Transferring Learning into the Workplace: Evaluating a Student-centered Learning Approach through Computer Science Students’ Lens

Abstract

Over time, instructional training activities for academics that promote student-centered learning (SCL) increased. However, few things are known about the extent to which academics’ learning is transferred into the daily teaching practice. In this study, we investigated the impact of transferring learning into the workplace of an Informatics teacher (first author of this paper) seeking to promote SCL within a new discipline in her portfolio (i.e., Software Engineering). For this purpose, a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test was employed. Self-reported data were collected as follows: from the experimental group, there were 52 students (28.8% female) at the pre-test, and 29 students (37.9% female) at the pre-test, while from the control group, data were collected from 26 students (34.6% female) at the pre-test and 19 students (47.3% female) at the post-test. Independent t-test analysis showed that the SCL initiative had only a positive impact on student learning approaches and teaching quality as perceived by students. Concerning students’ learning approaches, the SCL initiative had no effect. Several interpretations and perspectives of the current study are discussed.