Perceptions held by selected Allied Health Sciences academics on Student Centered Learning and barriers to their adoption

Abstract

Despite presence of novel learning techniques, many academics are still using traditional teaching methods and how many adopt Student centered learning (SCL) approaches is not reported. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate the academics perception on SCL. A mini workshop of SCL was conducted for the academics of a Health Sciences Faculty of a Sri Lankan university. Using a questionnaire comprised of open-ended questions (given before and after the workshop), data on type of teaching methods used and types of teaching methods they wished to incorporate into their teaching introduced by the workshop were collected. The participants (n=20) included senior and junior academics in areas of Nursing (n= 6), Pharmacy (n=6), and Medical Laboratory Science (n=8) degree level programmes. Among them only 15% (n=3) had received a training on SCL. However, majority (70%) were using SCL related activities (group discussions, question and answer sessions, student presentations, active reading and practical demonstrations). Minority (n=3) were of the belief that traditional teacher centered learning is more beneficial to students. After introducing different SCL approaches during the workshop, 100% of the participants said they will adopt SCL activities including active reading, active writing, role plays, small group discussions, jigsaw method, question and answer sessions, posters in their teaching. Majority (95%) of participants believed that SCL will facilitate deep insights and will make an interactive learning environment for the learners. However, 35% of participants believed that SCL adds additional work to the teacher. Limitation of the space of the classroom, time and difficulty to teach theoretical aspects and concepts were the identified limitations for SCL adoption by the participants. All participants believed that having similar workshops to share the novel teaching methods used by peers will be beneficial to uplift the quality of teaching. Even though academics believe SCL is more effective, few academics (30%) still practice teacher centered approaches. Introducing more workshops on SCL and teaching methods will be beneficial to improve quality teaching.