There is a growing awareness among educators and educational psychologists that learning is strongly influenced by individual attributes. There is also a strong belief that assessing students’ needs is essential for developing and delivering a learner-centered curriculum.
Dawna Markova (1992) wrote: “Our students' educational needs are continuously changing, but our methods of meeting those needs have not been. We have basically been doing what we've always done and getting what we've always gotten” (30). She argued that it is not the lack of ability but the lack of willingness to persevere in working hard that prevents many students from succeeding. This unwillingness stems from the fact that teachers have failed to use students' strengths in helping them overcome their weaknesses. We have failed to provide them with learning opportunities and activities that could help them leverage their native intelligence and their natural curiosity, wonder, compassion, and responsiveness. We have been...
University of California Press