THE LEVEL OF IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM

The learner-centered teaching approach provides opportunities for students to become responsible of their own learning by giving them the chance to explore and be engaged in their own learning process. With this, the study investigated and analyzed the extent of implementation of learner-centered teaching in the classroom. The study was conducted to all English teachers and select First Year to Fourth Year high school classes. There were three classroom visitations for each teacher with a total of 30 classroom observations. These were observed by the researcher and the Vice-Principal for Academic Affairs. During the classroom observations, they used a checklist for learner-centered teaching approach with the Likert scale rating very much evident, often evident, rarely evident and not evident. There were also 900 students who rated their respective teachers using the same Likert scale in the level of implementation of learner-centered teaching in the classroom. Bekele and Melesse's (2010) framework on learner-centered approach in teaching students was used in the classroom observations as a tool in evaluating the English teachers. Using its framework on student-centered approach, to be engaged in learning, students will be given the chance to become active participants in the learning process by allowing them to clarify concepts, raise questions to seek for the truth, relate previous experiences to connect with new ideas, generate explanations and interpretations to process information, make use of instructional materials and activities to enhance learning and provide opportunities to assess themselves and others for their improvement. In this light, providing them with the opportunities to become responsible learners will equip them for college work, in their future careers and undertakings in life. Thus, an environment conducive for learning is just appropriate for students to become active learners. With regard to the level of learner-centered teaching in the English classes as evaluated by the researcher with the Vice-Principal for Academic Affairs, in general, it was observed that the teachers' level of implementation of learner-centered teaching was evident except in providing opportunities for learners to utilize new ideas and to process information which rated as less evident. This suggests that it has an average level in the implementation of learner-centered teaching in the classroom. For the students' evaluation, majority of them rated that their teachers' learner-centered teaching was evident as well. Hence, there is a call to maximize more the use of this approach to reach the high or optimum level of implementation of the learner -centered teaching approach in the classrooms. As shown in the results, it is highly encouraged for teachers to strengthen more and make use of students' learning in a new paradigm for students to become critical thinkers and more engaged in their own learning.