Students taking responsibility for their learning

Erik Gilbert recently raised the question of "who is responsible for student learning?" in an essay after he attended a conference of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education. He indicated that most of the discussion at the conference was about what faculty should do, neglecting the question of student responsibility.

Mr. Gilbert raises a question that has been addressed by research over many years. Alexander Astin was very significant in shifting the narrative from faculty and institution responsibility to students when he discovered through ongoing analysis at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA that the most important influence in students' learning was their relationship with each other. Gilbert concludes, "students and their ability and willingness to do the hard work of learning are an important and often overlooked variable in the discussion of student learning."

Students' lives are complicated by technology, social media, campus culture and many other things. These environmental conditions can either distract from or contribute to engagement in learning; international educators should strive to reduce the distraction and increase the focus of learning environments through whatever means they can influence.