Developing a New Framework for Conceptualizing “Student-Centered Learning”

Abstract

Instead of being a simple concept, “student-centered learning” is actually a complicated and messy idea that has encompassed a wide range of sometimes fundamentally different meanings, each holding important implications for education. Thus, educators need a more nuanced and more productive framework for conceptualizing student-centeredness in education. The framework proposed in this essay divides student-centered learning into three contours: learning contexts that center in students, that center on students, and that center with students. In using prepositional distinctions among these different centering contexts, the framework urges educators to let go of broad “student-centered” generalizations and to adopt more precise language about student-centeredness that more accurately speaks to the nature and implications of a particular educational relationship.

Key words:

• education philosophy
• student-centered learning
• teacher-centered learning.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Michael Guerrero, Lawrence Kohn, and the reviewers for this journal for their help in developing these ideas.