Learner-centered Pedagogy: A Double-edged Sword?

Abstract

Managing state school lessons and private language school classes has been a persistent concern for Iranian learners. This study reports on implementing learner-centered pedagogy as a potential resource to deal with managing this dilemma. Data from the learners’ diaries and teacher reflective journals were generated to explore their perceptions about this innovation. The findings indicated that the learners referred to the positive impacts of the course on meeting their ongoing needs and wants, especially assisting them with managing both state school lessons and those of the language class. The learners also raised a number of challenges, particularly problems with curriculum coverage. Additionally, the teacher experienced restructurings in his perceptions about LCP in that he developed more adaptability to LCP, mediated by classroom occurrences and his personal-experiential enhanced awareness. The study suggests that innovative pedagogies can be leveraged to deal with contextual problems effectively, yet they should be anchored in the exigencies of the teaching context in order to safeguard the advantages against the possible discrepancies.