Challenges and Dilemmas in Student-Centered Learning: Teachers' and Students' perspectives

This paper focuses on challenges in student-centered learning. Pedagogies that support this approach have been on the rise for many years, partly influenced by constructivist understandings of learning, which have also gained more ground over time. This has taken place in various branches of the education system and has been praised for fostering better motivation and learning. Project work, case work, and PBL are just some of the forms that student-centered pedagogies can take. Student-centeredness has recently come onto the political agenda under the headline "Master of one’s own Learning - Student-Centered Learning in a Danish and European Perspective." Despite the many strengths of student-oriented pedagogies, there are, however, a number of contradictions and dilemmas that seem to be underexplored in the didactic research and may risk creating inappropriate learning environments. The question addressed in the paper is therefore how dilemmas in student-centered learning can be conceptualized, so that both teachers and students can better handle them.