Examination of Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences on Student-Centered Instruction

The teaching approach, in which the student is at the center of learning, is becoming more and more common. The teacher is an important factor in the implementation of this approach. Pre-service education plays an important role in the qualified training of teachers. If teacher candidates learn student-centered teaching through experience at the university, they are expected to apply it more easily when they start working. In this direction, it was aimed to examine the student-centered teaching experiences of pre-service teachers. It is supposed that pre-service teachers' views on this process will contribute to the development of pre-service teacher education. The research was carried out with the phenomenology design, and 67 pre-service teachers were included in the research with the criterion sampling method. The research data collected with an open-ended questionnaire form were analyzed by content analysis. According to the results of the research, pre-service teachers think that student-centered teaching encourages them, makes them effective, and provides them with skills. Because of these features, they consider the approach as an effective learning approach and think that the experiences give them emotional awareness and improve their professional competencies. However, pre-service teachers experience educational problems such as indecision, anxiety, lack of self-confidence and knowledge, and inexperience while performing student-centered teaching.