Enhancing Students' Self-Efficacy, Elaboration, and Critical Thinking Skills in a Collaborative Educator Preparation Program

In the learner-centered learning environment, students can connect and engage with their peers and with the real world easily. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of online students' perceptions of learner-centered approach, motivated strategies for learning, and critical thinking skills. Participants were 15 graduate students enrolled in 2 online courses. The students reported the online courses they were taking utilized learner-centered instructions. Moreover, the results revealed that students reported increased mean scores on learner-centered approach (M = 3.89, SD = .44) and on all three motivated strategies for learning (self-efficacy, elaboration, and critical thinking) after completing all course activities. On average, students scored 24.84 out of 28 possible points on their critical thinking skills from the assessment of the assigned project. In addition, the results also revealed that learner-centered approach was positively correlated with all three motivated strategies for learning and was significantly correlated with elaboration learning strategy (r = .55). The highest correlation was found between elaboration and critical thinking learning strategies (r = .69). The results of this study also indicated that online students who have higher perceptions of learner-centered approach are more likely to have higher motivated strategies for learning, especially critical thinking skills.