The Impact of the English as Second Language Student-Centred Approach on Saudi Students and Teachers - Literature review Example

In the past decades, a great number of studies have been conducted on students learning through learning approaches that embed the student's intention when commencing on a task and the strategies applied and the learning process used to execute the task (al-Mansoun& al-Shorman, 2012). One of the extensive studies done in this direction has been one conducted at Nellie Mae Education Foundation that used what came to be known as envision schools model and linked learning to achieve outcomes that were positive (Donohue, 2014).

One of the important developments in this direction has been the focus on whole-child learning rather than in isolation thus exploring content and developing skills across several domains simultaneously (Heroman & Copple, 2006) Consequently, attempts have been made to improve students’ approaches to efficiency towards deep, significant learning through the implementation of student-centered teaching methods (Baeten et al., 2010). Nevertheless, these efforts have remained fruitless; thus, inducing a deep approach to education seems quite challenging (Hunter, 2012).

Marton and Saljo (1976) are pioneers of the approaches concept to learning and have been providing a platform for advanced education research literature for some decades (McMullen, 2009). Hong-Nam and Leavell (2006) used the Marton and Saljo postulated phenomenographic research approach to expose differences between students on how they turn to a specific task; empirically, some students applied a deep learning process that is related to an intention to comprehend, whereas others applied surface learning processes to reproduce the learning materials.

Phenomenography refers to a qualitative research methodology that falls within the interpretivism paradigm and that investigates how people think of or experience something. This combination of a deep learning process and a surface learning process is what Baeten et al. (2010: 244) call the “approach to learning”.