Learner-centered teaching is teaching that focuses on learning: What the learners are doing is the central concern of the teacher. That means passively listening to a talking teacher is avoided. Active learning is promoted.
First goal of teaching is not about what learners will know but what they will be able to do. Second goal of teaching is to develop the learner’s learning skills and the confidence to use them.
These two goals put legal content in a new perspective; content knowledge will no longer be the ultimate goal. Content is not the end but the means: Legal content becomes “merely” instrumental to the two aforementioned goals.
Likewise, teaching is not about what the teacher knows, but what he/she enables others to do. However, they do not have to do it alone: Learners become learning partners. They explore with teachers what will help them better understand an issue, a theory or a problem. Teaching is a partnership.
Learner-centered teaching is not easy in the beginning. However, it so powerful and invigorating to all involved that it surely worth the effort.