Understanding the experience of independent learning by student nurses: Giving up our love affair with Knowles - HEA Annual Conference 2017 - Generation TEF: Teaching in the spotlight

A basic presupposition of all higher education is that a university education should be both a transformative and edifying experience where undergraduates are encouraged and motivated to pursue knowledge in their own idiosyncratic manner.  Indeed the development and cultivation of independent learning alongside moral citizenship social responsibility scholarship and critical enquiry are all highly valued graduate as well as nursing outcomes.  This session aims to challenge the traditional theoretical defence of independent learning based on Knowles (1998) theory of andragogy that appears prevalent in the extant literature.  Instead a more social constructionist and student centred perspective is advanced for consideration.