Learner-centered pedagogies and how they enable children to develop capacity to act

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

A Learner-centered approach allows learners to explore knowledge across a wide range of disciplines, use creative and critical problem-solving skills, express themselves confidently, and learn how to work both independently and in collaboration with their peers. In a rapidly changing and interconnected world, it is critical to provide learners with the skills, knowledge, and mindset required to actively shape their lives and communities. Experts argue that rethinking pedagogy for the twenty-first century is as crucial as identifying the new competencies that today’s learners need to develop. This paper, the third and last in a series on the Futures of Learning , explores pedagogies and learning environments that may contribute to the development and mastery of twenty-first century competencies and skills, and advance the quality of learning (UNESCO)
It is further been noted that for learners to develop skills that foster the development of higher-order skills they now need, individuals must engage in meaningful enquiry-based learning that has genuine value and relevance for them personally and their communities.Real-world experiences merged with sustained engagement and collaboration offer opportunities for learners to construct and organize knowledge; engage in detailed research, enquiry, writing and analysis; and communicate effectively to audiences (Barron and Darling-Hammond, 2008).

Teachers, educators and school leaders need to have the ability to discover approaches that enable foster effective learning. This requires that they set out to deliberately appreciate the needs of all learners in order to tailor pedagogies to their needs and foster deep learning. These include personalized learning strategies, collaborative learning and informal learning (Gijsbers and van Schoonhoven, 2012; Leadbeater, 2008; Learnovation, 2009; Redecker and Punie,2013).
However, even with this compelling case for learner-centered approach, pedagogy has not adapted to address the new challenges. Teachers continue to stick with teaching approaches that reduce learners to mere recipients of information.
This approach typically leads to indifference, apathy and for most learners, boredom and yet meaningful pedagogies would require that learners are active participants in the teaching and learning process, working collaboratively to apply acquired knowledge and skills to find viable solutions. Short of opportunities and exposure to practice and apply new knowledge across contexts adaptation and integration of new knowledge becomes difficult to achieve.
As a result, learners are not able to connect acquired knowledge to real life situations to develop competencies to navigate the realities of life and also become active citizens that contribute to transforming their communities. Moreover, key education stakeholders like parents and caregivers are not empowered enough to engage schools and other relevant structures to influence the adoption of relevant pedagogies that would make their children’s school experience worthwhile. Worse still, even alternative pedagogies like Teaching at The Right Level (TaRL) remain are barely accessible to all that need it the most due to lack of educators with the skills to execute them as well as the resources to scale them among others.

In response to this, Civil Society Education partners in East Africa are delivering initiatives to support education institutions, school leaders and learners to acquire skills, knowledge and tools to develop capacities to actively participate. The initiatives target a range of stakeholders including the learners, communities, parents, teachers and school leaders

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Emmanuel Lubaale, Luigi Giussani Institute for Higher Education

Chair

• John Mugo, Zizi Afrique Foundation

Individual Presentations

• Assessing Learning at the Right Level: A Parenting responsibility - Dolorence Were Naswa, Uganda Society for Disabled Children

• A Collective Voice to Champion Foundational Learning Outcomes - Winny C Ngeno, PAL Network