ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of student-centered teaching. I start by outlining the main points of tension and criticism of student-centeredness in education today. I then provide an overview of the historical development of student-centeredness as a concept in education and briefly elaborate on its stages: The historical overview of student-centeredness in education reveals its deep conceptual roots and prominent position in the educational and societal worldview being developed consistently by humanity in the global pursuit of collective educational excellence. The need for actionable frameworks of creating and evaluating a learner-centered environment is established. I synthesize a side-by-side comparison of teacher- and student-centered environments based on their attributes. Next, I present and analyze the ways in which student-centeredness is manifested in the modern educational landscape. A conceptual vision and a framework of implementation are discussed and applied to the teaching of Russian as a foreign language. An approach to evaluating one’s instructional practices is provided with assessment taken as an example. The term teacher is used throughout to refer to any educator who practices teaching with learners of any age. The terms student-centered and learner-centered are used as synonyms. Student-centered education is viewed here as equally important for K–12 and tertiary settings; therefore, they are addressed as one educational environment. The chapter bridges the gap in the perceptions of student-centeredness between the K–12 and tertiary educational settings, facilitates its further discussion in the space of teaching Russian, and illustrates a meaningful framework upon which student-centered learning could be fostered by teachers.
