The Impact of Educational Style Change on High School Students' Performance in Iran Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced an abrupt global shift from face-to-face to technology-mediated instruction. In Iran, where secondary education has historically been teacher-centred and examination-driven, this transition posed both pedagogical and infrastructural challenges whose longer-term consequences remain under-examined. Purpose: This study investigates how the change in educational style — from traditional face-to-face instruction to post-pandemic hybrid learning — has influenced student engagement, academic performance, and pedagogical practice in Iranian high schools, and how these effects are shaped by socioeconomic and geographical context. Methods: A Qualitative Comparative Methodology (QCM) was employed to analyse semi-structured interviews with 17 students and 10 teachers (N = 27) drawn from urban, semi-urban, and rural schools through stratified purposive and snowball sampling. Approximately 10 hours and 25 minutes of interview data, yielding 263 pages of transcripts, were coded thematically in ATLAS.ti using a hierarchical coding framework and analysed through within-case, cross-case, and configurational mapping procedures. Findings: Before the pandemic, lecture-based instruction dominated (reported by 58.8% of students and 60.0% of teachers as the most common pedagogical style), sustaining a stable but passive learning environment. Post-pandemic, 88.2% of students and 80.0% of teachers rated the hybrid model as at least slightly better than both fully traditional and fully online models; student motivation (15/17 reporting improvement) and technology integration (23 of 27 participants rating it moderately effective) improved substantially. Persistent disparities in device access and connectivity, however, disproportionately affected rural and low-income learners. Conclusions: Hybrid learning offers a viable pathway for the Iranian secondary-education system, provided it is accompanied by sustained investment in digital infrastructure, teacher professional development, and culturally sensitive equity policies that align with the country's social and religious context. This document is the research proposal preceding the master's thesis "The Impact of Education Style Change on High School Students' Performance" (Akhbari, 2026), defended at Bahçeşehir University in January 2026.