When students neither prepare nor participate: Readiness for autonomy and collaboration in student-centred learning

Abstract

Student-centred, flipped and collaborative pedagogies transfer substantial responsibility for foundational learning to students before class and reserve contact time for application, discussion and peer learning. Their effectiveness therefore depends on readiness for both self-regulation and collaboration, yet these capacities are often presumed rather than demonstrated. This systematic critical integrative review examined how undergraduate preparation and meaningful participation are conceptualised, what predicts them, how they relate to learning, how learner diversity is represented, and which design principles can address persistent disengagement. Searches conducted on 30 July 2026 covered empirical studies published from January 2015 to December 2025. OpenAlex, ERIC and SciSpace discovery systems were supplemented by backward and forward citation searching. The reported selection process produced 35 included studies from 154 unique screened records. Evidence was synthesised through framework analysis informed by self-regulated learning, self-determination and social interdependence theories. Preparation was better represented by regularity, timeliness and productive strategy use than by access alone. In-class participation was frequently unequal, with unstructured group work permitting silence, domination, social loafing and compensatory labour. Evidence was predominantly observational and context-specific, while subgroup analyses by age, nationality, personality, disability or neurodiversity, socioeconomic circumstances and competing work or care responsibilities were rare. The review develops an Autonomy-Collaboration Readiness Framework and a Progressive Autonomy Model. These conceptual models treat readiness as relational, developmental and differentially distributed, and position concise resources, readiness assurance, individual accountability, structured collaboration, inclusive participation options, timely feedback and gradual transfer of responsibility as design priorities. The models require prospective validation.