The University Learning Center cultivates the lifelong learning potential of UNCW students. We provide programs and services that support students as they develop independent learning strategies, personal responsibility, intellectual maturity, transferable skills, and a respect for diverse learning experiences.
Independent Learning Strategies: The learning potential of students is exhibited by a commitment to their own educational experience. We create an environment in which students must articulate and actively pursue their own learning goals. We commit to being a partner in this process by introducing students to a range of strategies that have proven effective in theory and practice, and by creating opportunities for them to be tried and tested.
Personal Responsibility: Taking personal responsibility for learning is a hallmark of achieving one’s lifelong learning potential. All students have the right to make decisions that affect their academic success and the responsibility to accept the results. We provide opportunities for students to responsibly develop this decision-making process. We embrace the UNCW Academic Honor Code, and hold as central to this core value the responsibility to maintain academic integrity.
Intellectual Maturity: Student learning is dependent on the freedom to experiment, contemplate, fail, reimagine, and succeed. We encourage students to try new approaches and techniques, personalize strategies, and move beyond old habits. The mature student understands the flexibility this process requires, and welcomes the intellectual stimulation it provides. We provide a non-evaluative opportunity for students to engage safely in this intellectual work.
Transferable Skills: We regard as critical the development of skills that may be used in a variety of situations. We provide students with approaches to learning that respond to their immediate concerns. However, rather than guiding a student to the solution of an isolated problem, we nurture conceptual mastery. This affords the student an opportunity to apply these skills in multiple learning situations.
Respect for Diverse Learning Experiences: The paradox of a University education is that individual learning is achieved communally. It is imperative, therefore, to respect diverse ways of learning. We model the importance of this by actively working with students’ diverse learning styles and respecting the validity of different learning goals.
