The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the teachers’ approaches during education process to include methods and forms of teaching with the purpose of active participation of the students. We will compare the approaches of teachers in vocational/technical upper secondary educational programmes and general/gymnasium upper secondary educational programmes in Slovenia. The paper will present the characteristics of education process of both groups of teachers and there will also be comparative analyses presented concerning the approaches used by teachers. The guidelines for further development concerning teachers' approaches regarding stimulation of learners' active participation during the education process in upper secondary education will also be presented based on data acquired from teachers and their students.

Contemporary understanding of teaching and learning process through cognitive – constructivist model exceeds the analyses of the learning process from teachers’ or students’ point of view. It establishes the knowledge as a construct that is formed during interactions of both teachers and learners. In this context it is essential that learner is (also) an active participant in the education process and that learner is (so)constructing his own learning and knowledge. Jank in Meyer (2005) emphasize that activity of learners during lessons is essential for successful education process. Activity of learners is not a purpose on itself but it is a necessary condition for obtaining high-quality knowledge and for the course of quality cognitive processes among learners since mental schemes do modify only on the basis of their own activities. The activity of learners during the lessons is also supported by contemporary psychological theories which emphasize that the internalization of knowledge increases when learner acquires knowledge with his own activity (Bransford, Sherwood in Sturdevant, 1987). Active role of learners means that the teacher on every step of knowledge acquisition ensures that the students are mentally active (Rutar Ilc, 2005). Teachers therefore differ in how successfully they include learners as active participants in lessons but as other aspects of teaching this aspect can be improved. Process orientation of teachers or cognitive-constructivist model of teaching exceeds analysing the education process from the perspective of teacher or learner and introduces knowledge as the construct, resulting from interaction of the two. In this context, it is crucial that besides the teacher the learner is also an active participant and is (co)constructing his own knowledge. Jank in Meyer (2006) emphasize that the activity of learners during the lessons is essential for the successful education process. Active role of the learners derives from the baseline that the teacher in every step of the education process ensures that the learner is mentally active (Rutar Ilc, 2005). The activity of the learners isn’t the purpose in itself but is a necessary prerequisite for obtaining high-quality knowledge and for the conduct of quality cognitive process of learners since the configuration of mental schemes is only changing based on their own activity. Active role of learners during the education process is also supported by contemporary psychological theories which emphasize that the internalization of knowledge increases when the learner learns through its own activity (Bransford, Sherwood in Sturdevant, 1987). The teachers are therefore responsible to actively include students in the education process.

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