Defining the responsibility for learning

Who has the responsibility for learning in any student-teacher relationship? How do they know? Is it based on an implicit understanding each has of how such things work, drawn from previous learning experiences? What happens when the responsibility is assumed to belong to the other party?

The use of a learning contract (or agreement) can help to make explicit any implicit understandings of responsibility through a process of negotiation between student and teacher. Paul and Shau (1992) describe this negotiation as "the notion of active parties to the contract, working in some sort of collaborative relationship but with the responsibility for learning being transferred to some extent to the student"(p.7).

While the degree of negotiability for the contract and its format may vary according to the student and the situation, a typical learning contract contains four separate sections:

• learning objectives or goals
• strategies and resources available to achieve those objectives
• evidence which will be produced to indicate that the objectives have been achieved
• criteria used to assess this evidence (Anderson, Boud and Sampson, 1996).

The use of a learning contract to define responsibilities can help to clarify the student-teacher relationship initially and, through a process of renegotiation, as situations change.

At the end of the day, contract learning can at least help to ensure that all parties are operating to the same script. The value of the contract as a source of information cannot be overemphasised. (Paul and Shau, 1992, p.10)

• Anderson, G., Boud, D., & Sampson, J. (1996). Learning Contracts: A Practical Guide. London: Kogan Page Ltd.
• Paul, V., & Shaw, M. (1992). A practical guide to introducing contract learning. In S. Brown & D. Baume (Eds.), Learning contracts: Volume one A theoretical perspective. Birmingham, UK: Standing Conference on Educational Development.