Learner-centered education has a long history of development. Two of the first educators to put emphasis on the learner were Confucius and Socrates (5th to 4th centuries B.C.). Over two millennia passed before seventeenth century Englishman John Locke introduced experiential education (the idea that one learns through experience). Another two hundred years passed before European educators Pestalozzi, Hegel, Herbart, and Froebel designed and popularized experience-based, learner-centered curricula.

A century later, nineteenth century educator Colonel Francis Parker brought this method to America. Twentieth century Russian sociologist Lev Vygotsky, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, and American philosopher and educator John Dewey shaped the existing learner-centered education into a program called constructivism. This article traces this development and examines the major contributions of each of these educators.