This paper reflects on and seeks to reconcile and to consolidate two bodies of literature. The first deals with course design in higher education, particularly with efforts to create significant learning experiences. The second body of literature, which is considerably less well-known, considers the implied student – the intended or preconceived student for whom these learning experiences are created. Significant learning experiences are created by instructors for students, not for themselves. Thus, a critical condition for success in course design is to examine and interrogate the implied student that instructors had in mind and to reconcile those preconceived notions with the actual students who populate the learning space.,The paper is a critical reflection on the literature and the author’s experience in designing college level business and economics courses and in attempting to create significant learning experiences in those courses. The study reflects on practice, reviews the relevant literature, and is speculative in nature. It is not empirically based and may well have limited generalizability. However, it is hoped that this paper will promote further exploration of the implied student construct and will lead to further research into the misalignment of expectations and outcomes between implied students and actual students.,The paper contends that there is inevitably a gap – for both the instructor and the learner – between the expectations and outcomes that are anticipated for implied students and realized by actual students. It suggests that recognition of this gap is a critical element in designing significant learning experiences for actual learners. The paper further suggests that success in creating these experiences is improved through reconsidering the implied student stereotype, engaging with actual students and instructor-led communication of the implicit goals and outcomes of the course.,Students are best served if they engage in learning spaces thoughtfully centered on significant learning experiences. However, learning environments are often constructed around envisaged students who are defined by the learning expectations, pedagogic philosophies and ideological biases of the instructor. This paper provides value by encouraging instructors to explore their preconceptions of the implied student and creating and facilitating learning environments that recognize, appreciate and respond to the actual students who will populate them. Further, the paper highlights “the implied student,” which has gained considerable traction in Nordic countries but only limited attention in the USA and UK.

中文翻译：

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重要的学习经历和隐含的学生

本文反思并力求调和并巩固两个文学体系。第一部分涉及高等教育的课程设计，尤其是致力于创造重要学习体验的努力。第二种文学是鲜为人知的，它考虑了隐含的学生，即为这些学生创造了这些学习经验的目标或先入为主的学生。导师为学生而非自己创造了重要的学习经验。因此，课程设计成功的关键条件是检查和审问教师所记住的隐含学生，并使那些先入为主的观念与填充学习空间的实际学生保持一致。本文是对文献和作者在设计大学级商业和经济学课程以及试图在这些课程中创造重要学习经验的经验的批判性反思。该研究反映了实践，回顾了相关文献，并且具有投机性质。它不是基于经验的，并且可能具有局限性。但是，希望本文能够促进对隐性学生结构的进一步探索，并将导致对隐性学生和实际学生之间的期望和结果的失调的进一步研究。该论文认为，两者不可避免地存在差距。指导者和学习者–在隐含的学生所期望和实际学生所期望的结果之间。它表明，认识到这一差距是为实际学习者设计重要学习体验的关键要素。该论文进一步建议，通过重新考虑隐含的学生刻板印象，与实际学生互动以及由教师主导的课程内隐目标和成果的交流，可以提高创造这些体验的成功率。以重要的学习经验为中心。但是，学习环境通常是围绕预期的学生构建的，这些学生由学习期望，教学理念和教师的思想偏见来定义。本文通过鼓励教师探索他们对隐含学生的先入之见，以及创造和促进承认，欣赏和回应实际学生的学习环境，来提供价值。此外，本文重点介绍了“隐性学生”，这在北欧国家已获得相当大的关注，但在美国和英国的关注却很少。