The Dualism of Learning Study: Understanding and Practices of Student-Centered Learning in Mathematics

Abstract

There have been ideological variations in understanding, focus and practices of student-centred learning (SCL) across the world.  This study explored the teachers’ ways of understanding and practising SCL in enhancing student learning of mathematics concepts. Using interviews, lesson preparatory meetings, reflective journals, and students’ tests, the study employed a phenomenographic variation framework, coding strategies and paired sample t-test to analyse data. The results show that when teachers share their experiences on SCL, they come up with a wider understanding of the best SCL pedagogical strategies. They unfold the SCL teaching challenges, especially in overcrowded classrooms. As such, teachers changed their ways of understanding (experiencing) SCL from seeing it as a methodological orientation to subject content and object of learning. The more teachers were engaged in the learning study, the better their pedagogical teaching practices became focused on students learning complex mathematical topics.