Effects of Constructivist and Transmission Instructional Models on Mathematics Achievement in Mainland China: A Meta-Analysis

The innovation of teaching and learning methods has been a common theme among these meta-analyses in the field of mathematics education. However, no published study has reviewed the effects of teaching models on mathematics achievement in mainland China. This review is intended to examine effects of constructivist instructional models and improved transmission instructional models on mathematics performance in mainland China. Using rigorous inclusion criteria, we identified 89 studies for constructivist instruction and 25 studies for improved transmission instruction in grades 1–12. Compared with traditional transmission instruction, the weighted mean effect sizes of constructivist instruction and improved transmission instruction were +0.55 and +0.63, respectively. These two effect sizes were not significantly different. Of the included studies, inquiry-based learning (N = 26, d = +0.52), problem-based learning (N = 21, d = +0.58), cooperative learning (N = 14, d = +0.67), autonomous learning (N = 8, d = +0.43), and script-based learning (N = 12, d = +0.47) were frequently used constructivist models, and grouping teaching (N = 10, d = +0.57) and variation teaching (N = 7, d = +0.49) were frequently used improved transmission models. All seven models had significant effects on improving mathematics achievement. Our findings implicate that the traditional transmission teaching model needs to be changed in mainland China but the constructivist model is not the only promising approach. The impact of study features and the limitations of this review were also discussed.