Learner-Centered Theory

The curriculum theory I will talk about is learner centred theory. The key points in this theory are that the students are at the centre, they have control over their learning (Schiro, 2008). The aim of learning is personal growth rather than knowledge acquisition and this has obvious implications in the way curricula are designed. A learner-centred curriculum may allow students to decide the learning objectives, learning methods and pace of their own learning; assessment is usually formative or from self-evaluation; teachers are there to facilitate learning rather than to transmit knowledge (Ross 2000; Harden 1984). Ross (2000) gives further detail on a learner-centred approach (which he calls process-driven or a naturally landscaped …show more content…
Schiro (2008) says that learner-centred educators see learning as growth through interaction with the environment and personal experiences. The use of the student presentations lets the students’ consider their own personal experience with patients as a learning point both for themselves and others. In this way, not only is the experience of talking to the patient a formative one, but they can learn more from it by sharing their experience, reflecting on it as a group, and considering what learning points the patient has highlighted for …show more content…
The medicine tutorials curriculum clearly states that it draws on student evaluation in both improving the course and in tutor evaluations. This participant- oriented approach (Goldie, 2006) is formative and is there to ensure the curriculum fits to the learners needs (Schiro, 2008). The evaluation doesn’t assess the curriculums success in achieving its outcomes, only asks the students what they feel could be improved, thus putting the students ideas at the forefront in further development of the curriculum. While there are outcomes to the module, this is a process-driven curriculum (Ross, 2000) therefore the formative evaluation will be more useful in ascertaining whether students have developed their understanding of how to learn. If the students’ opinions are acknowledged and the curriculum or individual sessions adjusted accordingly, then the students are gaining more freedom to learn what they are capable of and what they are interested in (Ross, 2000). For this to happen the evaluation data needs to be fed back to the appropriate stakeholders, including teachers, students and curriculum designers, in the most useful and acceptable way for them (Goldie 2006; Wong 2006), and there is no discussion of how evaluation is reported in the study guide. Thorough examination of the evaluation data may