Abstract:
Student-centered learning, one of the main foci of the Bologna process, involves the development of curricula on the basis of student's taking responsibility for their own learning process. The purpose of this study is to reveal the way the student-centered learning is reflected in the professional teaching knowledge course information packages of various education faculty curricula in Turkey. The research questions are: "In the course information packages of education faculties; (1) How is student-centered learning reflected in teaching and learning strategies/methods and techniques? (2) How is student-centered learning reflected in the evaluation system? (3) How is student-centered learning reflected in the student workload?". The study is designed as a document review. To reveal the way student-centered learning is handled by these faculties, the information packages of the professional teaching knowledge courses regarding the learning and teaching strategies/methods/techniques, evaluation systems and student workloads were analyzed. Of the 33 universities holding the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) Label, 24 universities have a faculty of education. The web content of 2241 professional teaching knowledge courses of 264 programs offered by these 24 universities were examined. It was found out that most of the course information packages include strategies/methods/techniques for student-centered learning. However, the evaluation methods, which place a strong emphasis on midterms and general exams, were found to be mainly product-based. It can be said that the evaluation methods in current practice are not as diversified as required by student-centered learning, and administering the midterms and general exams takes much more time than allocated for other tasks.
