Postmodernism represents skepticism toward metanarratives and universal ideologies that dominated the modernist era. The study focuses on three key postmodernist concepts - alternative assessment, process syllabi, and self-directed learning. Alternative assessment emphasizes evaluating the learning process over summative testing. Process syllabi focus on the learning experience rather than rigid outcomes. Self-directed learning enables student responsibility in setting learning goals and processes. This paper examined the effects of postmodernist educational concepts on improving Iranian EFL learners’ autonomy. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was utilized with 60 intermediate level Iranian EFL students divided into an experimental and control group (n=30 each). The experimental group received instruction utilizing the three postmodernist concepts over 14 weeks, while the control group received traditional modernist instruction. Autonomy was measured using a validated questionnaire before and after the intervention. The results showed the experimental group demonstrated significant increases in autonomy compared to the control group. Paired sample t-tests revealed significant differences between pre-test and post-test autonomy for the experimental group across all three postmodern concepts - alternative assessment, process syllabi, and self-directed learning. This suggests postmodernist concepts that decentralize instruction and emphasize student process over outcomes can enhance Iranian EFL learners’ self-direction and responsibility for language acquisition. The study implies EFL syllabus designers and instruction should transition to postmodern models centered on individualized assessment, flexible syllabi, and student-guided learning to boost autonomy. Further research can expand sample sizes and explore additional postmodernist concepts across diverse demographics.

The present study investigates the "phenomenology of evaluating learning outcomes". In terms of purpose, application and method of conducting qualitative research is of phenomenological type. The research population includes all the professors in the field of education from the universities in Tehran. Using snowball sampling and continuous comparison of data until theoretical saturation, 10 of them were interviewed with semi-structured interview. Its subject area was in the field of educational sciences. The method of data gathering includes field studies, library studies, and semi-structured interviews. In order to ensure the reliability of the research data, the methods of triangulation of data sources, repeated studies, continuous adaptation of data, summarization, classification of information and review of the interviews by the interviewee professors and also by the main supervisors and advisors were used. In order to evaluate the validity of the data obtained by purposive sampling method from the opinions of 36 professors of other universities in Tehran who have expertise in this subject were used to achieve theoretical saturation. The data of this study were analyzed using the seven-step model of Wan Manen and Finally, 5 structures(nature of evaluation, evaluator (teacher), nature of learning outcomes, evaluated(student)and nature of curriculum), 17 dimensions, 87 categories and 320 indicators of phenomenology of evaluating learning outcomes in the format of a model were identified. The Findings show that the evaluation of learning outcomes is surrounded by 5 mentioned structures; and the obtained structures, dimensions and indicators are related to each other and all of them contribute to the measurement of learning outcomes and have the same value.

The way that students approach their learning plays an important role in determining the outcome of any educational endeavor. Recent researches have made it clear that approaches to studying and perceptions of teaching are two of the most direct influences on the quality of student learning. Learning approaches of students have been found to be influenced by a number of factors, such as teaching characteristics, departmental characteristics, and assessment methods. Surface, deep, and strategic are the three basic learning approaches which are identified by researchers in various Studies.One of the major concepts to emerge from researches in higher education was the idea that students can take different approaches to learning. These approaches are not stable traits in individuals, although some students will tend towards taking a deep approach while others will tend towards taking a surface approach. Rather, it is suggested that good teaching can influence students to take a deep approach, while poor teaching in the widest sense can pressure students to take a surface approach.

Background: The modern world demands an effective educational approach to meet its requirements. In this study, the modern taxonomy of significant learning was applied to investigate the impact of personalized learning on achieving learning objectives. Methods: The study utilized an experimental pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty undergraduate educational sciences students from Allameh Tabataba’, i University participated in our study. They enrolled in the media education course in the spring semester of 2019-2020, and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The learning topic was “, media message analysis, ”,and lesson objectives were defined based on the taxonomy of significant learning required for modern world. Personalized learning was implemented in an online environment for the experimental group. By choosing authentic assignments, we provided the students with learning paths based on their cognitive styles and gave them a sense of control over their own learning. Students in the control group received an online “, one-size-fits-all”,education. The engagement questionnaire was used to evaluate integration, human dimension, and categories of significant learning taxonomy,to measure students’,ability to control their learning, an online self-regulated learning questionnaire was employed. A researcher-made exam was designed to measure content mastery in fundamental knowledge and application categories. All three measurement tools were applied at baseline and two weeks after the intervention. The independent t-test was used to compare the two groups in each related category. Results: The results revealed that a personalized learning approach could lead to significant improvement in content mastery, cognitive, agentic, and emotional engagement, as well as self-regulated learning in the experimental group (P=0. 007, 0. 02, 0. 048, 0. 048, <0. 001, respectively). Conclusion: Teachers can help students achieve different categories of significant learning taxonomy through applying personalized learning to their courses. Therefore, implementing a personalized learning environment is recommended for higher education.