Preferred Student-Centered Strategies in Teacher Education: Input to Outcomes-Based Instruction

Students being the core of academic learning atmospherewhich is output and outcomes driven makes learner-centeredness of instruction essential.Educators’ preference of student-centered strategies and understanding of what these strategies promote were investigated in this study.It was conducted at the College of Teacher Education (CTE) in Ramon Magsaysay Technological University (RMTU) in Zambales, Philippines during the first semester, AY 2015-2016. Descriptive research was utilized in this study. An inventory to measure preferences of teachers about student-centered strategies was employed to gather data. SPSS 15 was used to produce the mean and ANOVA. Results showed that the Student-Centered Strategies preferred mainly by the respondents that serve as input to Outcomes-Based instruction are Cooperative Learning, Guided Discussion, Collaborative Learning and Demonstration. They agreed that student- centered strategies stimulate and promote analytic and critical thinking and development of active individual and group participation. The proposed faculty development training and seminars were on the aspects ofmanaging cooperative and collaborative learning, teacher-student instruction planning and techniques for higher-order thinking skills. There is no significant difference on the overall preference of faculty-respondents on student-centered strategies and the overall perceptions on what the student- centered strategies promote attributed to profile variables. Learner centeredness of instruction is recommended approach to modern day pedagogy especially in the Outcomes-Based Education and by the RMTU’s vision of a progressive University that is learner-centered. The utilization of student-centered strategies that promote lifelong learnersand who can more appropriately cope with the complex and unpredictable problems of today’s world is further emphasized.

Keywords: Student-Centered Learning, Student- Centered Strategies, Outcome-Based Education, Teacher Education, Preference