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Culture of a Student-Centered Learning Environment
As an important step contributing to a total learning
environment, it is important to establish the strategic goal of
transforming our learninginstitution into a "student centered
culture" as the means of delivering of services and programs to
students. This will improve our ability tofacilitate student
learning, based on students developmental needs within the
educational mission.
What do we mean by a "Student Centered Culture"?
Simply put, a student-centered culture tailors all aspects of
service delivery and support to the needs of students. We are
guided by what isbest for the students when helping students or
making decisions. While many of us are personally committed to
serving students needs,
!ur goal is to reduce negative student eperiences with
bureaucracy and red tape, and to replace them with services that
students willrecogni#e as efficient, empathetic, responsive, and
ultimately eceeding their epectations. $onstrained resources are
not a barrier tobecoming more student centered% being narrowly
compartmentali#ed as is often now the case. !ur employees must not
only be technicallycompetent, but also must be capable of providing
high &uality, personali#ed responsible service. Technological
advances must be leveragedto allow students a maimum number of
choices as to when, where, and how services are accessed, e.g., in
person, by phone, on-line, etc.Working with our students, we must
strive for outcomes that are fair, prompt, responsible,
user-friendly, caring and leave them with the sense
that we truly value the privilege of serving their needs.
This student-centered cultural orientation is to create a
student-centered learning community, committed to ecellence in
eperientiallearning and assisting in the maturation of students as
whole individuals representing diverse backgrounds. We are
committed to creating anenvironment where learning takes place
anywhere, at any time, in many forms and by diverse means. A
student-centered learningenvironment also enables students to be
responsible for and involved in their educations' it supports
development of values and character instudents by making them
active players in the academic learning enterprise.
A student-centered culture is focused on students needs, not on
their wants . These needs include a healthy learning environment
thatnurtures their personal growth, substantive out-of-classroom
activities that increase their learning to help them to obtain a
high-&ualityeducation, personal eperience that leads to feeling
"connected", and service-learning opportunities that develop them
as responsibleciti#ens. !f course, we must remember that students
needs are not monolithic, but vary among both individuals and
groups of students. Weas educators must consistently view and
fulfill our responsibilities in terms of being conscious of, and
seeking to anticipate and elicit, studentneeds, which may be
diverse.
ow does this differ from our current culture?
The transition to a student-centered culture does not mean
divorcing ourselves from the essential and valuable aspects of the
current waywe do business' it does mean a fundamental change in
perspective and actions to keep students needs constantly at the
center of ourattention. We recogni#e that there are many challenges
associated with implementing this cultural shift, and it is not
simply a matter ofadopting a "customer is always right" stance.
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What results would be indicative of success in achieving a
student centered culture?
(deally, students and their parents will recogni#e the
commitment we, as educators, have made to students well being,
learning and growth.To some degree, this should be manifested
by
). *ositive feedback in response to such intruments as all
class, senior, and alumni surveys.
+. A decrease in negative feedback.. $oncrete measures such as
fewer processing errors and shorter processing and
problem-resolution times.. reater willingness to become involved in
decision making, on the part of students./. *arents, and line staff
would also indicate true empowerment.
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