Abstract:

European universities are facing expectations from a range of stakeholders to change the ways they teach, purportedly shifting teaching methods from lectures to more ‘interactive’ and ‘student-centred’ methods. Despite the plethora of definitions relating to pedagogical interactivity such as teaching strategies or technological interactivity such as attributes of ICT, the term ‘interactive’ can be subjective. In addition, various studies show that some forms of 'interactive' teaching and learning are far from being student-centred and in some instances serve to support teacher-centred methods.

The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework as a practical tool for the analysis of ‘interactive’ teaching scenarios as having teacher or student-centred attributes. The paper offers insights to institutions, teachers and other stakeholders sharing similar concerns about the future of student-centred teaching and learning methodologies in the European Higher Education Area.

Keywords:

Student-centred, interactive-teaching and learning.