising student agency in learning is key to building identity through transformative competencies such as skills for cooperation and reconciliation. Such competencies along with discipline specific competencies are crucial in preparing future generations for a society with rapidly changing expectations.
Initiatives within this sector seek to (1) recognise and enhance capacity for students to take agency in improving education; (2) protect possibilities for students to take agency in improving education; (3) encourage students’ willingness to take agency in improving education.
