'Aren’t we all learner-centred now?': the bittersweet flavour of success

It is often remarked that one of the major changes in higher education over the second half of the twentieth century is that it has become more learner-centred. Indeed in the literature of teaching and learning a focus on the learner is so taken for granted that it is decreasingly commented on. This is summed up by the question in the title of this chapter ‘aren’t we all learner-centred now?’ made recently by a student in a postgraduate education class. I’m not sure if it is true that we are all learner-centred, but, more worryingly, I’m not quite as sure what it means as I once was. To explore this question I wish to look back on the recent history of innovations aimed at supporting students’ learning in higher education to see how we reached our present situation