Learner-centered education, even though being recognized as the most adequate educational environment, has been rather vaguely and diversely understood and interpreted among the practitioners in the educational fields. In this context, this study aime...
Learner-centered education, even though being recognized as the most adequate educational environment, has been rather vaguely and diversely understood and interpreted among the practitioners in the educational fields. In this context, this study aimed to explore two research questions: The first was to re-conceptualize the learner-centered education aligned with constructivism in terms of its definition and learning principles. The 2nd research question was to examine the status quo of the in-service teachers in terms of their understanding and practices of the learner-centered education. For the study, a survey of 30 school teachers and a deep interview with three teachers selected among the thirty were conducted and analyzed. The results showed that, as for the learner-centered education, the in-service teachers do not have understanding firmly built upon a certain learning theory but rather drawn from their own experiences of teaching, hence, nor integrated practices in class. And also as for the obstacles or problems in performing the learner-centered education, they pointed out the lack of knowledge about the approach and of their passion toward new approach. In result, this study suggested first, that learner-centered education should be approached based upon constructivist epistemology of knowledge, empowering individual learner\ s autonomy and responsibility over his/her learning, along with different roles of teachers as facilitator, and secondly, that the in-service teachers should be provided more opportunities to experience teacher education programs about the learner-centered education in which they themselves can experience, as learners, how and what of the learner-centered education in person. Key Words : learner-centered education, learner-centered learning principles, constructivism