A paper from the STEM Annual Conference 2012.
The legacy and sustainability of a university education requires student independence and ownership of learning. We present data and illustrations to show that adopting a student-centred constructivist approach to teaching and learning allows students to develop a web of self-constructed interconnected understanding and supports their development into lifelong learners. In the context of a series of academic skills tutorials for first-year psychology students the tutorial materials activities and teaching techniques were rated as more useful when delivered using constructivist principles. The use of constructivist techniques also enabled students to make larger gains in their essay grades over the course of the academic year.
