The effects of student-centered teaching methods used in mathematics courses on mathematics achievement, attitude, and anxiety: a meta-analysis study

Abstract

Mathematics is a branch of science that is used to understand and explore the relationship between the parts that make a great structure or a whole, the cause-and-effect relationships between the parts and the whole, all natural phenomena and, life in short. Students in Math must make progress in learning to follow teacher’s instructions and participating actively, using prior knowledge, building on it, and making sense of it instead of memorizing. Since student-centered teaching methods have frequently ben used in the curriculum in recent years, the aim of the research is to examine the results of them and to shed a light on future generations. In the literature, there are many studies examining student-centered teaching methods in terms of academic achievement, attitude and anxiety. In this study, meta-analysis method was used to determine the size of the overall effect of student-centered teaching methods on the mathematics achievement, attitude to mathematics and anxiety. Nearly 300 articles, Master’s and Doctoral theses were examined within the scope of the research. Conducted between 2005 and 2018, a total of 111 studies that were eligible for meta-analysis were included in this meta-analysis. As a result of the study, it was concluded that student-centered teaching methods were more effective on math achievement and attitude and anxiety toward mathematics than the traditional methods.