Overcoming Student Absenteeism: Teachers' Perceptions of Student-Centered Learning in a Bangladeshi College

Abstract

Student-centered pedagogy has gained immense popularity among the educators and learners of the educational system for its’ theoretical compatibility and diverse learning options. Educational researchers in Bangladesh urge that educational institutions should adopt SCL to enhance the competence of their students to cope with the 21st century job market. In Bangladesh this pedagogy is unfamiliar and vague to the majority. Teacher dominated classroom culture is so intrinsic that the instructors and students can hardly perceive the norms of SCL. This research was undertaken to explore how much teachers perceive the conception of SCL. There were five research questions to measure the level of perception and qualitative approach was adapted to elicit the subjective view of the teachers. Data were collected through semi-structured interview using six open-ended questions and data were analyzed using thematic analysis method. The findings revealed that teachers of the college are well-perceived regarding some aspects of SCL such as the role and responsibilities of teacher and learner, benefits, potentiality and challenges of implementing SCL. The educators also felt that Student-Centered Learning (SCL) can significantly address the issue of student absenteeism. At the same time, the study suggested that teachers are not sufficiently acquainted with the aspect of power relationship between teacher and students and inconsistent assessment procedures of TCL and SCL. It is expected that the findings of the study will instigate all to take necessary measures to bring potential changes. Finally, as the research was a small-scale study and represented teachers’ subjective view, it is recommended that future research in this regard should adopt a mixed method approach for better outcome.