Can learner-centered pedagogy contribute to learning equity?

• In Event: Learning Equity: Sampling Challenges of Who, What, Where and How?

Proposal

Can learner-centered pedagogy contribute to learning equity?

The last few decades of educational development have seen a global espousal of learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) through major educational frameworks such as Education for All, Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. Underpinning the promotion of LCP is a technicist assumption that LCP as a mere teaching method could be easily imported and adapted in the Global South and that this would yield improved learning outcomes. Conclusive evidence of LCP’s contribution to learning is broadly lacking, however. A systematic review of LCP implementation in low- and middle-income countries (Bremner et al. 2022) found only 9 out of the 94 reviewed studies reporting objective empirical evidence in support of LCP.

Most learning outcomes of LCP are based mostly on self-reporting of experiences, socioemotional skills, and student–teacher relationships, with mixed results of positive and negative outcomes. In addition, my published research on LCP implementation in primary schools in Tanzania revealed that pupils’ perceived classroom experiences, rather than the observed level of LCP practices in the classroom, were significantly associated with pupils’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

There are numerous “what’s” to consider in reducing learning inequalities. Our results indicate that it may not be LCP itself that contributes to learning; rather, other sociocultural dimensions – spanning across the school, government policy, and wider society spheres – which make up students’ classroom experiences also play a crucial role in enhancing children’s learning. Any effort for pedagogical reforms thus must recognize the multi-dimensionality of pedagogy and its impact on learning and learning equity.

Author

• Nozomi Sakata, Hiroshima University