GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THEIR PERCEPTIONS, PREFERENCES AND BELIEFS WITH REGARD TO LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH STUDENT-CENTERED AND TEACHER-CENTERED APPROACHES

Abstract

This study investigates the gender differences among undergraduate students at Northern Border University (NBU) in their perceptions, preferences and beliefs toward learning reading comprehension skill through teacher-centered and student-centered approaches. Teacher-centered approach is completely based on behaviorism theory as it is considered students as passive recipients and the teachersare the main focus and source of information while student-centered is based on the constructivism theory where studentsare the main focus in the learning process.Specifically, the present study uses a quantitative research approach that employs aclosed-ended questionnaire to collect the data.The Mann-Whitney U Test statistical technique used instatistics was used to examine the differences between the two groups, males and females. A total of 322 Saudi undergraduate studentsvolunteered, 180 males and 142 females. The results showed significant difference between males and females for preferences and beliefs while showed weak significant difference for perceptions and opinion.