What matters in student-centered learning? Managing conditions for students to appropriate the object of learning

There have been ideological variations in the understanding of student-centered learning (SCL), culminating in varied practices of SCL across the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of learning study on teachers’ appropriation of the conditions for learning in SCL lessons.

Three secondary school mathematics teachers in Tanzania formed a learning study group, guided by the theory of variation, to share their experience of how to engage learners in experiencing critical aspects of the object of learning. In-depth interviews, records of teachers’ lesson preparation meetings, and students’ tests were tools used to collect data. All of the qualitative data were analyzed using a phenomenographic variation framework and coding strategies. Moreover, a paired sample t-test was used to analyze the students’ pre- and post-test results.

The results show that teachers were able to identify critical aspects of two objects of learning for mathematics and create conditions for engaging learners in experiencing those aspects sequentially and simultaneously. There was strong evidence that the theory of variation as a framework helps teachers to learn effective ways of creating conditions for students to appropriate features of the objects of learning for mathematics as well as developing a new SCL pedagogical framework.

This study suggests that using learning study guided by the theory of variation supports teachers’ appropriation of the conditions for student learning within an SCL framework.