Translating theory into practice: Making meaning of learner centered education frameworks for classroom-based practitioners

•Case study investigation of teaching practices of two secondary math teachers in Nairobi, Kenya.•Builds on Guthrie's teaching sales model and Schweisfurth's minimum standards for learner-centered education.•Identifies three areas of instructional practice that distinguish LCE-pracice within relatively traditional classroom contexts.•Suggests focus on discrete differences in instruction rather than large-scale structural reforms.

This study provides a rich descriptive analysis of two mathematics lessons in secondary school classrooms in Kenya in order to identify the discrete instructional practices that distinguish learner-centered educational environments. The two classrooms serve similar populations of students and bear many structural similarities, but there are subtle differences in teaching practice that result in distinct differences in placement on Guthrie's teaching styles continua and Schweisfurth's minimum standards rubric. By providing a rich description of lessons in these classrooms and drilling down into the specific practices that teachers use in these classrooms, the study aims to help build connections between theory and practice and illuminate some possibilities for how LCE reform efforts might be envisioned at the school and classroom level.