Concepts of Learner-Centred Teaching

Abstract

This article traces the historical development of learner-centered teaching (LCT) and examines the major contributions of educators. Accordingly, this article has also analyzed the perception of various educationists regarding LCT. LCT is an approach to teaching that is increasingly being encouraged in education. The paradigm shifts away from teaching to importance on learning have boosted the power to be moved from the teacher to the student. The teacher focused/transmission of information formats, such as lecturing, have begun to be increasingly criticized, and this has paved the way for the widespread growth of LCT as an alternative approach. Many terms have been linked with LCT, such as flexible learning, experiential learning, self-directed learning, and therefore the slightly overused term LCT can mean different things to different people. Also, in practice, it is described by a range of terms, and this has led to confusion surrounding its implementation.LCT has a long history of development. Two of the first educators to emphasize the learners were Confucius and Socrates (5thto 4thcenturies B.C.). Over two millennia passed before seventeenth-century Englishman Locke introduced experiential education (the idea that one learns for experience). Another two hundred years spent before European educators Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Froebel designed and popularized experience-based, learner-centered curricula. In the school system, the concept of LCT has been derived, in particular, from the work of Froebel and the idea that the professor should not interfere with this process of maturation, but act as a guide. A century later, nineteenth-century educator Colonel Francis Parker brought this method to America. Twentieth-century Russian sociologist Lev Vygotsky, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, and American philosopher and educator Dewey shaped the existing LCT into a program called constructivism.