Theorists like
John Dewey,
Jean Piaget and
Lev Vygotsky, whose collective work focused on how students learn, have informed the move to student-centered learning. Dewey was an advocate for progressive education, and he believed that learning is a social and experiential process by making learning an active process as children learn by doing. He believed that a classroom environment in which students could learn to think critically and solve real world problems was the best way to prepare learners for the future.
Maria Montessori was also a forerunner of student-centered learning, where preschool children learn through independent self-directed interaction with previously presented activities.
Self-determination theory focuses on the degree to which an individual's behavior is self-motivated and 'self-determined'. When students are allowed to gauge their learning, learning becomes an incentive, thus more meaningful. Placing students at the center of the classroom allows them to gauge their own self-worth which creates a higher degree of intrinsic motivation. Student-centered learning means inverting the traditional teacher-centered understanding of the learning process and putting students at the center of the learning process. In the
teacher-centered classroom, teachers are the primary source for knowledge. On the other hand, in
student-centered classrooms,
active learning is strongly encouraged. Armstrong (2012) claimed that "traditional education ignores or suppresses learner responsibility". A further distinction from a teacher-centered classroom to that of a student-centered classroom is when the teacher acts as a
facilitator, as opposed to an instructor. In essence, the teacher's goal in the learning process is to guide students into making new interpretations of the learning material, thereby 'experiencing' content, reaffirming Rogers' notion that "significant learning is acquired through doing". Through peer-to-peer interaction, collaborative thinking can lead to an abundance of knowledge. In placing a teacher closer to a peer level, knowledge and learning is enhanced, benefitting the student and classroom overall. According to
Lev Vygotsky's theory of the
zone of proximal development (ZPD), students typically learn vicariously through one another.
Scaffolding is important when fostering independent thinking skills. Vygotsky proclaims, "Learning which is oriented toward developmental levels that have already been reached is ineffective from the viewpoint of the child's overall development. It does not aim for a new stage of the developmental process, but rather lags behind this process."{{Cite book|title=Mind in Society|page=89 ==Student-centered assessment==