The Role of Learning Resource Centres in Enhancing Self-Learning of Senior Secondary Students

Abstract

The School Learning Resource Centre is staple of the co-curricular activities and a way to encourage self-learning of students which makes the best contribution to stimulate the interest of students in general knowledge development and knowledge seeking. Learning resource centres play a major role in making students use their free time and improve their reading habits. Through this, students’ curricular and co-curricular activities are improved. However, in recent times, it has been pointed out that the number of students visiting learning resource centres and using the learning resources there is decreasing. This situation has had a negative impact on their academic achievement. It is in this background that the research has been carried out regarding the role of learning resource centres in enhancing the self-learning of students in Akkaraipattu education division. Among the activities undertaken through the learning resource centre to promote self-learning of students. The objectives of this research are to identify the contributions made directly. The objectives of this research are to identify the contributions made by the subject teachers and the contributions made by the school management and to analyze the relationship between these contributions and the self-learning of the students and to identify the challenges in effectively carrying out the activities of the learning resource centre to enhance the self-learning of the students. This research has also been carried out in the design of a descriptive survey research under the mixed research approach and 5 schools in the Akkaraipattu education division have been selected and their learning resource centre in-charges, subject teachers, school management committee members were taken as the population of the research and 60 people were selected samples using purposive sampling method. Quantitative and qualitative data collected through questionnaire, interview and observation tools have been analyzed using percentage survey and correlation coefficient. The following have been identified through this. The contribution of the learning resource Centre and the contribution of the school management in enhancing the self-learning of the students are at a high level. However, the contribution of subject teachers is at a low level. Meanwhile, there is a low positive correlation between learning research centre subject teachers’ contributions and students’ achievement. On the contrary, there is a high positive correlation between the contributions of school management and student achievement. Therefore, the contribution of the teachers who have the most influence in enhancing the self-learning of the students is less and it has had a less impact on the achievement of the students. Similarly, although the direct contribution of the learning resource Centre, which is highly influential in enhancing self-learning of students have been high, it has had a low impact on student achievement. Therefore, learning resource centre in-charges, subject teachers, school management and other school community should work together to carry out proper planning and effectively carry out the activities of the learning resource centre in a manner is suitable for implementing a blended learning approach can enhance self – learning of students.